This might be true of of some (or indeed all) of the own brand food, drink and confectionery products but other branded product should taste the same regardless of whether they have been bought from ASDA, Sainsburys, Tesco ect .. the (tesco own brand baked beans are rather good). As to Betamax have you tried a full sized Sony Video 8 deck .. they do also record PCM audio and are quite good.