1989 Sony SL-390 Super Betamax VCR

My first foray into the world of Beta, the videotape format that famously lost the war with VHS.

[sophew]

Hi Kevin, my son watches your videos a lot, everyday to be honest. My son has an unusual interest in electronics so watching you makes him happy. He loves this review of BetaMax! His name is Max
Max wants to know what do you do for a living?
Thanks

[spatsbear]

We have the 1988 version of that VCR, the SL-330. Just slightly different cosmetics. My parents bought it new in 1988, as we didn't go to VHS until 1991 (and I still recorded on my SL-100 regularly up until the late 90s, just because Beta got much better picture quality).

I think the last consumer Betamax unit Sony made was as late as 1993, and the last known commercially recorded movie on Beta you could order was the Lion King.

I love the Beta format and have probably about 15 or so VCRs and 3 Betamovie cameras, all of which I am restoring one by one. They are fantastic machines.

[davek]

It's really amazing that it stayed locked on the picture so well when the audio had so much wow & flutter.

[obsoletegeek]

Betamax was around for a long time in the production world. I worked for a TV station in 2004, and companies would still send their commercials on betamax. I would convert them to MPEG2, write to a DVD-R, and drive them to the server located at our transmitter where it would be plugged into the schedule.

I hated that job

[The_Laser_Channel]

Congrats on getting your first Betamax! I got my first one in 2009 for about $50 off craigslist. came with about 40 tapes including two cleaning tapes. I still have it hooked up to the TV to this day :)

[maineboy]

When I was a kid, my best friend's parents had two VCRs: a VHS front-loader, and a Betamax top-loader. They would rent VHS movies from the rental store and record them onto Betamax. My friend and I spent many days and nights watching their vast collection of copied-to-Betamax movies.

[noelj]

We were a Betamax family with two models: SL-7ME (huge bulky beast) and SL-30 (which I have it next to me doing nothing since 2005, after we became a DVB-S USB DVR family). This video brought back the nice noise sounds of playback rewind record.

[jimbronie]

Between you and tech moan I am getting the urge to drag out my old denon cassette deck and fixing the broken belt!! Lol! Keep up the fun videos!

[Madness]

I think some 90's Beta releases were afterthoughts. The latest tape in my collection is National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I. It's on a late-issue Sony blank; the type w/ a rectangular window across the width of the cassette's face (looks like a large 8mm). They stuck a VHS face label on it & packaged it in a VHS box.

[MusicradioNetwork]

This VCR was from 1989, and it was one of the last of the Betamax VCR's until they discontinued by the early 1990's. Because, Sony decided to get into VHS VCR's when Sony struck a deal with JVC to produced a line of VHS VCR's. When Sony made the Betamax VCR's in 1976, JVC started the VHS format, and the VHS VCR's became popular in Japan, so RCA started the first VHS VCR's by 1977, and so did Panasonic a year later in 1978 with the Omnivision VHS VCR, and both video formats started to make competition. In addition, there was the laserdisc player which was first came to the market by 1978, and Magnavox was the first to put out laserdisc players along with pre-recorded movies on laserdiscs as MCA's DiscoVision. By the early 1980's, RCA put out the CED videodisc format, and a line of CED videodisc players, and it was a complete failure. Many of these great films were released between 1981 through 1985 when it was on CED videodisc format, and it never catch on until 1984 when RCA discontinued the CED videodisc players and the CED videodiscs by 1985.

[sensibleb]

I kinda feel like noisy, blurry, scratched-up videotape is the best way to watch cheesy 1980's horror films.

[PSSSSOd]

I guess they kept releasing machines through the late 80s to keep people invested in the format as I imagine most Betamax families got into it earlier on in the format wars and by the late 80s could have more than 10 years of recordings amassed via home recordings and camcorder so upgrading, or replacing a machine with a newer model would be a reasonably low risk, known quantity to sell to. This machine looks pretty budget and by the numbers for Sony, would've made sense to do incremental upgrades to keep all the Beta devotees in a format they could dictate to completely.

[MusicradioNetwork]

I just ordered my first Betamax VCR from eBay today, and it’s a SL-2000 portable Betamax VCR with a TT-2000 tuner from 1982 along with a handful of Betamax tapes that I also ordered as of today. I can’t wait to get this thing up and running soon.

[Xicohtencatl_Xayacate]

SL-390? I have he SL-340!! :D

Probably the tape was getting sticky (it can be loosened by winding and rewinding the tape over and over again), or maybe the heads were dirty or worn out...

I think it's a mix of worn out video heads and a deteriorated tape...

I used Betamax tapes from the beginning to... 2016, I think. Sometimes, I move to tape the series and movies I get online (I'm from Mexico), and I delete them from the hard disk of my computer after that. But my 1982 SL-2405 Beta VCR doesn't turn on anymore, and the SL-340 needs video heads (headdrum?), as the ones it has are worn out. :(

I hope finding the spare parts some day...

[Watcher]

1. If this isn't a SuperBeta recording, you may want to turn the SuperBeta mode off. Otherwise, there could be noise in the picture.

2. You should open the cassette and check to see if the friction tabs haven't come loose and are interfering with tape travel, especially on the supply reel side. The friction tabs are clear with flat black rubber ends and are usually glued in place on the lower half of the cassette shell close to the tape reels. Over time, the glue fails to keep the tabs in place and can allow them to interfere with tape travel or, worse case, can stick to the tape and be pulled out of the cassette and onto the tape path, possibly causing damage to the video heads.

[andythrasher]

Two things wrong with this SL-390 : Capstan motor capacitors are bad (they are the surface mount ones and leak out all over the PCB). Second is the loading carriage mechanism nylon gear is cracked at the drive motor. Just superglue it . Use, and enjoy (if you still have it!). The noise in the picture is caused from the failed capacitors on the capstan motor.

-Andy (the former Betamax guru)

[hackerinsidetm]

The movie that you taped over was Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)

[hackerinsidetm]

Sony still manufactures blank Betamax tapes for these recorders.

[Plufx]

Ooh awesome! I've got a 1983 Sanyo Betacord which needs some TLC. Interesting note about the head cleaning method, I might try it on mine.

[WildDieWoodard]

I check EVERY thrift store I visit for Beta machines and I NEVER find them.