Precisely. We kept our Beta machine for years after they stopped being available; until it died with a fault.
Have you noticed that vanilla VCRs are becoming harder to get? John Lewis don't sell them any more, for example. Our VCR went bang and we wanted to replace it. We got a hard disk one, in the end. Marvellous bit of kit.
Indeed. Which is way I said BetaCam rather than BetaCam SP. But the tapes are still available, or were last time I looked.
What about the last generation high band Betamax machines? I'd guess they used metal tape?
Yup. And if the tape is oxide shedding it's no big deal to replace it with stuff from a VHS cassette. That's what I did with my V2000 machine.
Ummm, I've just done some Googling and found the old BCT-20s still available in the US, though I couldn't find any UK or European suppliers ? I'll check tomorrow if Sony BC Europe still have it available this side of the pond, if not the only way it would appear here is via 'grey' imports from the US or Asia.
They're only any good for first generation Betacam kit (BVW-1 camcorders BVW-40/35/20 VTRs) are people still using that stuff ? It's 20 years old now . Of course SP VTRs are downwardly compatible, but why would you want to ?
Yep, everything from SP onwards. As did U-Matic SP (BVU-850/870 etc) from
1985 onwards. (U-Matic SP was developed primarily for Italy's RAI who at the time wanted to continue down that road than jump to Betacam)
No, I meant high band Betamax. Bit like S-VHS.
Ah, sorry I'm going 'word blind' with all this switching between Betacam and Betamax :-) Yes, I think Hi Band Betamax used metal tape, but I don't seem to recall the format was marketed in Europe ?
A pal had one which was UK PAL. In fact he ended up with two - the second one bought secondhand.
Interesting. No one at Sony Towers can recall a PAL version, like me they dimly remember it being NTSC only. (We're talking about HighBand/HQ and not bog standard AFM audio tracks ?)
Oxide Betacam tapes are still available, but more easily obtainable in NTSC areas, they're used in SP machines, but as SP doesn't offer too much of an improvement for NTSC, the Yanks save money by using oxide. However Meridian in Southampton were still using BVW-40s until their site was closed two years ago.
Yup. Unfortunately I can't ask for the model name since he's no longer with us.
So, actually, you do agree in this case as I said "it may need a thorough safety check".
MBQ
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