Is there anyone out there that still has a Beta VCR?

Question

I do and I still use it sometimes. I can't believe that I paid $1,000 for this thing back in 1978 when I was 14. I guess I am definitely getting my money's worth out of it.

Answer 1

No and I never have

Answer 2

I not only HAVE one that works very well.... I have over 150 tapes for it....

I don't use this device all that much to say the least... and, the reason that I have it.... is because I am a auction sale nut.... and, occasionally I run into tapes that you can not find anywhere anymore... with all sorts of nifty stuff on them.... I use this machine to transfer them all to other formats....

I also have a record player that has the 78 rpm and 16 rpm speeds on it....... an exceptionally good 8trk player / recorder... AND, an exceptional reel-to-reel recorder !

I have had some fairly steep offers on some of this stuff.... but, I ain't selling !!!

Answer 3

Oddly enough, I do, but it's not what you think. In recent years, Beta has become an industry standard professional format. If you want to submit a tape to, foe example, MTV, it has to be on Beta SP format. My Beta deck (which cost considerably more than $1,000) is used for editing videotape at the pro level.

When Sony lost the VHS Beta battle back in the late 70s early 80s,(and how and why they lost it is an interesting question in its own right, one that is now being replayed in the standard DVD vs Blue Ray battle) they didn't give up on the Beta format. Eventually, they reinvented it as an industry standard production format, known as Betacam. It's still state of the art, and it's spun off into DigiBeta.