Sony Dynamicron L-750 U.H.G. video tapes

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Nobody really wanted to record in BII anyway once the faster speeds were out since the recording time it allowed was so short.

BIII (and VHS EP/SLP) is actually -slower- than BI or BII. The easy way to remember this is, "How long will the tape run before it hits its end?".

I rarely ever used the BIII speed (and I made very few recordings on any VHS machines I ever had, but certainly only at SP on those). SP and BI or BII were just reasonably acceptable for video viewing but the slow speeds were almost always lousy. Super VHS on a good machine may be an exception; when I got my HR-S9900U VCR, I did try Super-VHS EP speed and it did look pretty decent if I remember right.

It always amused (or annoyed) me that people would use the EP/SLP VHS speed and cram three movies on to one video cassette. When I got my first VCR, a Sony SL-7200 in 1979, recording one movie from a TV channel (such as "Jaws" when it was first broadcast) required two L-500 tapes at US$16 each, a full day's pay for me at that time for one movie. So, ten years later, I could not understand anyone who was so cheap as to think "I do not want to spend two whole dollars (the cost of a VHS tape then) to record a movie, so I will pick this lousy quality and have to fast-forward through two movies, so I can save $1.33". Yecch!

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

BIII (and VHS EP/SLP) is actually -slower- than BI or BII. The easy way to remember this is, "How long will the tape run before it hits its end?".

I rarely ever used the BIII speed (and I made very few recordings on any VHS machines I ever had, but certainly only at SP on those). SP and BI or BII were just reasonably acceptable for video viewing but the slow speeds were almost always lousy. Super VHS on a good machine may be an exception; when I got my HR-S9900U VCR, I did try Super-VHS EP speed and it did look pretty decent if I remember right.

It always amused (or annoyed) me that people would use the EP/SLP VHS speed and cram three movies on to one video cassette. When I got my first VCR, a Sony SL-7200 in 1979, recording one movie from a TV channel (such as "Jaws" when it was first broadcast) required two L-500 tapes at US$16 each, a full day's pay for me at that time for one movie. So, ten years later, I could not understand anyone who was so cheap as to think "I do not want to spend two whole dollars (the cost of a VHS tape then) to record a movie, so I will pick this lousy quality and have to fast-forward through two movies, so I can save $1.33". Yecch!

I meant slower. It's what I get for rushing through posting half the time.

A few shows I did make SP recordings of, but back when I was archiving TV shows to tape my parents were buying the tapes and never wanted to supply me with enough so I always had to get everything I could out of what I got or miss programs (most of what I was interested in was played during sleeping hours). As soon as I got an S-VHS-ET deck I switched to that and didn't look back. EP recordings were better than SP on a regular deck.
Memory be it analog or digital is never cheap or plentiful enough until after it's thoroughly obsolete.

[B 4204 T3]

The results are in!



Yesterday, I had some time to make a few brief test recordings on one of these bad Sony Betamax video tapes, which was blank at the end. I used both tape speeds & both video modes, standard & Super Beta. Unfortunately, the new recordings were just as bad as the rest of the tapes just like it. I tried adjusting the tracking knob, but it didn't do any good. The video quality was so poor that it barely showed up on my TV, but the audio was still decent, just like the rest of the Sony Dynamicron Ultra High Grade tapes I have. Now, I don't know what to do with these tapes or if there's any hope for them. I've heard about the "sticky shed syndrome" issue, but I'm not really knowledgeable about it, and I've never tried to repair a tape with this problem.



Since we're discussing the tape speeds, I'm curious about why Sony discontinued the Beta I speed & made all of their customers settle for the two slower speeds on their VCRs. It seems to me like it wouldn't have done any harm to keep the Beta I speed, and it would have given everyone better picture quality, which is what people wanted. Perhaps if it was still available on all of the Betamax VCRs, then things could have been different in the competition between Sony & JVC for which tape format would win; who knows.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by B 4204 T3

Unfortunately, the new recordings were just as bad as the rest of the tapes just like it.

The next test would be to play those recordings, and also make new recordings, on a different SuperBeta VCR, if you had access to one. That would tell you if the tape itself was bad, or the first VCR.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by B 4204 T3

I'm curious about why Sony discontinued the Beta I speed & made all of their customers settle for the two slower speeds on their VCRs.

If you saw my other comment about how so many people (that I knew, at least) would not even use the two-hours-per-tape VHS SP speed, I imagine that far fewer would have used a 1.5-hour-per-tape BI speed (with the most-common L-750 tapes).