Are Beta tapes of any value/interest?

[repeatshistory]

The U-matic cartridges look a lot like standard broadcast 3/4" tapes. I got to work with those for a bit awhile back. 3/4 is great, very hearty, and tends to transfer to other formats well.

[hadrons]

Originally Posted by surfergirl

Hi, I was wondering when you get this transferred if you could list the celebs who were featured? I'm curious who was featured. Of if you need it transferred, I'd be happy to do it for you, I have a beta vcr and can put it on dvd and send the dvd/beta tape back to you!

surfergirl

Actually I can answer this because I found this on beta too. The celebrations ran two days (oddily even though I lived in NYC my whole life I really didn't remember this):

July 3rd Classical Saulte: NY Philharmonic,Zubin Mehta,Placido Domingo,Marilyn Horne,Sherrill Milnes,Itzhak Perlman;Kirk Douglas and Angela Lansbury as presenters

July 3rd Closing Ceremonies: Manhattan Transfer, Gerry Mulligan, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, The Temptations, Billy Preston, Patti LaBelle, Shirley MacLaine, Gene Kelly, The Pointer Sisters, Liza Minnelli, George H.W. Bush, presenters Cicely Tyson, Charleston Heston

July 4th Americana Music Concert: Boston Pops with John Williams, Melissa Manchester, John Denver, Whitney Houston, Johnny Cash, Barry Manlow, Joel Grey; Simon Estes, James Whitmore as presenter

My version has some of the commercials for the July 3rd and I believe all or most from the 4th (I guess they were blowing firecrackers off outside at the time.)

To answer Better Days, yes beta tapes are very valued. One because the quality is much better than VHS* and two because as beta owners switched over to VHS some of them still kept their beta tapes and thus they weren't taped over like VHS tapes.

*Beta machines were superior to VHS machines, but one of the main reasons VHS won the VCR war is because when there was a problem with a VHS machine it was usually mechanical which is fixable, but when there was a problem with a beta machine it was usually a problem with a electronic one which can't be fix and too many of these problems were occurring with consumers.

tv star collector great list is why a gamble on beta tapes is worth it.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by hadrons

*Beta machines were superior to VHS machines, but one of the main reasons VHS won the VCR war is because when there was a problem with a VHS machine it was usually mechanical which is fixable, but when there was a problem with a beta machine it was usually a problem with a electronic one which can't be fix and too many of these problems were occurring with consumers.

Question - I thought another reason VHS won the format war was because it offered longer recording time - the 6 hour EP/SLP mode. I didn't think there was an equivalent mode in Beta, but I could be wrong. This would have been important back then I'm sure, since blank tape cost around $30.

FWIW, I did some Beta to DVDR conversions a couple years ago when I still had a functional Beta unit. I didn't think the quality was way better than VHS, but maybe the tapes I was converting hadn't aged too well. I know the Beta recording is technically better quality, but visually it didn't look like there was too much of a difference.

[repeatshistory]

Originally Posted by hadrons

*Beta machines were superior to VHS machines, but one of the main reasons VHS won the VCR war is because when there was a problem with a VHS machine it was usually mechanical which is fixable, but when there was a problem with a beta machine it was usually a problem with a electronic one which can't be fix and too many of these problems were occurring with consumers.

Another BIG reason that beta lost out is because it is proprietary technology owned by Sony, and they wouldn't share.

[hadrons]

There were a number of important reasons why the beta format didn't survive (and the ones listed above are among them) ... the additional time a VHS tape had probably was important to those who were shopping for their first VCR and who were will to trade-off some picture quality for the additional time (my experience is that in SP the two were pretty close, but when you when into the EP modes the differences were more noticeable.)

The proprietary technology issues was what really hurt Macs in their battle with PCs so drawing from that I can see where beta got hurt there. I focused on that one issue I brought up because in my experience I knew people who loved the beta format, but just got sick of dealing with a seemingly tempermental machine.

Also from the Liberty Celebrations:

July 4th Fireworks Display: Ronald Reagan (Speech), George Plimpton, Sam Waterson (performing as Henry David Thoreau in a saulte to liberty)

[Better Days]

Surfergirl, I'll take you up on you're offer to transfer my Beta tape to DVD. You can just send me back a DVD copy; you can keep the tape.

[sitcomclassics]

If things dont work out with surfergirl, msg me. I have 2 SuperBeta machines. They were the last generation and gave the best playback. I can transfer them to DVD. Take Care! Good Find.

[hadrons]

Interesting enough (or not so) I found a VHS of the July 3rd closing ceremonies along with the local news and some Andy Griffin late night movie with the commercials intact. The tapes isn't in that good a shape though

[ajm1972]

I have some of that Statue of Liberty Liberty Weekend coverage from 1986 on beta too. I have 4 beta decks, four 3/4 inch machines and more beta and umatic tapes than I probably have on VHS!

Aj