You have less than 15 minutes to beat the Snail for an SL-HF 600 (hint if you bid $150 you'll prolly beat his limit)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15099&item=1942747757

Well looks like somebody salted the Snail in last minute bidding for that SL-HF 600. And he'd only put in a $93 bid or so. Too bad it's going to another Snail though. This snail (abatuf) seems to deal mainly in 8mm equipment; must've decided to branch out into Beta...

Hey Sean about the GE3, you can use the s-video and composite video out ports as a monitor, except you have to select it in the Monitors control panel. You can also get a PC-Mac monitor adaptor (connects PC monitor to a Mac). I think I may have a spare one lying around. About the "Minitron," that is the pet name I have for my 1976 Trinitron, because it is so small, a 13" one. The "Tinytron" is that piccy of the rack-mountable monitor that Olive posted. Nope, the monitor I saw at the "flee market" was a Sony PVM series, the PVM-2030 if ebay serves correctly. They call it the "cube." They wanted $20 for it, but it is very heavy and looked like it had been mowed around, there were bits of grass clipping all around its vents. I like it because it's like the smaller ones at Disney store that have that lite up indicator on the side!!!

I don't have a Tinytron, sadly... :(

Scored two interresting pieces of Sony Technology:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21168&item=1942770786&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3339&item=802814343&rd=1

These are a completely different animal from digital cameras and I'll post info on my Web Page when they come.

_@_v-eeeeeee! I want one of those Mavicams! Looks like a pro 35mm!

I know. I'll keep my eyes open for you. __@_oo

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1943920609

Something to drool over.

I am looking for a betamax vcr in working condition. If you have an available betamax, please e-mail me at [email protected]. Thank you.

Nevermind. please do not e-mail me. you will not get a response.Thank you.

You'll have to let us know if those old Mavicas used the JPEG file format or some oddball format almost nobody has a translater for...

Do you need the disc player or can you hook the camera to a PC (or Mac?)?

And can you still get fresh media for them?

Just when did those cameras you got come out anyway? I have an old Life special edition from the '80s that featured the first a preview generation of digital floppycams. It's interesting to see how far we've come so fast. The camera cost $5000 bux had a 600,000 pixel resolution with the discs cost $10 bux apiece (25 to 50 pix per disc). In the article you see the photgarpher uploading the pix back to his editor on a 'portable' player unit hooked up to one of those 'ye olde' acoustic coupler modems. (oldtimers will remember them as the ones you had to attach to the the telephone handset - it would make a sound that the handset mic would pick up...).

A Casio ad for their digital floppy cam noted that you could hook the thing to your TV when you wanted to view them.

A couple years ago I got one of those cheapie IXLA cameras that had half the pixelage and with a 2MB fixed flash memory (16 too 32 pix) for $120 bux. The pictures are marginal but usable and I can hook the camera to my creaky old mid '90s Mac.

We have a "spare" 1.2Mpixel Mavica floppycam here we may be interested in letting go for a reasonable price, since we got Cybershot now. The Mavica does jpeg, up to 1024x9something resolution and has a few trick effects (solarization, b/w, sepiatone, etc.) and records on standard floppies. I beleive they format to DOS.

My Mavicam is high-rez NTSC television photos. 50 to a disk in field, 25 in frame mode. Look here for the whole story:

http://www.digicamhistory.com/Index.html

The pictures from one of those floppy disks can be put on a PC with a rare enough reader or simply dumped to the NTSC input of a PC or Mac with A/V.

Hey and Happy MoAnday folx! :) I just got back w/ a nice little item. My buddy, an engineer at a local indy-turned-PAX TV station (who's hooked me up w/ scores of betacam tapes) called me earlier today. He told me the station was selling a Sanyo VCR7300! Yannow, that beta-hifi portable that looks more like a boombox? Apparently, they were still using it for on-the-spot audio recording! They moved over to something new and I snagged the Sanyo. Done a bit of messing w/ it and it works fine (was well-maintained by the station I assume). But it looks kinda funny sitting vertically on top of the TV. Is it 'sposed to be that way (for anyone else who may have one)? Kind of a lucky find, thanks to my bud! :)

Likewise Mr. (?) Madness! I'm happy since I just scored a 16" monitor to go with my G3! I ahve to get him hooked up and see what it was he did in life. The monitor has Apple Desktop Bus ports on it... what are they for??? No news on the betamax front, however.

Hey! The MAc works! Happy! Happy! oh, and thanks go out to DasImperator for the hints on how to fix my SL-2000.

Sony EDV-9500 for trade:

With rack mounts, RMT-148 remote, original reprint manual from Sony, ED Beta demo tape from Sony. Will trade for Sony SL-HF2100

~Scott

Scott...

I saw somebody at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Betamax with an SL-HF 2100 to trade for your ED Beta.

Whoops looks like you got that message already...

Hey Brenda how about a "write-off" donation of the Mavica to the Wards Home For Wayward Mazda Millenia S-es and Sony Electronics?

dammit Sean! That's so not faiiirr, you ALWAYS get the coolest stuff! Can you imagine how cool that Mavidisk-reader thingy would look in my Stack?!!! Heheheh grrrrrrr.... When were those mavidisk cameras and readers released!!! I want one! I finally optimised the convergence (I think) on my 1976 Trinitron! It is a control called "H STAT" (a pot sticking out a really fat grey box) and now the picture is really cool! You'd never think that it is a 26 year old TV from how sharp it is! hee hee.. fiddled with "H POS" and centred the picture. Oh WELL,,, sean if anything interessting like that comes on again, TELL me!

HEHEH thanks, God! I found one just like yours, Sean http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1944394684

You certainly did!!! MIne has "Ears" on it... I might get a Rack just ofr it and The TBC. Occasionally the Rack Ears for Sony Betas turn up. I wonder if my VO-5850 has ears... I have to ask the guy who has it!

Sean

To Madness...

I wonder if you got any of the recordings that went with that VCR-7300? Would be interesting to hear what they used them for...

SO, would anybody be interested in a Sony BMC 550 Beta-mie?? It needs alittle work; like the auto focus don't work and the lens assy needs to be replaced. It comes with a Sanyo VRC 500 parts camera, lens assy is good and the AF works. Also included is a Sony 3 battery charger and one NP11 battery that holds a pretty good charge. This is the Beta unit with the SuperBeta switch hidden underneath by the Lithium battery. The unit is functional, but one of the inner lenses is a bit fogged. And as some of you might remember this is my BMRC 5550 Sony-yo camera. $50.00 plus shipping, from WI 54728.

Later. Pepse.

Just a note. If you notice a fog, it's probably the infrared filter that sits right on top of the CCD assembly. Down under *all* the lenses. Pain in the arse to get to. But, can be replaced if you have a good one and the time and patience (note: a *lot* of patience).

Delayed thought: The infrared filter is a small rectangle piece of multilayered glass (three layers if I remember correctly) that filters out most if not all of the IR coming in. CCD's are more sensitive to IR than anything else. Without the IR filter you'd just get a black and white picture as the IR would overload the CCD compared to the individual colors (RGB). OTOH, if you remove the IR filter inside, and install an IR lens to your camcorder (which will filter everything *except* the IR) you can do some fun stuff. For starters, your camera will do better in dark scenes, and it will even "see through" certain fabrics and materials due to the way IR light relects and all.

me wants Betamie, hey, whoever got that stereo-looking Spamyo Hifi, if it has any news music send a MP3 of it to me!

oops, only saw that a betamie was offered and didnt see that it needed work.... nevermind-mie :)

Hi, this is a UK message (would you believe it on a PAL site?).

Wanted: Sony SL-HF950. Will consider any condition, for spares etc. Can trade/swap C6 / C7 / C20 / C30 / F30.

Also wanted: reel motor assembly for C20.

Thanks.

Beef Jerky, that must be what appears to be the second lens looking in from the front. Intersting thoughts on that changing the filter. If I had the time it would be a fun project. Patience ain't too much of a problem for me. That's just it, if I had the time it would've been repaired a long time ago. I started disassembling the parts cam and didn't get too much farther. I will include a copy of the service manual.

Later. Pepse.

I am a happy man. Why? Because I nominate myself for a candidate for the "Sleech" Award.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15099&item=1943200815&rd=1

The draft of my acceptance speech is "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA". Thank you and good night.

Check the Betalore site for your approving fans - since snailies are forbidden here...

I am looking for the manual for my SL-HF550. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to program the tuner for cable channels. Does anybody have one they're willing to part with or copy? Thanks!

~Scott

Sean:

Good score!!! I'm impressed (or is that depressed? *gggg*)

Scott:

I don't have a manual, but I can tell you how to program cable channels into that machine, it's a bit of a headache, but not impossible. NOTE: You can only program in up to cable channel 37 on that machine (which includes ch.'s 98 and 99)

Brenda,

Yeah, I've discovered it to be a royal pain to program. All other decks I don't have problems with, but this one is a different story. That's a bummer that it only goes up to 37, as there are a few channels that I'd like to put in that are above 37, as most below it I don't want anyway. But the saving grace is that 37 is the history channel, and the deck is mostly used for playback from my 1000 and 9500.

On a side note, it seems people are either not willing to trade a 2100 for ED quality, or nobody really has a 2100 around. I just don't use the ED function, and for me it's overkill. I only have a few metal tapes, so the 9500 only usually records in SuperBeta.

~Scott

Well Brenda, here's how we'll do it. If that Editing goon won't talk to my SL-HF-900, I'll do one of two things: Trade it to Ray Glasser for the RMT-148 you wanted, saving you $50, or, just send it to you. I still need the actual $50... getting this whole thing together will take some time, I have three other packages to send you the remote is kinda low,... Sorry. Does anyone KNOW if that editing thing will work with my 900???

A few more things that just came to mind:The 5800 I have seems to have some kind of video playback problem, where it displays grey fuzz on the screen. I think it needs new belts, as it is slow and doesn't fully expell the tape back into the cassette. Has anyone ever changed the belts on them here, and know where I can get them? Also, I picked up a great looking Zenith Sony 5800 clone, with remote. I haven't tested it yet, but the previous owner who I did some dubbing from Beta to VHS for here seems to have taken good care of it. All of the tapes that were given to me were sony, and alot were HG's. Anybody know anything about the Zenith video director clone?

~Scott

Changing the belts to that SL-5800 won't work as well as changing or cleaning/sanding the idler and idler post tires.

http://www.saitosite.com/av/av9912/pdrm2093.jpg

shows a good picture of an older belt drive betamax mechanism (in this case an SL-J9)

Here's another look... http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/a78f28e7/bc/Goofy+Olive+stuff/betamechs.jpg?bcHnr99A6CuP8uUI

I've marked off the parts you'll need to work on if changing belts (which may be standard belts available at http://www.iglou.com/studiosound/index.htm ) doesn't help.

by the way...

http://british.nerp.net/experimental/80s/vcr.html

is a page someone set up to describe growing up with a Zenith Betamax VCR.

That Zenith page seems to be gone and Yahoo changed my pic address

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/a78f28e7/bc/Goofy+Olive+stuff/betamechs.jpg?bc35r99AgwTP8uUI

Thanks for the info Olive. Hopefully I can find some time to work on the 5800. I bought it mostly for nostalgic sake, as I grew up with a 5800 that my dad still has and wanted my own. It goes nicely with the Sony trinitron PLUS tube with "Supersonic wireless control" and lumisponder (broken unfortunatly, wish I could fix it). That old tv has been great, but as of the last few years, you have to "tap" it on the cabinet to keep the color correct on it until it has it's 30 min warmup. It's a KV-1942 btw.

~Scott

One more thing...got really sick this weekend from food poisoning and missed checking on one of my ebay watch items. BMC-1000 in great cond. for $60. Damn!

~Scott

eeeee! - _@_v - did a search for that BMC-1000 as it slipped by my §eta tracking radar. the thing had a shoulder mount!

Please drop on by the new Beta Informer group page at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/betainformer/

~Scott

Only sony can make things sound so special... "Lumitron" lol sounds more like "lemontron." hehehehe I saw an old Zenith SPACE COMMAND remote at flee market, but was already tapped out cuz I bought 2 RCA real-reel tapes to feed my Tape-Corder. Hmmm.. I like the KV-series of monitors! Can you send a piccy, I think i already know what it looks like. Ummm... Yes! Olive can you provide link to betalore page, I have lost it. thanks

Jesse, I presume that Zenth Space Command had the Telephone setup built in?? Did Sony or any other company have a Remote with telephone capabilities?? I remember a friend had a Zenith Tv with the remote with phone capabilities but they never tried it out. Then the TV died and they just tossed everthing.

Later. Pepse.

Any ideas regarding the high prices for two recent Sanyo 4650's? I thought they were kind of garden variety, middle-of-the-line Sanyo models, but these bidders don't think so. Are they the HF300 's of the Sanyo line of VCR's? Anybody here use one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1942644444

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1943199180

Re: Old Zenith TV's with Space Command with or without built-in phone. The Zenith Chromacolor II series had a history of power supplies causing fires while turned "off" because the power supply still stayed active, waiting for the remote "on" command. Saw it on a "60 Minutes" type show so it must be true... The recommendation was that it was OK to watch one but never leave the thing plugged in after turning it "off". Nice wood cabinets but they burn real good. My cousin-in-law had one of these (and a fire insurance claim due to a living room fire of unknown cause). Get a Zenith Beta instead.

Hey Scott: Reading back, I have an HF550 and the original manual (even the reggy card!). I could scan in the whole page regarding the channel settings; say, MSWord XP format? I could even have the whole manual copied if you want one for the cost of printing & postage. Lemme know...

BTW: If anyone's interested, here's a T-50ME "Color 5" multisystem deck on weebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1944379996

Madness- That would be great if you could scan the tuner setup section. MSWord XP will be great....please send to the following address: [email protected]

Sorry, Sean, for stealing your anti email address...it just seemed to work so well.

~Scott

hee hee that's why I put "[email protected]" not only because it's a title I would (have) like(d) to have, it's because it bounces all email sent to it. Hmmm Nope I dont know it was capable of telly-fone operation, it just had that little round window with a screen over it. Funny.. PyroTronic Command TV must have had GE power supplies, right Olive?

Well I can see the snails have had a bad influence on prices. Saw some Betamovies (that generally go for around $50) with a start price at $150! So now crappy low end Sanyos are getting the gastropod treatment. Anyone looking into Beta as an inexpensive alternative to VHS will be roundly dissapointed I guess.

Almost tempted to slap a Beta logo on some boogity VHS machine and fob it off on some sucker - preferably a Snail. Anybody want my Panasonic "wide tape" 4 head "betamacks". It records Beta signals onto a VHS tape!!! Only $500 start bid!!!

I also have a Zenith "wide tape" 2 head "Betamacks"... and a good deal on a certain East River suspension bridge if anyone's interested ;o)

Here http://www.quicktopic.com/16/H/7L8CrFSk7E7 is the Betalore Chatpage for the one who lost their URL

Jesse, I think GE did OEM those Zenith 'TeeVee-que' telephone, barbeque grill and color TV combo units, but I can't be 100% positive on that...

GE, we bring good thing to grilling...

I remember seeing ads for the space phone or whatever it was called, I'll have to go and look now in some magazines I have. Fortunately the ad was on the back cover so there's no paging through to hunt it down.

I have to admit that it is getting a little silly on eBay. I noted "snaling" picking up what looked like a minty and complete HF300 with a BIN of $175. That's an okay price if you're going to use it yourself, but I don't get it as far as flipping this thing goes. He pays about $ 200 -$210 to get the thing delivered, has to check it out, repackage it, add the extra things he adds to the auctions, and go through all the trouble to list, sell and ship it, and for what? The HF300 's, even in mint condition, max out at around $250, even the mint condition ones. Of course, he is also depending on there being nothing wrong with the machine he's flipping. That's a helluva lot of work and risk for just fifty five bucks. I mean, I can see what he's doing, but I would think he'd pass on this one at that price. Ironically, it looks like the days of good quality $50-$60 Sony BIN's are probably gone for good, and perhaps he has to buy these. Victim of his own success, perhaps?

Keeping an eye on this one tonight to see if someone bites.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1944960788

Frank, I own a Sanyo VCR-4650. I got it for $10 at a flea market. The idler tires are worn out and it is s-l-o-w at REW and FF. It is not really an equivalent SL-HF300 because it does not have Beta hi-fi, or Superbeta for that matter. It has 12-channel presets and is a very basic, stripped down VCR.

Olive:

I've always kinda thought that GE had the wrong slogan with "We bring good things to life."

In light of the fact that they made the first electric chair, wouldn't it have been more appropriate for them to use "We put bad things to death."?

"ROTFLMAO"

I had one of those old Sanyo machines (THe second one, "Betacord" and it was AWFUL. they are very hard on tapes and generally poor performers. the SL-20 is nothing to write home about but it is worlds better than those old Sanyos.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2078690778

Somebody bid on this. it's a VHS built like a betamax. Really great machine. If I wasn't using all three of Sony's VTR codes allready I'd get this fella. Trust me, you'll love it.

Hey Andy - I didn't mean to suggest that the VCR4650 was the equivalent of the HF300 (I see how it could have come across that way, and thanks for not laughing). I'm just a little confused that a Sanyo unit, which popular wisdom here indicates is pretty much the "anti-dream" machine, could get so much bidding attention. I was wondering if I might be missing something, and that maybe the 4650 was the sleeper of the Sanyo line that has some quality only real aficionados know about (I know; I'm silly). To me, the HF300 stands out as the Betamax that has best stood the test of time, in terms of being the best mix of durability, quality and value. They are the most commonly auctioned Sony Beta model to my knowledge, and almost without exception are in true working order at the time of the sale (at least according to the seller).

I think it may be what Olive suggested - that the actions of high price Beta sellers like lled, vcrgary, ziggi and someko (and their buyers, I would add) are starting to spill over into areas where buyers may be getting into a little trouble.

minor note: VCRGary deals very little in Beta. His prices are usually more reasonable and if you talk to him in person he gives better deals, i.e. $100 for VO-5600, $75 for SLO-1400, etc, but he did do something dumb, try to sell an SLO-340 for $ 200. .. and he's a real tech, so stuff is actualy checked out... still not the best deal, but he's not out to screw people, either.

Pardon mon francais.... but it really PISSES ME OFF when people list an item on ebay, then give you a list of conditions that rivals Santa's list.. My pet peeve is people that will ONLY ship UPS or FedEx.. I can only receive mail via USPS.. so that automatically lets me out of a lot of great auctions. Besides, I don't TRUST UPS. They have a nasty tendency to drop items off in front of your door if you are not home without getting any kind of signature.

And then there are the ones who, even if they will ship via USPS, will not ship to APO/FPO addresses. This lets out millions of customers that happen to be in service to their country overseas. And even a lot of the ones that WILL ship to APO/FPO's want to charge an extra $X (usually around $10) for shipping to them. This is just plain robbery, since the post office doesn't charge this. APO/FPO's are the same as shipping to anywhere in the lower 48. The shipping point for my own APO is San Francisco, so shipping from anywhere on the west coast is dirt cheap.

So much for my soapbox.. (which came about because of the VCR on ebay that Sean posted).

I would think "We bring good things to grilling" would seem all the more apprapos then...

by the way Thomas Edison invented the electric chair as an advertisement of the fact that Nikolai Telsa's and Westinghouse's AC current was too dangerous and that everyone should use GE's DC current. He did a lot of dmeonstrations frying various animals including an elephant to make his point.

However since DC current can't travel very far while AC can, AC won out. Westinghouse did manage to screw over Tesla in the meantime.

That SVO-140 seems to be a mono VCR and missing it's tape flipper door to boot. It's listed as "untested" which translates to "I bet it's a total loss, so I better cover my ass and not test it so I won't have to actually lie and say it works when I know it's a piece of junk..."

It's like Franny says, the people "who know their rights" are the worst kind of thieving weasels...

I don't understand the problem with shipping to APO/FPO addresses. For shipping purposes, I thought it's exactly the same thing to the shipper as shipping to San Francisco or New York. What excuses do they give you?

On a separate issue, as for vcrgary, the fact that he does not sell many beta units is not even the point. For purposes of the issue at hand, beta, Umatic and betacam - what difference does it make? Item after item of his has to be relisted because his lunatic reserves are usually not met. And he relists at the same price/BIN/reserve. One example are the portable betacam units that are unusable as shipped, without the "easy to find" power supplies/adaptors (which evidently not easy enough to find that he can include one despite reserves/BIN's far in excess of what any non-reserve auction normally brings). He also scoops up BIN GCS-50's and flips them for $1 -200 more without doing a thing to them. How you can carve out an exception in his case strikes me as reasoning that is suspect, and I have a hunch I know why.

You're not going to like this either - I put Andy Sanchez in that group, same as someko, ziggi, etc.. His reserves and BIN's are no lower than the others (except lled - he's on another planet). So you must see shades of difference that are not apparent to me.

I'd make book that if by some weird circumstance you crossed paths with "someko" and got a great deal from him, you would stop all your "sleech" crap in a New York minute.

Well this would've been a nice find at any VCR shop...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1945063466

Unopened SL-HF 350 VCR left unsold from a VCR shop that had been in business since the 70s...

Keep looking fellow snails! That warehouse full of SL-HF 750s is around somewhere! - _@_v ==c{{{{{ [ ==¼¼¼¼O]

Frank,

They don't give an excuse, and you're right, it's the same as shipping to either coast, depending on whether it's an AP or AA extention. The auctions I see just flat out say "I do not ship to APO's, FPO's,(usually add)AK, HI, PR or PO Boxes.

To be fair, Andy Sanchez may charge Snail rates but he services and warranties what he sells. And he has been forced to pay snail prices to get his parts betas so he's in the same boat as the rest of us.

But anyway any takers on my Panasonic or Zenith "wide tape" "Betamacks"? You won't have to buy Beta tapes to feed these machines, VHS tapes will run fine in them...

and if you can get that adapter you can stick Beta tapes in them and they'll work fine...

ask about the special deal I can give you on a New York to Kings county suspension bridge I've been retained as the selling agent for...

I put ANdy and VCRGary in a slightly different category because they actually know what they are doing, as opposed to Snaling who simply steals info from the infoguide, takes pretty pictures and sticks a new remote with the unit to make it look new. and yes, VCRGary has been known to charge rediculous prices. Don't swet over the power supply to a portapack, most use a plug-in battery and any suitable muti-volt adapter that puts out enough juice will power them through that. So you get something for your money from them. VCRGary was the last word in helpful when the SLO-1400 he sold me broke, telling me right where the problem was and how to fix it (IT worked) and offereing to replace it at no extra charge. And we all have a certain "Soft spot" for Andy because he gives nice prices on repairs.

Hey Andy! What do you suppose is wrong with this poor Beta?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1945091926

SL-HF 400 with a really wacky power on routine...

Iam looking for Sony Betamax SL HF100 for spares also Sony C9 instruction manual .Hope someone can help

Try this Dutch selling page for that Beta HF-100 http://www.marktplaats.nl/markt/video/betamaxrecorders.htm

I've seen one get listed here last month or so

Really, what's so bad about Sanyo ßetas? My experince with them has been fine. I have three of them, VCR-4030, VCR-4027 and VCR-4650. I can see no difference at all in Superßeta picture quality between tapes made on the 4030 and those made on my Sony SL-HF600. The 4027's picture quality, also Superßeta, is maybe a tad lower than the 4030 and HF600, the colors aren't quite as brilliant. Still runs circles around VHS. And the 4650's picture quality is less than the others only because it's not Superßeta. None of my Sanyos have the tape eating problem that is supposed to be an issue with them, and the 4650 is the only one that has shown any signs of rubber wear. I have decided to shelve that unit until I get around to ordering the parts from either diyvcrparts.com or studiosoundelectronics.com. The only areas where the Sanyos fall short of the Sony are special effects playback (The Sanyos are all 2-head but the Sony has a 3rd head for freeze and slow) and features. The thing that bugs me most about them is the tuners which have presets (14 for the 4030 and 12 for the others) instead of being able to tune in all channels like the Sony can. The 4650 and 4027 are both very basic, no frills VCRs, but the 4030 has some extra features like slow motion playback, OBR mode (same as Quick Timer on the Sony) and a 2-week, 8-event timer vs. the 1-week, 1-event timers on the other Sanyos and the 1-week, 6-event on the Sony.My complete Beta collection is: Sony SL-HF600, NEC VC-739E, Sanyo VCR-4030, 4027 and 4650.By the way, all that's wrong with my VC-739E is that the belts are so worn out it can't thread the tape without me turning the threading ring by hand, and once threaded it won't FF, REW or Picture Search because the idler tire is worn out. I emailed diyvcrparts.com and they said they didn't have new rubber parts for NEC Betas. Does anyone know who does or if not, has anyone ever used that "rubber rejuvinator" stuff to recondition the rubber parts of a VCR? Does it really work? I'd really like to get my VC-739E working because if working it would be the highest-end ßeta VCR in my collection with multispeed slow-motion, audio dubbing etc.

What always worked at least as well as the expensive 'rubber rejuvenator' was to coat the rubber idlers in brake fluid. The belts will work sometimes, but usually they have been stretched beyond their limit.

krap...... i woulda liked that SVOeHoS sony deck but it IS a mono and no videotape recorder in THIS house (besides the SL-2000 and VP-5000) can be mono!!! and it doesnt look like Im gonna get the MaviPak still recorder. :( :( :( :( Sean if yours gets 'lost' I don't know ANYTHING about it... :) It might have been donated to the Wards Home For Wayward Mazda Millenia S-es and U-Matics and Other Generally Cast-Aside Electronics.... :)

Hehheeh... For those of us who go Beta hunting during trash days, any chance for someone to leave a 1996-2002 Millenia S out on the curb when it's garbage day? Heheheheh or a whole off-line editing sweet? (suite, yes, but SWEET)

GE-ee, we had a big-ass snowstorm last night (which happened to be the trash night) and I come to find out a local video production house had stacked some old umatics on the curb like cordwood. Just my luck, the snowplow would bury the poor things before I could get a chance to attempt to rescue them....

I think the city will have to replace one of their plow blades...

P.S. just kidding....

Well, Jesse, it's not an impossible dream, remember what is on the bottom right of this page!

http://uk.geocities.com/redoctober7000/Photos1.html

Here's an interesting item for owners of either the SL-7200 or SL-8200 or one of the industrial Betas. It's a DT -30 timer module.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1978908425

ya lotsa big ugly top loading u-mies... :) Front loaders are waay better because you can stack them.

Those front loaders have no charm, the top-loaders with the beige panels, the wooden sides, now that was classic. except the weigh in at about 100 pounds. Have you ever seen a BVU -200? ?? it's a top-loader on steroids, the first "All-pro" umatic, it must weigh in at 150 pounds, and it's a good foot tall!

Actually, I remember my high school library having one of those big old "boat-anchor" Umatic top-loader decks (may've been a BVU -200 ). Damn thing was like 2½ to 3' wide and as you said, prolly 10-12" high. Also had (I think) the matching TV/Monitor -- a 19" Trinitron in huge woodgrained retangular box w/ rotary tuners. And to top it off, a huge labrary of Umatic tapes; mostly educational stuff. Surprisingly, there was ALSO a beta deck there, if I remember, an SLO-420.

BTW: I've been looking for some alternatives for labels for my beta tapes in lieu of the RatShack discontinuing those labelling kits. Here's what I found: For one-third-window betacam tapes (i.e. Sony G's), 3½" floppy-type for face labels; for full-window betacams (Sony K's) & regular beta's, Zip disk labels (floppy's are a bit too wide); and for both, Avery (or equiv.) file folder labels (¾"H x 2½-3"L) for the spines. Thought I'd share. :)

hmmmmmm... Front loaders are more professional-looking to me. Top loaders remind me of when weather on the news was sticking little magnetic snowflakes to a board and you had to stick the temps on there too..... One of the local stations here used a dry-erase board for the rain forecast!!! ugh! :) :) Plus their recording quality isn't that great (I had a VO-1600 that died, and it wasnt that great).

THat's probably because the VO-1600 was a consumer unit, it had tuners and such, didn't it? the VO-2xxx series were the start of the pro line, before it dies my VO-2600 made a braodcast grade picture- if not for the machine noise you could've fooled someone into thinking it was live TV.

Since ASCII snails aren't allowed...

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/olive_e_thomas/vwp?.dir=/Goofy+Olive+stuff&.src=ph&.dnm=X-mas_snailie.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/olive_e_thomas/lst%3f%26.dir=/Goofy%2bOlive%2bstuff%26.src=ph%26.view=t

fun with X-mas presents under the tree...

Only the top half of that link works...

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/olive_e_thomas/vwp?.dir=/Goofy+Olive+stuff&.src=ph&.dnm=X-mas_snailie.jpg&.view=t

Eeeeee! Frankenbeta!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1945461561

Snail-eko musta cobbled together an SL-HF 300 and SL-HF 500 and is calling this a 'like NEW' silver SL-HF 500. If you look carefully at the transport controls you'll see that the frame advance features aren't marked off like they would be on a real SL-HF 500.

The Snail is gettin' sneaky in his old age. And when is he gonna run out of those damned RMT-151s? Did he like find a warehouse full of 'em? Where is this warehouse and is it near that SL-HF 750 warehouse?

got both my 750's for $150 each from that kinda situation.both worked perfectly except i had to re-enable the remote electronics and replace the led level meters.

that was back in '98-'99.

and there really was a load of 750's available for that price,previously used in a tape duplication facility.i heard of a similar deal with 900's or 1000's,unfortunatly,way too late!

Speaking of surplus items...

This Sony BVV-1A Betacam VTR back was released as surplus from the White House. Was used for White House video production purposes during the Clinton administration...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1945627363

I leave you to make up your own jokes....

Anyone in Italy looking for Beta equipment?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1944724990

For an HVC -3000 and BMC-200

dieeeeeeee! I want that sorta betacam docking recorder! Plus I want the huge Sony camera head with the 3CCD and HyperHad stickers on them! There's a camera at channel 4 that I saw, it has two cat-eyes next to the HyperHad sticker, lol, it's kinda cute. Betamie with kitty eyes :)

eeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEE!!! Dammit! Off topic, but do any of you remember those "plunger" Panasonic 8 track players? They were the ones that looked like a little detonator.. and are called "dynamite" on ebay. I found one dead at my great-gram's house, it was in a trash pile at the back of the house and had apparently been outside for a couple years. I brought it home and flushed it out (still smells like rotting cat food), and let it dry out in the sun a couple days. I flushed it out beause it was wet anyways and looked really bad. I cleaned up its case and powered it up... The volume pot is shot, it just turns round and round with a grinding noise. The head has rust, just like the capstan, and the motor still runs, although squeakily. I looked on snail-bay today and see them going for $50 and up..... grrrrrrrr!!! dammit! Why can't I ever stop getting the short end of the stick? First with not having a Beta family... erf! Now, to bring my post on topic, I want to ask if my SL-HF300 's "when first plugged in" routine is normal: When plugged in it unthreads the tape, waits, then threads it back, unthreads halfway, and threads fully. When inserting a tape it threads fully, retracts 1/4 the way, and threads fully again. Olive said that it was the 300's equivalent to stretching when you wake up. Cute, but true! lol...... :) Anyone got any info?

The 300's "wake-up" routine isn't a problem with me, I just wanted to know.

Olive, hmm, sounds hokey ta me. I've never seen an all-silver HF500. Most of the 500's I've seen (including the one I own) are usually all black except for a two-tone front panel (i.e. the lower sloped part w/ the buttons & stuff is all silver) and occaisionally I've seen an all-black-front 500. I'd say he took a silver 300 and slapped the flip-door from a black/silver 500 on it. So this a****le takes a two-head deck and makes it look like a 3-head and slaps a reserve & a $315 BIN on it? PFFFFFBBFFFFFBBFFTT!!! ¶:¬þ,-'*^-~.'

Well, my Mavicam came. Huge, heavy affair, but it's a true SLR. No in-camera playback, good thing I got the player. I have sent the payment for it and it should arrive soon. Whoever designed the package for the Mavipak disks also designed the packages for the old Sony Open-reel videotapes.http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/bin/viewimage.x/00000000/thequest/sonydisks.jpg?allow_mailing_list=1&owner_id=125078&allow_track_link=1&track=0220977c9e-1e896&pt=bidpay

http://www.labguysworld.com/Tape-H-Inch_003.jpg

Wasn't somebody in here looking for an industrial VCR of that *OTHER* format? This one looks pretty good, and so far I don't think anyone's bid on it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21168&item=1944790512