This weekend at an estate sale I saw what appears to be the first home betamax unit...it has a Sony 19" Trinitron TV and a Betamax unit under a smoked glass lifting top, in a modern styled console cabinet.
They are asking $275 for it (which would be half price on Sun.)
How rare are these? Would I be passing up a chance to get a really historic unit if I don't get it?

That's an LV-1901. Very rare, but not worth $275. Definitely should be saved, but $100 or under is more like what I've paid for them, and sold them for. If it isn't working, then LESS. It has two SG-613s in it.

There's a secret compartment on the front of the pedestal base which originally held a B&W video camera, which plugs into the camera jack on the right side of the pedestal. The camera is missing 90% of the time, sadly.

Also beware that many of those have had the Betamax replaced because the original black SL-6200U was Beta-I only, and the following year, they came out with the 2-hour Beta-II. Also, if the flip clock is working, that's a GOOD thing.

Charles

Charles-

Was the camera included with the LV-1901? I thought it was an option. Mine does not have one, but I use the input jacks to feed the TV with the outputs of an ATSC tuner.

Most people with whom I've spoken who owned one said that they had the camera at one time. But no, I doubt it was an included accessory.

Charles

Wow...good to see here some Betamax discussion. I also collect them and have I think a Sony (1973) and Some 3 (1984) NEC beta players. I have to check the exact model number as it is stored again in the garage. Any Betamax legend becomes a good collectible specially with the Sony label since it is primary technology contributor and who lost the great video tape battle >20 years ago but won recently the Blu-ray format. Collecting Vintage stereo and Video players is something not to be passed up. It has historic meaning:)

Beta holds up very well when stored right. I have 23 year old tapes that are in perfect shape. It should have won the video tape battle over VHS.

Beta holds up very well when stored right. I have 23 year old tapes that are in perfect shape. It should have won the video tape battle over VHS.

I agree, I do have 23 years of tape kept in cans and zip locked with dessicator. It still plays good. But it's only nice to play or view in an old analog TV , otherwise the resolution of old technology shows up . The Beta are getting expensive in Ebay.

I have hundreds of pre-recorded beta tapes that I got when a local rental store stopped handling Beta stuff. All of the tapes are in good condition.

Beta should have won the war. The Beta threading system is just like the 3/4" U-Matic system. Only smaller.

I recently aquired about 150 NOS blank Sony L-500 tapes. I'll be running beta until my machines die. So far, none of them have...

Anybody remember the other few OTHER couple of VCR formats that were around in the late '70s ? There was something called V-Cord, & there was another one, I can't remember. These AREN'T the same as the U-matic, Cartrivision, VHS-C, 8MM formats that came later.

I've seen Sanyo Vcord machines show up every so often. They have all been portapaks, I've yet to see a conventional Vcord deck. I haven't bothered to pick any of them up as they have all looked as though they were pulled out of a swamp and never came with any tapes.

I used to see Funai/Technicolor CVC portapaks every so often, but again never any tapes (maybe one still in the machine if you were lucky).

Another format I used to see fairly regulary was Philips VCR (usually N1502 or N1700). While they were home machines every Philips VCR machine I was used in a school or university. I never found a VCR tape with anything other than educational or training programs on it.

I've seen a couple of Grundig V2000 machines show up at auction in the past. I guess these were brought over with people who moved here from Europe as I've never seen them sold here. V2000 is the only format I can think of where you turned the tape over and recorded on the other side for up to 8 hours recording time (16 hours with XL speed decks, I never saw one of those).

VCR and V2000 machines can be seen here:

http://www.totalrewind.org/v2000.htm

Then there were these strange National machines that were basically EIAJ reel to reel repackaged in a cartridge format. The take up reel was permanently mounted inside the machine so you have to completely rewind the tape before it could be ejected.

Anybody remember the other few OTHER couple of VCR formats that were around in the late '70s ? There was something called V-Cord, & there was another one, I can't remember. These AREN'T the same as the U-matic, Cartrivision, VHS-C, 8MM formats that came later.
Quasar's Great Time Machine, its format was called VX.

I was with a friend at a hamfest and he walked up with a portable Technicolor machine. Unfortunately it had been gutted. Very interesting to see, anyway.

Hey: Don't forget CartriVision (sold in Admiral and Packard-Bell console TVs)...

Charles

Wooo.... this is my topic!

I have several Betamax units including the coveted SL-HF-900 (one of the best VCRs ever made) and a Japanese home market model... Anywho, the tapes do hold up very well, the units can get out of adjustment if misstreated however. I have no idea what the camera that would have come with an LV-1901 was but I would suspect it would be an AVC-3450 which was a very nice camera that makes exceptionally sharp pictuers at BI. I have an SLO-340 portapack that weighs about 30 pounds and does BI only; the picture is incredible on dedicated single-speed decks. At any rate, before and competing with Betamax and VHS there were about the odd dozen formats...
Akai VK (Similar to Betamax in form factor but not capability)
Cartrivision (First with major studio support; great product, killed by shit marketing in the extreme)
U-Matic (Failed as a home system but professionals of all sorts loved it)
Panasonic EIAJ cartridges (sensitive to jamming)
Quasar VX (Good quality, rube-goldberg mechanism and huge cartridges)
V-Cord
V-Cord II (These are two distinct formats)
Funai/Technicolor (very small recorders; good product; if they had thought to make camcorders these would have been it)
VCR (this is actually a format -very popular in Europe/England, it failed here.)
V2000 (Sold only in England, could flip cartridges over and record again, just like compact cassette. It was even sold as VCC -Video Compact Cassette.)

Did Panasonic build some U-Matic machines? My memory says that is what we had back in elementary school in the late 70's/early 80's before they "upgraded" to VHS. All the U-Matic stuff I've seen as an adult was Sony.

Our elementary school got a new Panasonic U-Matic machine for the library around '84 or '85. It was connected to a then new 25" Zenith in a particleboard cabinet on a metal roll around cart.

The rest were older Sony machines connected to old tube type 23" RCA metal cabinet Mural TV's.

Someone donated a VHS machine to the school around '87 and we thought we were uptown!

Yep, at least Matsushita (Panasonic) and JVC made U-Matic machines in addition to Sony. One thing I always thought was a bit odd, though, is that it seems like all the non-Sony U-Matic VCRs I've seen don't actually call themselves "U-Matic" format or have the "U-Matic" logo. IIRC, the Panasonic machines say "U-Vision" instead, and the JVC machines are "U-VCR", and with different logos. Also, I don't think I've generally seen the U-Matic logo or name appear on any non-Sony 3/4" video cassettes either.

Apparently, Sony didn't treat the "U-Matic" name as part of a licensing system, like they did later with Beta or 8mm (or JVC did with VHS, etc.), where compatible products that passed particular tests (and where the manufacturer paid the license fee) were allowed to be marked with the special identifying logo. I guess the market for U-Matic recorders and tapes was limited enough that having a special "compatiblity assurance" mark wasn't that important, but it seems like that would have been potentially confusing to buyers. (for example, I can imagine someone asking, "Wait a minute, can that "U-VISION"-format video recorder play my "U-Matic" tapes..?")

Ahh 3/4" ...this format has been around for ages, and believe it or not there are a lot of facilities still using it. At my job we have 3 remaining decks that I have to maintain. They're in the edit bays, and really only used when a news story calls for archive footage. (our entire archive is on 3/4") Even though they're not used all that much, they still go through belts like crazy!! Even though the format's on its way out, I'll never forget the "clunk, clunk, clunk" when you load a tape.

To avoid veering off topic... You do see the U-Matic logo on the later tapes from other manufacturers. I've included a picture of a Maxell bearing the U-Matic SP logo. I'm thinking Sony must have ok'd its use at some point in time.

Also, for forum members that are unfamiliar with the U-Matic format, cassettes are available in two physically different sizes. The smaller sized cassette was designed for portable recorders, and the larger for studio use. The recorders/players designed for studio use can play both cassette sizes (without the use of an adapter.) You'll notice the red dot on the photo of the underside of the large cassette... That's the record prevention tab. If you want to prevent the tape from being recorded over, pop it off, put it back on if you wish to record on the tape.

I have several Betamax units including the coveted SL-HF-900 (one of the best VCRs ever made) and a Japanese home market model...
I had an SL-HF900 also, but lost it and later I learned of the BI mod that could be done on it. If your '900 is the Japanese version, then it already has BI, right?

I wonder what BI would look like if done to an ED Beta machine?

I've modified both of my 900's for BI. You are correct that the Japanese market ones had BI.

I had an SLHF-1000, which was (I guess) the top of the line all time. It had BI, and BI-SHB, which was exclusive to the 1000 machine. I had a lot of trouble with it though. I bought it new, and it always had weird intermittent problems after it was about a year old.

Charles

My 900 had the BI mod done professionally. It works beautifully and the picture is every bit as good as SVHS. Only the BI-SHB and ED-Beta decks made better pictures.

There was actually a Sony SL-HF100 at the junk auction here tonight. I think the SL-HF100 was the highest Beta model sold here. Do PAL versions of the higher end models even exist? It actually ended up selling for more than I expected (certainly a lot more than any VHS deck or DVD player made tonight). Less than eBay prices, but too rich for me (I already have one SL-HF100 that I've barely used).

Word must be getting out, for a long time I was the only one buying the weird old stuff there. I'm not bothered though. More people buying means the vendors will be more likely to pick the old stuff up.

Straight from the curbside garbage collection (where this vendor gets all his stock, not that I'm complaining it's saves my petrol) with a box of tapes and still producing a great picture (at least for the couple of minutes I had it up on the demo monitor).

As for non-Sony U-matic machines with different logos... I recently gave away an old top loading JVC U-Matic deck that was labelled U-matic, not U-vision (now it's gone I'm sure I'll find a box of tapes I need to play).

000