Hi all.

I am getting into the swing of transferring my Betamax tapes and I have some really really dirty tapes with some great material on them I want to recover and I understand that video rental stores had back in VHS heydey a video tape cleaning machine for VHS tapes and I was wondering were there any videotape cleaning machines for Betamax tapes ever made?

I doubt there were any. Tape-cleaning (as opposed to head-cleaning tapes) was itself probably only rarely done, therefore most likely only in the biggest and busiest rental locations, which would have been in the VHS peak years.

Not that it helps, but they did make an 8 track tape cleaner:

http://www.8trackheaven.com/ripoff.html


Funny, now that I think about it, as a kid during the Beta era, I can't remember any video stores around here that carried that format. I do remember a couple that had CED discs, though.

There were many varieties of head cleaners for Beta (and VHS) around during the Beta era. I even have one!! But tape cleaning was not something I ever saw :(

Are you thinking of something like this?

http://www.rtico.com/vt3100.html

Archivists use tape cleaning equipment for truly dirty tapes. Some archives have custom-built machines for open-reel 1/2" or 2", some modified from equipment originally built for computer tape.

http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history/preservation/preservation_level1.php3?id=2&id2=5&id3=12

They're expensive. And honestly--any archivist who's honest will tell you we have no idea what's really coming off in those machines. The key thing archivists will tell you is make sure the *equipment* is clean and well-maintained.

Hi,

My company Duplication Station offers cleaning of VHS & beta tapes, as well as professional video transfer to digital media. We have both wet type tape cleaning machines, as well as dry type sapphire burnishing blade cleaning machines.

For Beta it's a bit more convoluted than for VHS as no beta specific machines were ever made a.f.a.i.k. We disassemble the beta tape, wind the tape onto VHS reels and assemble in a donor VHS shell. Tape is then cleaned as if it is a VHS tape. We then re-transfer the tape back into it's betamax shell & do the video transfer to DVD or onto HDD.

I'm new here & could see nothing in the guidelines about posting commercial info, so I hope I haven't crossed any line with this post.

My website is www.duplicationstation.com.au (http://www.duplicationstation.com.au) & we are based in Brisbane Australia. We can be contacted on 0448 855 056 or you will find my email details on the website..

Pete

Not that it really helps but video rental stores were not established until November 1977, one month after the commercial release of the VHS. From my knowledge, a small amount of Betamax tapes were sold in video stores alongside VHS tapes until sometime in the 1980's. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's correct.

We got our first VHS VCR in the mid '80's. To my knowledge, the video stores down here only carried VHS movies. Sometime around '85-'86, we went to visit some relatives in Ohio, who owned a Beta VCR. Up there, Beta seemed to be much more common and the movie rental stores carried beta movies. Down here, I only knew 2 or 3 people who had Beta machines and I remember Radio Shack still carried Beta tapes well into the '90's.

I thought about picking up one of several VCR's at the flea market (a few were VHS and one was Betamax); however, I decided to get a late-1960's 8-Track and Record Player instead.

A high quality Beta cleaning tape was available for some time. It was originally labeled Allsop and later Geneva. It was a wet system. I would recommend running the tape through a tape winder/rewinder a couple of times with vacuum wand stuffed under the tape cover. This will sweep up the loose oxide. I used to see both of these at local electronic stores.

A high quality Beta cleaning tape was available for some time. It was originally labeled Allsop and later Geneva.
I made a lot of money in '82-84 time, repairing MANY Beta machines that would come into the shop with broken off loading ring tape quides, sometimes a couple a day, damage caused by wet head "cleaner" tapes! Allsop was one, and Bib was another I remember. Also have seen the wet "cleaner" tapes snag and break off heads on Beta as well as VHS. Which is why we sold only Fuji or Scotch DRY cleaning tapes at the front counter.