Sony Betacam: Not the Beta you're thinking of (it's way better)

This discussion is long-overdue.

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What about the whole television saga?

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00:00 Intro
02:58 A closer look
04:50 The Beta / VHS Format War
11:33 Picture Quality Comparison
15:15 Home Video
17:41 What Betacam Is
21:52 Why videotape is usually pretty bad
25:57 More heads is more better
27:20 Three signals with two heads?
31:15 The tape moves really fast - this is a problem
32:40 Sony's ridiculous solution
34:28 Using the machine
37:31 Betacam's competition
39:42 bloops

[neilugaddan]

This really is my favorite channel. No unnecessary music. Straight to the point with a little history and with actual object. And the humor.

[mikkowilson]

One other *tiiny tiny little* difference between Betamax & Betacam for professional use is that Betacam has a timecode track, which is critical for professional video editing where the ability to reference any specific frame of video is a necessity.

[VenomousCamel]

Those Beta/VHS/Modern transitions don't get enough love. They're excellently executed!

[williamwong]

I was a cameraman during the mid 80s. We were using the Betacam cameras that cost $70000 each. When shooting outdoor, we had to carry the cameras along during lunchtime. We were forbidden to leave the cameras in the vehicle.
The Betacam PAL tape ran for 20 minutes only. So at 19 minutes recording point, I had to alert my other partner to focus on the subject. Because I need to replace it with fresh blank tape.
Those were the days.

[nathanjwill]

The delightful light-up buttons have another purpose: When the deck is being controlled from outside (via the "Remote" DB9 connector on the back), such as during editing operations, the lights would indicate what the deck was being told to do.

(I spent a summer working in a video studio at the tail end of the linear editing era, and we had Panasonic M-II and S-VHS editing decks being controlled from editing software on a Windows desktop; the array of blinkenlights on the decks during an edit run was mesmerizing).

[johncroll]

Former master control operator and engineer from the 1990s here – thanks for taking me back in time! We had Sony BVW-40s (Betacam but not SP) before we expanded to a couple more SP units. They were built to be serviced- they came with service manuals in big binders written in endearing Engrish. We also had extender boards, so one of those circuit boards could be pulled out, slide the extender in its place, then slide the board into it while bench servicing if the procedure called for it. They use special screws called Totsu which is sort of like a flathead but has a little tension finder on it so it could hold the screw without being magnetic. I used to run around with a clipboard to take down the hour meter readings as I cleaned the heads on a weekly basis so we could track our preventative maintenance schedule by replacing the brushes and slip rings on the head, heads, pinch rollers, etc etc….

If you ever wondered how commercials used to work in the 90s, we had a Sony Betacart. It’s a giant refrigerator sized thing, with four side loading Betacam players, and a vertical bank of 40 cassette holders, and (the best part) a robotic elevator that whisked up and down jockeying the tapes. The tapes were barcoded and the whole thing was managed by a central computer terminal with a floppy disk drive that predated HD diskettes, so we had a finite stash of DD disks. OK, you’re bored by now….

[razzledazzle]

I was a broadcast engineer in the 90's, and serviced many a Sony BetaCam VTR and camcorder.

To this day, I've never seen or worked on anything as electromechanically complex, yet elegant, as the Sony BVW-75 VTR!

Those dynamic tracking video heads were incredible, but replacing the upper rotating video drum assembly on them, was a day long job LOL!

Thank you for the stroll down memory lane :)

[TheBitGuy]

This was cool. I actually didn't know anything about how betacam worked. Funny story, when I was a kid, I used to record my Commodore 64 onto VHS and I could never understand why the quality looked so bad on playback. Because with regular TV recordings, which usually don't display small text and fine pixel arrangements, I simply couldn't tell that the quality was lower.

[Golinth]

I don't know how you do it, but you manage to make me watch a 40 minute video on something I never cared about once in my life, and you do it consistently. Never seen a channel keep up this quality before, its insane. I love your work man.

[Steets]

The level of snark in this one is a sight to behold. Thanks again for an awesome video, Alec!

[gleep]

I cannot imagine how much work this was for you, but seeing you seamlessly transition between current digital technology, and Betamax, VHS, and Betacam, really great work! Thank you so much for your work.

[FooneTuring]

That splitscreen of Betacam/Betamax could not have been easy to do as seamlessly as you did. Well done, I see the work that went into that!

[scott]

I love Alec's snark. It's part of his charm.

[mikkowilson]

Fun fact: One other use of Betacam (& UMatic) was to (by way of extra equipment) record audio to Betacam tape as a PCM digital audio signal, as a precursor to DAT, in the process of mastering early CDs ... With the digital audio sample rate of 44.1kHz (that we still use today) set in part by the constraints of recording onto video equipment.

So if you stumble across a Beta tape that won't play in a Betamax/2/3 or player ... it might just contain a WAV file!

[Vinemaple]

Thank you so much... this was an indie-documentary tour de force! I'd forgotten how relaxing and enjoyable it is to just sit and listen to you talk over my head about fantastically ingenious consumer engineering!

[dasrabaskus]

You're one of the few creators putting out almost hour long videos feeling like 15 minutes top, thank you :)

[AddieDirectsTV]

For the record.... We actually STILL use BetaSP in broadcast. A LOT of news archive video is on it (and UMATIC!). Plus, when we still ran master control locally (it's hubbed out now), we got a LOT of paid programs coming in on Beta. In fact, we JUST removed that Beta deck not that long ago, even though old Master Control has been out of use for about 4 years now.

[jesuitx]

As someone that used to work in the broadcast engineering space, it's wonderful to see this topic finally covered by someone like you!

[basicfacekick]

I love the format wars. You have groups of engineers pulling out all the stops to out-do their competitors and it ultimately brings more value to the consumers. Brilliant minds at work that aren't making weapons of war or having to solve some unsolvable societal problem... just answer the questions of can Dad can record his entire football game and can Nan record one of her stories while watching another.

[danielharvey]

As a pro video editor since the 90's I worked all the way from Betacam SP, M2, BetaSX and DigiBeta. Watching this was a joy. Nothing beats those buttons, the sounds of the transports and the fast winding. Many thanks for his video and great channel.