I'm pretty certain The Elephant man tape was recorded on 6th Mar 1987, because it looks like the last news story is just reporting the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, which happened in the evening.
This will make you cry. A few week ago there was several boxes filled with VHS tapes sitting at my apartment dumpster waiting to be thrown out. There must have been about several hundred movies in that pile. If I had thought of you at the time, I would have shipped them all to you for free. Of course they were probably all NTSC format. LOL.
Oh, I`m not confused over beta or vhs. I`m old enough to have remembered both and used them both. I just figured that he would love old movies on tape, batamax or VHS.
I'm in the u.s. and so far have bought 7,000 + beta tapes in the last few years hoping to find kool stuff, home videos, etc. its a obsession now with me.
A thoroughly entertaining video there Tom, thank you very much. Some awesome nostalgia looking at the old tape cases. Back in the day I played 3 beta machines to destruction whilst still trying to obtain a Sony C7 beta machine ( never ever managed it though ). I still currently have 5 VHS machines in use in the house but would dearly love to go beta again. Thanx again Tom and look after that Sanyo.
Yeah that's cool to remember some TV things... I remember French TV shows, or films that we've seen on TV in the 2000's, with the most electrifing opening TV Show called "Ciné Dimanche" on TF1, with a big yellow star... My grand parents said that they got V2000 (Video 2000) for 25-30 years ago, i don't know if they keep these stuff, it could be interseting to show you the good old 80's and 90's French TV... Well, that's a great video, thanks again !
Video 2000 format (sold only in Europe) was discontinued onlya few years later. Sorry, it had the the feature to record on both sides of cassette, just an audio tape.
I got the majority of my Betamax tapes from a friend of mine a few years ago. He had about 30 or so tapes that were TV shows/TV movies (plus about 30 or so retail releases)...it was so fun going thru those tapes of old 80s/early 90s shows just to watch some of the commercials. Also some old news broadcasts on there too! I had more fun watching the old news broadcasts than i do watching current broadcasts!
Tom As a precaution i would fast forward and rewind all the tapes in case they have become flat spotted by prolonged staorage, I always did this when transferring from one machine to another, also allows the tape tension to be set by the machine you are using.
Really cool and great video! I like Betamax tapes too and do have like over 100 blank tapes in my possession myself. XD Some cool tapes you got as well, hope you get and show more tapes soon, and make more videos like this one day!
Interesting video. Are many PAL Beta decks still available in good working order though? Got lots of vintage VHS and Beta PAL tapes from my old tape trading days that I can't access anymore. Of course, that isn't like my NTSC VHS/Beta collection of over 7,000 tapes. I'm starting to go through them again gleaning things for people but as you can imagine, it's slow going.
Amazingly I got a copy of 'The Elephant Man' on an original pre cert tape on EMI and at the end of it Nicholas Witchell comes in with a newsflash regarding the Zeebrugge disaster which made me think the owner had either swapped out the original reels with a copy or just retaped the film off the tv. And you have some of the footage prior to the film on your betamax!!
That was an awesome and surprising interesting video. I don't know anything about betamax tapes so it's nice to learn from this. For instance your movie recommendations always pay off. That DrNo tape was supercool btw. Thanks for these cool movie and old Mac related stuff!
9:31 Found that movie on Netflux... but with Beta you can always watch.. Netflix movies are removed after a certain time .. . "Big trouble.... is called here in Spanish something like "Massacre con Chinese Neighbourhood".
There are no high grade Sony's here. The Sony HG tapes are gray. The regular ones are black. You have a mixture of brands and boxes, which is very common! Nice video!
BETAMAX was the best Video format as it was a better quality picture and sound also VHS was inferior to BETAMAX, I just wonder where these rented out at one time or another.
VHS and Beta managed the HIFI section on diffrent way. "Around 1985, JVC added HiFi audio to VHS (in response to Betamax's introduction of Beta Hi-Fi.) Both VHS HiFi and Betamax HiFi delivered flat full-range frequency-response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB S/N ratio (in consumer space, second only to the audio compact-disc), and studio-grade channel-separation (more than 70dB.) This method of VCR audio, known as audio frequency modulation (AFM), recorded each of the 2 stereo channels (L, R) on a frequency-modulated carrier, embedding the modulated audio-signal pair into the video-signal. To avoid crosstalk and interference from the primary video-carrier, VHS's implemenation of AFM relied on a form of magnetic recording called depth multiplexing. The modulated-audio carrier pair was placed under the luminance carrier (below
The sound on previous mono tapes were often warpy and crap sounding on a stereo deck when you made the upgrade but at least they were backwards with the old format and they always have been better decks because of the better sound when something was recorded on them in hifi so it was always worth it to upgrade your deck to a Nicam Digital Hi-Fi in particular or even better professional dubbing graded JVC grey one with the twisty knobs under the face panel that was the nuts of the earlier 4 and 6 headers. Can't even find that on ebay anymore to pick it up ever again it's that rare but it was the best of the JVC VHS decks ever made I'd pick it over any of the older or newer Hi-Fi decks by JVC my Sharp 6 Headder and Panasonic 4 Header both still read tapes from it in the same quality output thank god but the sound recorded on them are not as loud as the ones recorded from the beast of the JVC. The JVC played Mono tapes like Kids Cartoon Collection Little Train by Harmony Gold the original 1985 release sounded like it had warpy sound on the music though which was the drawback the 1987 2nd run copy someone uploaded seemed to be in stereo and so might have been the MasterVision copy as that would be the non budget edition so it just seems only the 1985 one is affected by having mono as the format and it really did sound crap on the JVC so backwards mode never did sound right since the better souund got introduced so I beleive VHS and Beta should have began in Stereo as Stereo was techniqally out since the mid to late 60s as a vinyl format replacing the mono from the 20s to mid 60s so it should have been on tapes and TVs from the start I think.
Laurence of Arabia is a classic movie. Absolutely beautiful to watch, and with fantastic performances from Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif and Alec Guinness. You can see Laurence's motorcycle at the Museum of Speed in Wales - though I can't remember if it was the real Laurence's motorcycle, or the one used in the movie.
02:16 Right out of a Japanese horror movie. I never owned betamax tapes (was into VHS from the very beginning), but I suggest to always check the tape before you insert an unknown tape. Oh man, I need to watch Wargames again. That news report with the picture of the ship in the background, I wonder if that was about the Achille Lauro. I am surprised how you didn't know Lawrence of Arabia. Thanks for sharing.
Watched the vid crazy to see Betamax lol, I'm still loaded with the cold but have managed to get around to looking through some of your stuff.. Can you do me the best oh favours and look back on some of your other stuff and comment back please
In operation, they are pretty much the same. However, the physical properties of the cassettes themselves are different, with beta being a bit smaller and less available recording. And some claim that Beta had the better quality. However, that depends entirely on which Beta deck you own. The later the model, the better the quality. Personally, I've owned a low-end Sony SL-C20. And well, I wasn't really impressed... but then again, I *did* compare this 1982 Beta-model to a mid-nineties VHS Panasonic Hifi deck, so not entirely fair. That particular Beta model might have done better in comparison to a 1982 VHS deck.
PAL territory never went through the whole Beta I, II and III. It was just one speed for all. Although, someone told me quite a few years ago that the late Beta PAL models featured LP recording mode, but I have not yet verified this.
As do ALL vcr's my friend. Especially in the PSU area where it can get pretty hot. That's why its important to make sure vcr's are well ventilated as many do like to stack electronic items on top of each other.... literally .Which is never a good idea. Sony machines tend to be the worst in failed caps in the PSU. Sanyo machines if overhauled periodically are extremely robust and reliable with VERY good performance.
12:46 Wow IMNC! For me, the stuff I burn these days using my DVD recorder are almost like that. What I mean to say is that when I dub recordings from my cable TV box to my DVD recorder, I remember to pause at the commercials, however I do end up getting bits of commercials in my recording, not as much if I was sitting in front of the TV. Even more when I'm viewing the output of the cable TV box through a wireless composite box into my bedroom TV, I would have to run out to my living room(don't worry, I live in a small apartment), grab the remote and press either record or pause (both will pause the recording if it's doing 1), then later end up with a bit of commercials on my video.
My first thought was "why would anyone want to watch someone unboxing a load of old Betamax tapes ?" Then I found myself watching it ! My second thought was "what if there's a load of nasty old porn on them ?" Eeeewww !
They did make Beta Hifi at the end of the formats life for a while with the NICAM Digital Hi-Fi of later VHS decks and the Beta picture quality. Don't know if they ever did a professional dubbing one like my old grey with flap JVC VHS with the twisty volume balance and all that good stuff knobs and buttons for dubbing audio and full record buttons. Thats very rare and highly recommended even I can never see it on ebay anymore it's that sparse of a model but normal Hi-Fi Beta they definitely did.
