I only have one factory-made beta movie. It seems like an old rental tape.
The title is: " One flew over the Cockoo's nest". It was probably used a lot, even though, I never saw the movie.
I picked up a Sony SL2300, a few years ago for a buck. In very good shape.
It even has the original "It's a Sony" stickers on it. :yes:

Sony SL-10, Sony SL-2000 (two of em), Zenith VR9800 with 9850 tuner timer, Sony SL-hf450, Sony SL-2401. More but I'd have to look for them. My favorite is the SL-10! It went for years and then was sent to MrBetamax and repaired. It came back as new! The rest are just plain work horses. One of the SL-2000 machines has been with my TS-4 Motorola for years. They are an inseparable pair!
I have a couple of VHS machines but the Beta's are much better pieces!

I tried running that movie yesterday. The tape was so bad, if fouled the heads up. I hope they'll clean up OK. :sigh:

should do, just run a good tape through from start to finish. I sometimes use a dry type head cleaner for 10 seconds every once in a while. works fine.

I still 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.
I also have 40 or 50 NOS blank Sony tapes I would throw in.
The Sony home theater version is one I have never seen on Ebay or elsewhere, but I could have overlooked one.

I have one non-operative (Super)Beta deck: a Sony SL-HF450. I put a tape in, and after about 5 seconds or so, it spits the tape right back out. Doesn't even load it into the transport.

Is it worth fixing?

I have a Sony super Betamax SL-HFR70 and about 20 tapes mostly Disney. I paid $5 plus $1 for a bag of tapes so $6 for the lot. The last time I turned it on it was working perfectly.

Yes. Those are excellent machines in SuperBeta mode.

Everyone has beta but no one will admit it...lol. I personally have two betas i bought new, a SL-5600 Sony and a Superbeta SLHF-900. I also have a sears beta with a dial tuner and two zenith versions of the sony for spare parts.

Beta was better in picture quality than VHS. But the VHS manufactures were better at marketing. A lot of them were sold as american brands like RCA, Zenith, GE, Magnavox...etc. Many thought they were american made and so chose them even though beta was better definition.

The specs show Betamax has slightly better chrominance resolution over VHS. Any quality difference was made moot when Betamax switched to the BII speed as the system default. B-Is recording (Superbeta on the original "X-1" speed) was quite impressive however, particularly the Super Hi-Band 6.0Mhz mode found on the SL-HF1000 and SL-HF2100.

I have several Betamax VCRs. A Sony SLO-323 (industrial VTR with linear stereo), a Zenith Video Director VR-9000W (rebadged Sony SL-5400), a Sony SL-5400 (ßII/III top-loader), a Toshiba VM-32 (mono front-loader), a NEC VC-N70EU (Beta Hi-Fi front-loader), and a Sony SL-HF2100 (15th Anniversary Betamax).

The 2100 is a very fascinating machine; the second-to-last consumer Beta machine released, it has all sorts of fancy features, such as SuperBeta (and ßI-S "Super Hi-Band" mode, as mentioned in the post above), auto-tracking (a first for a Beta deck), and S-Video jacks (only consumer Beta deck to have them). The entire front panel is comprised of touch-sensitive panels, making it perhaps the only VCR ever made to not sport any physical buttons (even the RMT-2100 remote control, which I do not have, was a big LCD touch-panel). It worked when I got it, but playback fuzzed out to static 15 minutes into the tape I used to test it. Hoping that cleaning the heads will fix it, as I expect it to be the best Betamax deck I'll ever own. Not bad for a $19.99 surplus sale buy, anyway... :D

Fun tidbit: my Zenith VR-9000W was supposedly once owned by late fashion designer Bill Blass. I found it in the back room of a local antique store, and the store owners claimed that it had been found in his summer cottage, along with a stack of Betamax tapes of his fashion shows. The owners made a deal with me: if I could confirm what was on the tapes, I could have the Zenith. I took the tapes home with me, stuck them in my Sony SLO-323 (the only Betamax deck I had at the time), futzed with the tracking to make them halfway-watchable (being ßII tapes, and the Sony being ßI-only, I had to use the X2 playback speed mode), and what should appear on the screen but several runway models outfitted in the finest '80s pastels (the tapes comprised several collections, spanning 1984-88). I took the tapes back to the antique store, gave them my report, and the Zenith was mine. Of course, I have no documentation to back up my claim, and the antique store is long-defunct. All I have are my memories of those pastels... :sigh: :stupid:
-Adam

I found a VHS-C to VHS adapter the other day @ a thrift store..... (You place the compact cartridge into this bigger holder and it will play in a reg VHS machene)

Does anyone know if a BETA to VHS adapter exists??

No, there were never any Beta-to-VHS adapters, or any dual-format VCRs. There are too many physical differences in the signals on the tapes for a machine of one format to read tapes of the other format.

Thats sad...... You would think they could easily accomplish this with one of those converter things..

Different head drum diameters, etc etc - cannot be compensated by an adapter that holds the tape cassette.

I'd equate it to trying to put an Atari 2600 cartridge into a Nintendo NES. Too many dissimilarities to allow it to work (about the only thing VHS and Beta have in common is the width of the tape). In the case of VHS-C to VHS converters, VHS-C uses the exact same recording method as its bigger brother, and converters were available from the very beginning of the format.
-Adam

The Atari-to-NES converter would actually be easier than Beta-to-VHS. Do you know about the Atari-to-Colecovision adapter that WAS manufactured?

Yes, I own a nice example of "Colecovision Expansion Module #1", as they referred to it, and it works fairly well. Essentially an entire Atari VCS clone system which makes use of the Colecovision's power and video take-off points; Coleco also sold a stand-alone system using the same guts as the "Gemini". A Beta adaptor would similarly need to have an entire VCR transport in it, like those cassette adaptors used with 8-track players.
-Adam

Beta inventory
 

My Betas:
Sony SL2710B (daily driver),SL-2000 portable, SLO-260 industrial (works perfect!), SL-100 superbeta (I'm the original owner), Sanyo VCR-7300 beta hifi portable, Sanyo VTC-9100A (still working) and a parts unit SL2710 for my working 2710B. And that's just the betas! :D

Don't even ask me how many VCR's I have! Lost count, a while ago.
At the Wisconsin swap meet, a Sanyo Beta, marked freebee, was the only one taken. It seemed to be complete and in decent shape. :thmbsp:

I have three.
One is the SL-2700B and it ran perfectly fine and had an MPX decoder but then one day the plastic loading arm gear shattered and it's been sitting on a shelf ever since.
There's also an SL-HF900 but it has power supply issues and I have no idea how to service stuff like that.

The only other deck I have is an SL-2000. I ended up paying $30 to rebuild the battery pack and adding in an A/V out jack to the back near the multi-connector but it became a real workhorse. I used it and an HVC-2800 to make this a month or so ago for another project.

I have a Sony SL-HF900 with manual and remote. Only one movie: (Tron)

Tron! Lora/Yori (Cindy Morgan) is an old friend from her first tv job as a weathergirl at my station in Rockford, IL. 1973. You do the math. Unrepentant diva even then. Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

I have the Sony SL-HF750 and a NEC beta HiFi "I cant recall the model number " betamax too.

I payed $990 bucks for the Sony back in 1988 from a electronics mail order outfit.

The NEC I got free.

I used the SL-HF750 daily up to the late 1990's until the beta tapes source dried up here .I must have about 700 plus beta tapes recorded.

I recently restored a Sony SL-8200 (1977 model, Sony's first with the BII speed) to good working condition. Now, I need to pull out some of my old tapes of TV shows recorded in 1979-1990 or so and watch them.

Thanks Dieseljeep,
Now I know who gave my son the Sanyo VCR4020 Betacord. The vcr needs new belts and idler tires. The originals were cracked or broken.
I ordered new belts then realized I forgot to check the idler tires. Tires are on order now. The vcr powered up ok.
I ended up buying a belt set for my Quasar VH5042XQ vcr and Sony TC-248D Eight Track Player at the same time. The 8-track works fine just had to remove the 30-40 year old gooey rubber belt off the pulleys.
My son has been finding old Beta tapes a our local Goodwill, along with VHS
tapes also.
I hope to have the Sanyo working by the end of this week.
Ed

My niece's B/F asked me if I would want two VCR's, a Beta and a VHS.
I mentioned that, there's renewed interest in Beta's. He was talking about taking them to Best-Buy for recycling.
I'm glad, it was a win-win situation for all.
BTW, where did you get your replacement belts? Studio Sound? :scratch2:

I didn't realize Sony Beta's were around that long!
I bought my first VCR in early 1982, after they came down to slightly under $600 . VHS tapes were $12 to $14 each. :sigh:

I bought the first order from Studio Sound in Ind. and have the tires on order from SMC in Mass.
SMC had a better look-up table/listing for the tires IMO, since I didn't know the exact specs. It's hard to measure old and worn belts and idler tires exactly.
Ed

Sony made and sold Beta VCRs in Japan until late 2002, but they were last sold in the USA in the mid-1990s, I think.

My son and I got the Sanyo Betacord VCR4020 back together, new belts and head cleaning. The vcr works fairly well. The coarse tracking control is a little touchy, but not too bad. We tried different old beta tapes from the mid-eighties, some played better than others depending on prior usage.
I had to re-clean the head after it picked up some dirt from one tape, Star Wars :scratch2:. One barely used tape of Gallagher the comedian played back the best.:yes:

Im glad ya got her going buddy :)

ANALOG IS A TRULY WONDERFUL PLATFORM... VHS,BETA and VIDEODISC are quite good in my opinion!!

My first VCR was a Philips N1500 in 1975 ..I still have part of the 1976 Olympics recorded by it. Max running time per tape 60mins ...
VHS in 1978 and Beta ...Sanyo 9300 (PAL model fo the 9100)..recorded the 1980 Olympics ..the ones in Moscow...with it! N1500 is now with another collector for restoration Sanyo still running ... stll working perfectly.

Wow that was recorded off analogue TV :) -- I would love watching those!!

I have 4 working Betamax VCR's SL-8200 1977 Beta I/II Mono(could use some new belts), SL-2001 1982 portable Beta II/III Mono special effects, SL-100 SuperBeta Mono beta II/II no AV input, SL-HF750 SuperBeta Hifi Beta Is/II/III Special Effects 4 head.2 S-VHS decks both JVC, Sony EVO-5000 Hi-8, And a Quasar Great Time machine currently being restored once that happens I have some 1978 Superbowl tapes that i hope have commercials on them.

Panasonic NV-2030SD EIAJ 1/2" B&W, Sony AV-6800 EIAJ Color.

Pro formats Sony VO-5800 U-Matic, Sony PVW-2800 Betacam SP, Sony BVH-500A 1" portable, Panasonic AU-65H MII Editing recorder.

I have 4 Beta decks, 2 working and 2 needing repair: Working: SL-HF360 SuperBeta hi-fi, SL-HFT7 SuperBeta hi-fi (the one with built-in amplifier)... Needing repair: SL-HF 2000 (won't successfully load a tape all the way) and my prize, a SL-HF 2100 which accepts tapes, FFs and REWs with all LED lights working fine but immediately stops whenever I try to PLAY a tape. :-(

Odds are that is a bad surface mount capacitor on the capstan motor board. I have a Sony SuperBeta Non-hifi model that would randomly stop advancing the tape in play mode, then stop (though with the cover off one could 'help' it out of that condition before auto stop occurred). Replacing that surface mount cap fixed that problem, but I should have removed the rotor when I did the soldering....I ended up melting a spot on the plastic edge of the rotor which has magnetic servo control control track on it, and now the video has constant tracking noise from the motor running wrong, built in....I wish I could find another rotor, or a way to fix it....

Came home with a Sony SL-5400 from the thrift store today, a $10 investment. Pretty dirty on the outside, but I know better than to pass up an old VTR for cheap.

Opened it up, and it's only mildly clean inside. More importantly, it doesn't do much of anything - it lights up, turns on, and ejects, but doesn't play, FF, or rewind. Bad belts?

Oh - and it's a TANK. Really huge and heavy!

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.