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.

Dude111 · #5 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 · #6 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.

cbenham · #7 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

ceebee23 · #8 10-20-2009, 12:38 AM

As I understand it many early UK vcrs could receive and record 405 line but I am not sure of the details.... perhaps one of the UK residents on the board can help you...

RJMiranda · #9 05-28-2015, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbenham

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

Power frequency is not related with the scanning frequency on VCRs. The motors use DC from the power supply, and their speed is controlled by the servo circuits. So the drum is going to keep running at 25 Hz no matter what the power frequency. Even if the CBS sync is similar to the EIA sync (I have to look it up) and the sync separator works OK, 24 Hz is 96% of 25 Hz, and I am not sure that the modern servos are designed to work with such a frequency offset. Even the cheapest cameras of the Betamax era had crystal-controlled sync generators, so the VCR designers would not expect the input vertical frequency to be ONE FULL Hz off.

ceebee23 · #10 10-11-2009, 06:13 PM

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

Dude111 · #11 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!

Hawkwind · #12 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...

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.

ChrisW6ATV · #15 10-22-2009, 09:59 AM

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dude111

That must be why they look better!!

Why doesnt VHS use the full width??

Hawkwind is correct on the origin of the term "Betamax"; Sony's engineers came up with the alternate-azimuth recording method that eliminated the need for guard bands between adjacent lines of video on the tape, reducing the length of tape needed per minute (and thus the cost, the all-important issue in an era when a one-hour blank tape even at Beta's introduction cost a few hours' pay for an average worker).

VHS, in fact, DOES use all of the tape area, as it has the same alternate-azimuth recording technique as Beta.

Ironically, when multi-speed VCRs were released, using the faster speeds would result in guard bands anyway. Multi-speed VCRs have heads the width needed for the slowest speed (LP or SLP/EP for VHS, BIII for Beta), which are narrower than for the faster (SP or BI, BII) speeds. Four-head VHS VCRs have two heads for SP and two for SLP/EP. LP, if the VCR has it, uses the EP/SLP heads.