Oh wow. This is another model I'd desire to get. What a beast. I've actually never heard a Beta hifi machine yet. All the ones I've grown up with (which I still have) and ones in my collection are all linear mono machines.
+Fivos Sakellis I don't recall exactly, but I think the heads and tracking were not working properly, and a picture could not be clear and free of snow. It was accidentally exposed to construction dust, and I suspect that advanced the problem. It's too long ago to recall exactly. The sound was tremendous, and a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark was so amazing. It was the start of everything for me, everything that we take for granted now, great sound (It was only in stereo!), and the movie experience as a home theater set-up.
I still have mine I bought new in 1983. It still works and the only small problem is the hi-fi on/off switch which I have permanently wedged in the hi-fi position. It still sounds awesome as a audio deck with long playing times. It must weigh about 35 or so lbs! I truly get the built like a tank blurb!. I had fairly high-end Mitsubishi VHS hi-fi decks later, the picture just wasn't up to the BetaMax's if you got critical. Beta's seemed to be able to play pre-recorded hi-fi tapes better.
I still have mine I purchased new when it came out in it's originally shipping carton. This was a huge VCR! My first purchased Beta Hi-Fi pre-recorded tape was a Fleetwood Mac concert. I thought this was amazing at the time. In many ways this is the product that started the whole home high-fidelity sound AV revolution we take as totally normal now. In 1982 it was anything but. The burgeoning home video market for movies were hamstrung with longitudinal audio tracks moving at a ridiculously slow speed as read by a fixed audio tape head...I believe the high frequency begin to precipitously drop around 8,000 cycles. The S/N ration was abysmal. With the SL-5200 for the first time you could get a watchable picture (around 250 lines or thereabouts) and sound that far exceeded anything else married to video. Sony continued to refine the Hi-Fi concept, but Panasonic and JVC pushed the VHS format so hard (yes they later got their own Hi-Fi audio) to which Sony never could compete with just due to VHS having up to 6-hours as I recall recording time. Great memories here, but I certainly don't miss these trouble prone decks and the bulky tapes we all stored. I went LaserDisc and that too proved to be problematic with many rented discs being physically damaged by scratching and warping. In comparison Blu-Ray is a technological marvel with the only caveat being there never was a practical Blu-Ray home recording deck likely due to the amount of power required to author the video inputs into the format required (as well as the lack of recordable BD-R discs since they never caught on too much). Yeah, I've had several laptops with BD-R drives and I burned almost as many coasters as good discs! Thank goodness for HD video files we have today.
The SL-2500 models also sometimes have an issue with a dim or a clock completely out.. There's a certain electrolytic cap that's bad on those... You may want to try and test the caps on the timer block board where the display is located..
11:50 Looks like the machine has the classic servo problem with the dried up Sanyo capacitors in the SS-9 (servo board). You don't get a normal picture in reverse BetaScan!
We had this device or similar model in 80s in Egypt, i think i was 4 or 5 years old at this time when my father brought it, and remember till now the promo tape came with it, Sony viva land the magician and the yong girl, see it two much with my sister, Sony was making a brain washing to us :-)
Sweet!
I just bought one of these at a thrift store (super lucky)
$75! You’re correct…a tank!
Oh wow. This is another model I'd desire to get. What a beast.
I've actually never heard a Beta hifi machine yet. All the ones I've grown up with (which I still have) and ones in my collection are all linear mono machines.
This was my first vcr, and it was expensive, but amazing! It lived for about two years....
westie18 Only 2 years? What happened with it?
+Fivos Sakellis I don't recall exactly, but I think the heads and tracking were not working properly, and a picture could not be clear and free of snow. It was accidentally exposed to construction dust, and I suspect that advanced the problem. It's too long ago to recall exactly. The sound was tremendous, and a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark was so amazing. It was the start of everything for me, everything that we take for granted now, great sound (It was only in stereo!), and the movie experience as a home theater set-up.
I still have mine I bought new in 1983. It still works and the only small problem is the hi-fi on/off switch which I have permanently wedged in the hi-fi position. It still sounds awesome as a audio deck with long playing times. It must weigh about 35 or so lbs! I truly get the built like a tank blurb!. I had fairly high-end Mitsubishi VHS hi-fi decks later, the picture just wasn't up to the BetaMax's if you got critical. Beta's seemed to be able to play pre-recorded hi-fi tapes better.
a lot of PAL countries can only wish the equivalent Sony SL-C6 came out as a HI-Fi model instead
I still have mine I purchased new when it came out in it's originally shipping carton. This was a huge VCR! My first purchased Beta Hi-Fi pre-recorded tape was a Fleetwood Mac concert. I thought this was amazing at the time. In many ways this is the product that started the whole home high-fidelity sound AV revolution we take as totally normal now. In 1982 it was anything but. The burgeoning home video market for movies were hamstrung with longitudinal audio tracks moving at a ridiculously slow speed as read by a fixed audio tape head...I believe the high frequency begin to precipitously drop around 8,000 cycles. The S/N ration was abysmal. With the SL-5200 for the first time you could get a watchable picture (around 250 lines or thereabouts) and sound that far exceeded anything else married to video. Sony continued to refine the Hi-Fi concept, but Panasonic and JVC pushed the VHS format so hard (yes they later got their own Hi-Fi audio) to which Sony never could compete with just due to VHS having up to 6-hours as I recall recording time. Great memories here, but I certainly don't miss these trouble prone decks and the bulky tapes we all stored. I went LaserDisc and that too proved to be problematic with many rented discs being physically damaged by scratching and warping. In comparison Blu-Ray is a technological marvel with the only caveat being there never was a practical Blu-Ray home recording deck likely due to the amount of power required to author the video inputs into the format required (as well as the lack of recordable BD-R discs since they never caught on too much). Yeah, I've had several laptops with BD-R drives and I burned almost as many coasters as good discs! Thank goodness for HD video files we have today.
I bought this vcr about 10 years ago on Craigslist for $35 with the original remote. I also own the SL-HF 300 & 450 betas.
I have a 1985 ad that says "A VCR so advanced you don´t even need to press POWER button?" You just pushed the tape and starts playback.
The SL-2500 models also sometimes have an issue with a dim or a clock completely out.. There's a certain electrolytic cap that's bad on those... You may want to try and test the caps on the timer block board where the display is located..
Betamax systems had features that only high end VHS had.
Simulcast is recording FM Radio?
11:50 Looks like the machine has the classic servo problem with the dried up Sanyo capacitors in the SS-9 (servo board). You don't get a normal picture in reverse BetaScan!
what is this be kind please rewind sticker on the tape??
Wait, they actually released the Fugitive on Betamax?! Wow! 0_0 I thought the format was pretty much dead by that point!
PLEASE To FIX FORUM BOARD SITE
THANKS
We had this device or similar model in 80s in Egypt, i think i was 4 or 5 years old at this time when my father brought it, and remember till now the promo tape came with it, Sony viva land the magician and the yong girl, see it two much with my sister, Sony was making a brain washing to us :-)
Tamer MA Let me refresh your memory. It was the SL-T6ME with PAL and SECAM :)
Speak...!!
I have one betamax tape
?ㄷ