On paper Beta was better, and that's why the broadcast industry used it almost exclusively. For consumers VHS was good enough for their needs, and the EP mode in particular, where you could record multiple hours of television on one cassette (6?) made it far superior.
VHS looked like garbage, Beta always looked better, but VHS was cheaper, more convenient, and ubiquitous.
You're right about the length thing being a hassle. Friends who had Beta decks always had to jockey tapes in the middle of a movie, not unlike later when you had to flip a laserdisc. It was always a point of ridicule. Looks great, if not amazing, but you were always X minutes away from having to get up and change tapes.
VHS could handle even the longest movies with ease, though often the quality would suffer accordingly.
Actually Beta wasn't last as it wasn't a two-way race. Philips VCR, Video 2000, laserdisc, RCA Selectrivision, and more. The initial cost of a Beta player or recorder was generally higher than VHS, and Sony waited a long time to license the tech. JVC licensed VHS early and widely.
Sony had actually bet on one hour initially because TV shows were mostly half an hour or an hour. This left movies and sporting events mainly as the issues with recording time. They eventually brought out longer tapes, but it was a combination of factors up to that point that kept Beta from leading.
Now, compare and contract MiniDisc vs. CD, Memory Stick vs SD, UMD vs. Download vs. SD, and where Sony actually won with Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. MiniDisc went away. Memory Stick mostly went away. UMD went away. But where Sony widely licensed the superior technology early on, it won.
VHS looked like garbage, Beta always looked better, but VHS was cheaper, more convenient, and ubiquitous.
You're right about the length thing being a hassle. Friends who had Beta decks always had to jockey tapes in the middle of a movie, not unlike later when you had to flip a laserdisc. It was always a point of ridicule. Looks great, if not amazing, but you were always X minutes away from having to get up and change tapes.
VHS could handle even the longest movies with ease, though often the quality would suffer accordingly.