DuB-EnG: BETAMAX Video Recorder Repair and a short HISTORY of the VHS VIDEOTAPE FORMAT WARS of 1980s

While fixing my frinds Sony SL-HF100UB HiFi Audio Betamax video recorder, I thought I'd show you how I did it, and also explore the VHS Betamax Video Tape Format wars of the 1970s 1980s. All in 10 minutes - Hope its not too boring!! I actually scripted this one! Massive thanks to Wikipedia and Google for all the amazing information available online when researching this! The music is not copyright.

1975 saw the birth of Sony's Betamax. This was followed by the competing VHS format from JVC in 1976 almost 1 year later. Subsequently, the Betamax–VHS format war began.

While VHS machines' lower retail price was a major factor, the principal battleground proved to be recording time. The original Sony Betamax video recorder could record for only 60 minutes, JVC's VHS could manage 120 minutes, followed by RCA's entrance into the market with a 240-minute recorder using VHS. These challenges sparked a mini-war to see who could achieve the longest recording time.

When home VCRs started to become popular in the UK, the main issue was one of availability and price. VHS machines were available through the high street rental chains such as Radio Rentals, while Beta was seen as the more upmarket choice for people who wanted quality and were prepared to pay for it. By 1980, out of an estimated 100,000 homes with VCRs, 70% were rented since a lot of money (about £2000) could be spent on a system which might become obsolete.

The main determining factor between Betamax and VHS was the cost of the recorders and recording time. Betamax is, in theory, a superior recording format over VHS due to resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines), slightly superior sound, and a more stable image; Betamax recorders were also of higher-quality construction. However, these differences were negligible to consumers, and thus did not justify either the extra cost of a Betamax VCR or Betamax's shorter recording time.

The VHS technology was licensed to any manufacturer that was interested. The manufacturers then competed against each other for sales, resulting in lower prices to the consumer. Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax initially, and so was not pressured to reduce prices. Only in the early 1980s did Sony decide to license Betamax to other manufacturers, such as Toshiba and Sanyo.

By the time Sony made these changes to their strategy, VHS dominated the market, with Betamax relegated to a niche position. Beta sales dwindled away and VHS emerged as the winner of the format war. The video format war is now a highly scrutinized event in business and marketing history, leading to a plethora of market investigations into why Betamax failed. What Sony did not take into account was what consumers wanted.

By 1988, Beta format was officially declared dead without any more new models released. Sony began to assemble and market its first VHS machines. Sony also had good success with VHS by the mid-1990s. It was clear that the Beta format was dead - at least in Europe and North America.

Made In Japan, the SONY SL-HF100UB was one of only two Hi-Fi (high Fidelity sound) Betamax recorders released by Sony in the UK domestic market. Cosmetically it is a stylish looking font loading machine. One oddity is that it has a transparent window in the lid to allow observation of the cassette. It has all the timer and play record controls of a typical video recorder. The extras functions of the unit are some sliders for setting the audio levels and some LED bar meters to show stereo channel audio levels. What made this unit special was its audio quality as can be seen by a massive blue sticker on the top of the unit comparing Betamax hi-fi to other systems such as open reel tape recorders and fm/am radio.

The TV tuning controls are under a panel on the top of the unit. These offer a test signal and auto-tune functionality.

On the rear of the unint a radio frequency Gain switch marked as "DX/Local" is present next to the TV aerial connectors. There are connectors for video in and out and stereo audio in and out. A sony specific camera remote connector and a 6 pin DIN AV connector are there for remote control and signal transfers, also a separate power switch to turn the unit on.

Lets see what happens when we power this unit up and try to put a tpe in.

System
Video recording system
Rotary two-head helical scanning
Audio recording system
Beta hi-fi PAL system (2 channels)
(Recording on the conventional audio is monoaural.)
Video signal
CCIR standards, PAL colour
Aerial input
75-ohm, asymmetrical aerial socket
Channel coverage
UHF: Western European channels
E21 - E68
(Up to 12 programmes can be preset.)
RF output signal
UHF channels E30 to E39 (variable)
75 ohms, unbalanced
Video
Horizontal resolution
260 lines

Massive thanks to Wikipedia and Google for all the amazing information available online when researching this!

[guardiane]

I still remember the exact loading and unloading sound that my old Betamax player made...we used it so often back in the day. We had recorded Star Wars episode IV off the TV with that thing, Star Trek II, Tron, you name it lol. The good ol'days of media.

[paymydues]

The lacing bar is'nt bent.The miniature (and i mean miniature!) small screw that secures this to the loading ring needs a tiny tweak to get that to stand upright more. So it can locate in the black plastic guide slot.
I've seen that on a couple of SLF30's. You do that by manually turning the loading ring gear (that you've just sorted) to slowly bring it out so you can safely work on it and see how far up it goes and locates successfully.

[StofffeGbg]

Great history lesson, followed by the repair... Thumbs up!

[techman]

The security and media industry in the US used Betamax for the compactness and quality for video production and archiving. The US Navy used Betamax for their CCTV entertainment systems in the late 80's until around 2000. I ran the CCTV system on my last ship until I retired in 1994. We produced local news programming and our movies came on this format. They stowed away much better than the competitors. I miss this format but won't go back to tape. Just nostalgis kicking in!! Thank s for the great repair video.

[Everythings_Adjustable]

Well done on the repair and thanks very much for the history lesson 👍 👍

[johnkerryandsons]

Great Video .... in our house in the late 70's we had both VHS and a Betamax (how posh were we?)... Me and my mates would all chip and rent a Video nasty in the school hollidays

[dieselbushcraft]

Beta was great and just a pity a company kept it to themselves until it was too late.
Can you remember “Video 2000” format, you could turn the tape over in a similar way to audio cassettes.

[mistermatix]

Did I see Prometheus on Betamax at 2.34? It looks like Ridley Scott & "PROMETHEUS" on the cassette spine! That was from 2012!

[karenyou]

Can he fix it? yes he can! Wow a blast from the past but we never had one in our childhood home. I remember the video rental stores. Inside that is so complicated you really earned yourself a few ciders. The world needs more handymen. Or my country does!

[bobsbits]

hi out of the deta deck i have had the sony uvw 1800 is the easy one to pull apart
and to work on i have 11 of this model i plan to work on sometime

i love the betacam sp line parts so easy to change over from decks they use alot of the same
parts note the audio on the sony bvw 75 can out do this deck the, liner tracks 6 x the speed
i lost for words how good the audio is on this model as tapes wear the hifi starts to drop out

i have 40 year old betacam BCT-30K BCT-30G tapes there's no drop out's of the audio
so buying a used betacam sp tapes for audio masters is a great plan

[paymydues]

The miniature black gear under that white larger one is split and spinning that's why you are'nt getting any ejection or tape loading.
This IS common to these model |Sony's and can be repaired successfully by replacement. Glueing is is not a good idea. It won't last.

[romanzaytsev]

Its look like Fisher's VHS mechanism inside. Never seen before inside Betamax.

[ياسرابوالعمارياسرابوالعمار]

How is it going? I have the same device, but it is idle. Where can I find spare parts?

[JackBealeGuitar]

I think you'd enjoy Randi Rains youtube channel, every video she remolds a new plastic gear out of some old Tomy robot

[thhznt]

I used to keep my “premium” collection on Betamax and duplicated to vhs for “customers” those were the days 😂😇

[paulbuk]

My dad got a sony sl 7ub from a radio fair just £5 with three tapes and a service manual he gave it to me has common faults easily fixed but great picture quality good heads are not always found on sony machines though they do have a great picture when they are good, i would like a sanyo front loader most of those have good heads due to the fact that sanyo machines unlace the tape on fast forward and rewind .safe to say i have a few vhs machines as well nice 1985 panasonic nv 730b one of my favorite i had 2 in the past a panasonic nv f55 and a nice f75 i really like it has a good picture but no sound ebay charity auction, an svhs panasonic time lapse recorder plays standard tapes in 3h mode Just a £12 buy it now and no belts, A really nice jvc svhs from a charity auction bought as broken for £10 i left it in the box it came in for 3 months thinking it would be beyond repair when i looked at it just a couple of studs came off the guides just needed pushing back on works well .

[DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

VHS was the worst format out as BETAMAX was much better.