Who Has Beta? - Videokarma.org TV - Video

SoCal Sam · #1 10-07-2009, 12:07 PM

I have a Sony SL-600HF and about 20 tapes.

*zenithfan1* · #2 10-09-2009, 11:30 AM

I have an '83 Sanyo and a pile of tapes. don't know the model or how many tapes but I got 'em.....

Dude111 · #3 10-09-2009, 08:15 PM

Does Beta look as good as VHS or what?

I assume Beta was the first kind of "VCR" on the market,i wonder why it failed.. (AS VCRs were quite successfull (And still are liked quite a bit))

***Eric H*** · #4 10-09-2009, 09:06 PM

Beta looks much better than VHS.

ceebee23 · #5 10-09-2009, 09:16 PM

I have three beta PAL vcrs. A Sanyo 9300, a Toshiba 8600 and a Sanyo M50 HiFI vcr along with some 200 cassettes. (In fact a friend arrived with a box of unused L750s the other day.)

PAL Beta vcrs are all single speed and an L750 at approx. BII speed gives 195 mins.

There were no PAL SuperBeta or BetaED vcrs.

Beta has some technical advantages over VHS but lost the marketing war.

I have found that I rarely get tracking errors with Beta tapes even old recordings or tapes from other vcrs.

Beta HiFi on NTSC machines is radically different to HiFi on PAL beta units which use a system akin to VHS HiFi depth multiplex recording. On NTSC Beta the HiFi sound is recorded in "spare" space on the video tracks ...this was not available in PAL and hence Sony adopted the VHS format for HiFi sound. Unlike VHS cassettes where HiFi will drop out if tracking drifts, I have never had this problem on my Beta HiFi unit.

Dude111 · #6 10-10-2009, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric H

Beta looks much better than VHS.

Ah thats what i was curious about.....

Can you easily get a BETAMAX still?? (I'd like to take a gander @ it if i could)

ceebee23 · #7 10-11-2009, 06:13 PM

have a check on eBay search for betamax... usually some units available ...not to mention thrift stores..

Dude111 · #8 10-12-2009, 12:50 PM

I wonder if the term "BETA" was because they were testing the technology before releasing the final "VHS" product...

Im curious now

EDIT:

Just found a picture!!

http://www.student.oulu.fi/~tomilepp/pics/betamax.jpg

What a nice looking unit!

ceebee23 · #9 10-12-2009, 05:46 PM

Officially "Beta" came from the general shape of the tape path... which is somewhat like the ß symbol.... but I suspect it was more to do with marketing...

Dave A · #10 10-12-2009, 07:27 PM

Somewhere around here I have an early color camera for Beta for decks with connectors. Clearly from Japan with Japanese characters on the body. Now I gotta find it and post a pix. Easier said than done.

Hawkwind · #11 10-12-2009, 07:34 PM

"Beta" in Japanese means "The entire surface" and they chose that word because a betamax uses all of the surface of the videotape compared to VHS which does not.

At least that is the explanation I read years ago...

bgadow · #12 10-12-2009, 10:23 PM

I have a couple beta machines-a monster Sears (Sanyo) top loader with knob tuning from the early 80s, still works well though can be a little lazy. Also a mid-80s Sony. I was given another, I can't even remember what brand. My brother-in-law's father bought it new. All the rubber had turned to gum; I can't remember if I saved it somewhere or just tossed it. Probably a few dozen tapes around here. I'm always on the lookout for off-the-air recordings from 20-30 years ago.

Dude111 · #13 10-13-2009, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawkwind

"Beta" in Japanese means "The entire surface" and they chose that word because a betamax uses all of the surface of the videotape compared to VHS which does not.

That must be why they look better!!

Why doesnt VHS use the full width?? (Pretty strange)

Cassette tapes also only use 1/2 the tape (Otherwise you couldnt record on both sides of course)

John Adams · #14 10-13-2009, 10:05 PM

I have 4 Sony Beta HiFi's and one Sanyo. One of the Sonys is the home theater version with a 4 channel amp built in and connections for 4 external speakers. I have about 150 tapes to convert to DVD and my Sanyo was the last to work. I may have 5 Sonys. I forgot about the rack mount duplicator deck. The Sanyo was the last to run. I wish I could find someone to take all and swap me a hifi deck so i could finish my conversion work.

cbenham · #15 10-20-2009, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceebee23

I have three beta PAL vcrs.

Were there any 50 HZ VTRs or VCRs that were made for 405 line British TV?
I'd like to find one of either flavour for a project I'm working on. Actually any 50Hz unit will do.

I'd like to try to run one on 48Hz power and record CBS sequential color on it. There were no video tape machines in 1951 when CBS color was the US Standard. Cliff