Had one of these ca 1980. Paid around $850 for it, as I recall.
Posted on 11/10/2015 9:04:27 PM PST by rdl6989
Bad news Betamax lovers. The 40-year-old video cassette tapes are about to die. Sony broke the news on its website Tuesday, saying it would stop making the tapes as of March 2016.
The cassette tapes went along with the Beta VCR, the first model which was released back in 1975. The system allowed viewers to record their favourite TV programs onto Betamax tapes. Sony discontinued the players back in 2002, but its cassette tapes lived on.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Had one of these ca 1980. Paid around $850 for it, as I recall.
Just like Video Killed The Radio Star.....Porn killed Betamax.
That was a lot of money in 1980.
You might want to google for transcoding.
wow....
I had no idea that Betamax tapes were still in production.
I have a small business that does tape conversions (www.american-video.com) and once in awhile I will see a random Beta tape come in. I have two decks, a Sony and a Sanyo. There was your main reason the format failed when it was hands down the superior consumer video format of the day. Sony only licensed out to Sanyo who would make their own brand as well as private labels like Sears. Because of the very limited licensing of the technology the end user costs were higher. Beta decks were pricey, the tapes were pricey (longer length than T120 VHS as Sony wanted a single tape that could record a professional baseball game) As VHS was being developed by JVC they didn’t license and actually asked other electronic corporations for help with the format so you wound up with competing hardware choices and therefore lower prices...
I bought my first VHS in 1984 at an electronics shop in Hinesville Georgia while stationed at Ft Stewart. I got it as a wedding present for my sister but used it for a couple of months before the wedding. It was a Sylvania top loader and it cost $750. In 86 while at Schofield Barracks I bought a JVC VHS and 25” TV for $500 each. I still have the TV down in the basement and would work with a digital tuner but why.... its just a collectors piece to me. I got the video bug way back then and here I am 30 years later still playing with it.
in other news....
JVC/Taiyo Yuden has announced that at the of this year they will no longer manufacture blank DVD media. They have tons on hand to sell off but there will be no more made, this rings the death knell of the format.
Everything is going to streaming but I for one don’t like the lack of a physical product and there are plenty of places where internet service can struggle with streaming speed.
I noticed it’s been 35 years and you still haven’t figured out how to set the clock!
I remember taping tons of stuff in the 80’s on Beta. Liked the format but Sony screwed itself on the licensing. Had a ton of blank tapes leftover from PD Magnetics (may have to look for them). Still have my player because I have maybe 200 tapes saved in Beta format.
Betamax has survived to date - up until they went digital, almost every professional news camera was Super Betamax.
That’s because nobody *has* a Betamax VCR save for a tiny few people. Betamax crashed and burned as a consumer format long before the 80s was out - in fact, long before most Americans even *had* VCRs.
It was a fine piece of machinery. The movies looked stunning on my Trinitron.
Just damn, next thing you’ll be telling me that I can’t buy Edison wax cylinders anymore.....
I bought a vintage Betacam SP machine on Ebay for nothing. It was a nostalgia thing. I worked with them for years.
Several years ago in my last days at SCETV headquarters, there was the big tape library purge.
I helped toss thousands of quad, 1 inch, Beta SP 20/60/90, S-VHS into several commercial trash bins the size a semi-flatbed hauls.
It was a sad waste and I rescued a few just to have.
I like physical copy. Networks and streaming are fine as long it works but in some places, especially where I work now way off the beaten path, bandwidth is a precious thing.
The news industry continued using high-end Betamax cameras long after Sony lost the format war in the home video market.
Hey, but the professional/ENG version is still out there (maybe small market TV stations that can’t afford new equipment yet?):
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-DVW2000/
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-recmedia/
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/professional_av/lineup/digitalbetacam/
Get an Elgato video capture device(about $85) and digitize all that. I did my old 8mm and VCR tapes. Then the VCR and the 8mm camcorder(that didn’t work) went into the trash.
Roll your own.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.