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Here is where the real final testing takes place, the end user. This is where a refurbished Beta is put to its toughest test. If it can produce a nice picture on the new owners TV monitor, then all is good. Beta VCRs produce stellar results when viewed in their intended environment. That is; recording and playing the NTSC 3.58 American standard broadcast signal using a television designed for this standard. But things have changed. Today we are using a digital broadcast method that greatly improves our viewing experience. HDTV with it's 16x9 picture format and 1000+ lines of resolution makes Betamax almost look quaint. For the record Beta was designed to be the best during its time. Back then it was 550 lines of analog signal with a 4x3 picture format. The two systems are totally different. The most noticeable thing when paying Beta tapes using an HDTV is that it is framed like the picture above. The old american standard does not fill out the screen. Also the picture isn't as sharp as HDTV. That is because 550 lines can't fill out 1000 lines. Or can it? There are a number of devices that claim they can temporarily store, digitize and then fill in the analog picture with matching content. The result is a picture that has twice the lines for more of detail compared to the original recording. These are called line-doublers, interlace samplers or time-base correctors. There are problems with all these schemes that shows up when new lines get produced from bogus signal artifacts. Any picture flaw, tape wrinkle, tracking error or color noise stands out like a sore thumb. But these devices are getting smarter. They are starting to read the TV content and then disregard anything that doesn't match, such as a dropout or missing line. They aren't perfect and results don't always match the claims. Someday when they really get smart they will colorize a B&W picture. Now the bad news. HDTVs can be very inconsistent when it comes to playing an analog signal coming from a VCR. You plug your Betamax into the composite inputs (yellow/white/red) and the monitor might not see your VCR. It helps if the tracking is perfect or the inputs are more forgiving than others. If it does play through with a good, solid picture it can still do other funky things. It might go black when you scan your tapes or break the picture up into segments. It might have a hard time recovering after a scan, pause might be shaky. If you are purchasing an HDTV with the intent to play your Beta VCR using it, you need to check out its performance when handling analog TV. HDTV manufacturers include the composite input but they don't seem to convert the analog to digital using a very smart interpreting program. Some monitors just have a hard time displaying video recordings. It might get better in the future but customers have emailed me with complaints and some had to go back to their tube type analog TV monitor when viewing their tapes. Click on the picture. Every refurbished Beta that I offer for purchase comes with a test recording cassette. It is recorded by the VCR as a testament to its ability to faithfully record and reproduce during playback the NTSC color bar pattern. Each speed is tested along with the Betahi-fi stereo, if the model has this capability. A test recording is also included with every reconditioning and repair. It is the final test done before any Beta VCR leaves my possession.
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