Videotape format war

[Visual]

good info or not

[Ed in Tx]

Seems fairly accurate. I was in the repair biz during all this Beta-VHS stuff. In my opinion the complexity of the Beta transport mechanism kept them from competing with the cheaper to build VHS transport so retail price was a factor too.

[NJRoadfan]

Ironically, the longest lived and least repair prone Beta decks seem to be the ones that didn't keep the tape threaded for all operations.... Sanyo. Even the later VHS decks that kept the tape threaded don't seem to suffer from the drum wear problems Sony Betas had. The M-load system allowed the tape to be pulled away just enough from the drum during rew/ff operations but kept it against the ACE assembly for the real time time counter.

Sony eventually switched to M-loading in Video 8 decks for cost and reliability reasons too.

[Ed in Tx]

Definitely true. I remember, as a S0NY Authorized Service center we were deluged with the slim-line front load SL-2500 VCRs, that half of them couldn't rewind a tape back to the beginning from the worn out drum and stiction drag on the tape, would stall out, stop. I think the other half had broken plastic FL drive shaft gears. Sony came up with a kit that had metal gears. Like it should have been in the 1st place.

I recall the little half-load arm in a 1981 Panasonic NV-8500 VHS editing machine, to pull the tape up against the ACE head for the CTL pulse track in FF-REW for the time counter. Then the half-load arm started showing up in consumer VCRs with real time counters a year or two later.

[Sandy G]

Ya gotta wonder if there are any operational examples left of those "Oddball" format decks, the V-Cord, & The Great Time Machines..I got a Panasonic Omnivision IV in late '79, kept it til I got a Panny Hi-Fi stereo deck around '85 or so..I gave the Omnivision machine to my Church, last time I looked, they still had it, altho I don't think it gets used very much anymore..I DO remember it was built like a TANK... It was a 4 hr top-loading unit, & was more of a "Commercial" type machine than later VHS decks I had were..

[Ed in Tx]

From that Wiki article "The first consumer-grade VCR to be released was the Philips N1500 VCR format in 1972, followed in 1975 by Sony's Betamax. " It skips with no mention of the "Cartrivision" system Sears sold in '72.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartrivision

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

.I got a Panasonic Omnivision IV in late '79, ..

Probably a PV-1000 or PV-1100 if two speed, SP and LP. Made many a buck on those with the old sensor bulb that would burn out and leave it inpoerative.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, that l'il bulb burning out was about that went wrong on those, as well as I remember. This one was a PV-1200, I THINK, it had a big, SUBSTANTIAL die cast aluminum frame, just 2 speeds. About the month after I got it, they came out w/the 6 hour speed...Natcherly...(grin)

[Ed in Tx]

Nope PV-1200 was the 1st one with 3 speeds, SP-LP-SLP. You probably had the 1100. I had one of those too. Cost nearly $900, and I still remember paying $25 for a single blank RCA T-120 tape at a Wilson's Dept store.

Attached pic from an old e-bay sale, look close and you can see three speeds next to the speed switch (next to the tracking knob)...

[Ed in Tx]

I remember on those old Panny top-loaders at LP and especially SLP speed, a common fail was the take-up clutch and arm with oilite bearings would bind up from the slow speed things were turning, being driven by the capstan motor. The take-up reel would stop turning and machine would stop usually toward the middle to end of the tape. Replaced many take-up arms and clutches in those old beasts.

[Sandy G]

That was mine...Minus the 6 hour speed... STILL thought I was Hot Shit when I got it... They gave you a T-30 cassette w/'em, I bought a couple T-60s, a copy of "M*A*S*H*", & it was Off to the Races.. Think my Dad chipped in & got a copy of "Patton"...Yeah, those Bad Boiz were $8-900 back in late '79... The place I got mine sold Beta & VHS both, but they told me to get a VHS, they apparently gave less trouble than the Beta decks did.. Man, this takes me back.. Priced a camera, a B/W was $4-500, & a COLOR one was like $1500 or more..Nowadays, you can do about w/a dinky phone what a "Portable" VHS deck & camera could back then..Had to carry a sheet of paper so the damn camera would align, & HOPEFULLY, you wouldn't have purple or green faces.. THAT'S why I bought my CT-101 1.5" color set...'Cause almost ALL the cameras/decks had rinky-dinky B/W monitors on 'em... PITA haulin' all that garbage around, though...And about the time you'd get EVERYTHING aligned, gee-ing & haw-ing in the right direction, the Battery on SOMETHING would inevitably go "Shazzbat", as Mork would say.. But I remember my Dad hauling around all manner of Junque, too, when HE was filming us as kids..And back then, you'd send the film off to get developed, & if you were LUCKY, you MIGHT get a few minutes' worth of kids frolicking in the ocean...And Daddy would bitch about how much it cost to get those films developed...

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

About the month after I got it, they came out w/the 6 hour speed...Natcherly...(grin)

You didn't miss much. SLP/EP was a video abomination. That didn't stop a high percentage of the public from stuffing three recorded movies onto each of their tapes, even after they went from $15-25 each down to $2 or less. Yecch!

Super VHS and Hi-Fi audio actually made the "six-hour" speed borderline usable, if I remember right, but I still could not get myself to use it except in emergencies such as needing to record a football game when I would not be home.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

From that Wiki article "The first consumer-grade VCR to be released was the Philips N1500 VCR format in 1972, followed in 1975 by Sony's Betamax. " It skips with no mention of the "Cartrivision" system Sears sold in '72.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartrivision

Personally, I regard U-matic as the first consumer VCR format. From what I read that is what Sony originally intended, but it flopped quickly as that and they started pitching it to professionals and TV stations after that.

There first model the 1971 model VO-1600 (which I have an example of) had TV tuners and full AV in/out puts. Aside from not having an internal timer (which many first gen VCRs lacked) it is just like any other VCR I've seen.


IMHO VHS EP recording quality depends a lot on the deck. Some newer HiFi decks can record fairly decently on good tapes, and EP SVHS-ET tapes can preform almost as well as SP SVHS on a good blank...OTOH some early decks look TERRIBLE on EP even playing back a good tape.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I found one major inaccuracy and omission in that Wikipedia article.

Zenith originally sold only Beta VCRs, starting in the late 1970s; their machines were made by Sony but were in different cabinets. Zenith's choice of Beta while RCA went with VHS was one of many rivalries between the two big U.S. home entertainment companies over the years.

As Beta's market share shrank year after year, eventually Zenith switched to VHS (in 1982 or 1983), and that was considered to be the death knell for Beta as a mainstream competitor to VHS in the USA.

Toshiba and Sanyo were also makers of Beta machines for a number of years before both switching to VHS as well, and Sears sold Beta machines in the early years of VCRs (made by Sanyo if I remember right) while J.C. Penney and maybe other U.S. department stores had their own-branded VHS VCRs (made by Matsushita/Panasonic).

[ChrisW6ATV]

That PV-1000/1100/1200 design was sold under a LOT of brands. Besides the RCAs (VBT-200 and others), I remember essentially the same machines labeled Magnavox, J.C. Penney, General Electric, and Quasar, and I have seen pictures of Curtis Mathes VCRs of that design. Anyone here know of any others in that style?