Quote:
Originally Posted by Reebs
Way before I got into Rover 75s and ZTs I had and still have an interest in the old Betamax video format.
Back in the day, my folks went for Beta over VHS for picture quality reasons but as we all know, VHS won the format battle. In the 80s I worked as an assistant manager in our local video shop and when the owner decided to sell off the Betamax stock, I started to collect them.
Spool forward 30 years and I still have a collection of over 1,000 pre recorded Beta rental tapes, all of which play perfectly in my equally large collection of Betamax video recorders.
I still regularly trawl eBay for Betas to add to my collection which must be somewhat unique these days. What memories, experiences do you have of this old video format? Anyone still have any tapes in their loft or machines still running from yester-year?
|
That is an incredible collection, on modern digital TVs can you still tune a pre-scart VCR into it.
Dont have any tapes from it, but my dad's VCR of choice at the beginning was V2000! A top loading Philips model (I think Grundig were the only other brand who were involved in the format).
something like this one
A pre recorded video was a treat, and we would go to the 'video shop', which in the late 70's and 80's were rather seedy affairs lol, to pick out a video to watch on a Friday night or Saturday.
VHS had a big selection devoted to it, Beta roughly half, and then V2000, one or two racks
. But my dad was not particularly interested in pre recorded videos (I am not a fan either), however it was used for recording 'the other side' when he couldnt watch something, or for something that he couldnt get to watch (from work or whatever).
He had a diary that would list all the tapes, and their timer positions, because the V2000 had a 'goto' function. Press go to, and type in the counter number, and off you went. Also side A or side B too. Double sided tapes, effectively giving you twin speed without the reduction in quality, before twin speed was a thing. Pre recorded tapes did not need to be turned normally.
It didnt last very long though, as media started to become difficult to obtain. Then it became a VHS, and in July 1983 (I still have its receipt somewhere) for the princely sum of £599, a Hitachi twin speed (1983!) with a tape remain display, became our VCR. Along with that, around 500 numbered tapes, recorded with films and TV series again, catalogued in a diary, again with their times marked to make it easier to find.
My uncle was a Beta fan though, but he was an audiophile, and preferred it over the quality. When Beta became difficult to obtain, he had to relent and get a VHS, but it had to be the highest quality, with the NiCam.
Where I work, we have 1000's of Beta tapes mainly broadcast tapes, as we hold the archive of UTV's collection.