In 1975 over 100,000 Sony home video cassette recorders were sold in the USA. That was the year the video recording revolution officially began. As you already know from the previous panel (titled: "The First Home unit") it wasn't the first attempt to put video cassette recorders in the hands of the public. Although the LV01901A combination TV was large and costly (about the price of a small car) its popularity proved that consumers were eager to break the shackles of network programming and control their own time schedule.
Shortly after the LV-1900A came the SL-7200A stand alone cassette deck seen in the above photo (PLATE 1). It too, was expensive (and bulky) but it gave anyone with enough money, desire and a television the opportunity to time shift network broadcast television programming. Soon other companies joined in by licensing the Beta format and seemed like it was going to be another winner in the long line of successes from Sony. The rest, as they say, is history. Sony eventually lost its market domination to VHS but over the years they released many great models. Each one was better or unique in some way. All this was to entice the public into ownership of theis new and fabulous Beta format. What we are going to look at now is the line up from Sony that did battle with VHS in the marketplace. Click on the picture. (PLATE 2)
Sony was the major player in the Beta vs VHS battle and I that is why I feature them. Even thought the other Betamakers (NEC, Sanyo, Toshiba and Aiwa) put lots of Beta machine in the hands of the public, it was Sony that continued to introduce the major upgrades to the format. In the picture above we see the first three designs. Each one was introduced to meet a specific need or challenge presented by the competing format. In the middle is the SL-7200A, the first stand alone home unit. In the upper right is the SL-8200 which offered a new slower speed making it possible to record up to three hours using the new  mode. By this time the recording time war had begun. It still couldn't match the four hours of VHS but Beta cassettes at this time were more available, cheaper, smaller and handier than the competition. Plus a changer was now available that could allow you to record up to six hours straight, if you wanted. The model in the upper left is the SL-8600, the first unit with a digital clock/timer. It is also the first and only single speed home unit from Sony. It turned out to be a marketing error, but an understandable one. They wanted to offer a model that went head to head on price with VHS and the single speed SL-8600 was inexpensive. But Beta lovers were upset! What happened to their  speed? Many still had tapes recorded in and this unit didn't record or play the faster (and many thought better) speed. They felt locked out and betrayed. But Sony learned a valuable lesson with this unit and that was: don't step on the toes of your faithful followers. After the SL-8600 fiasco almost every Sony Betamax would play back the speed. Click the picture (PLATE 3). Here we have the next design change from Sony, the first units to record the slower  speed and to offer some neat new features. Like Betascan, clear picture pause and slow motion. Now you could record up to five hours using a new L-830 cassette. By using an innovative changer (AG-300) these units could go up to twenty hours unassisted. But it wasn't enough. The larger, ugly VHS cassette could do six hours per session, and that stuck in the minds of the public. The SL-5400 above was released first. This unit had Betascan in forward and reverse, something VHS couldn't do at this time. Score one for Beta. Next came the SL-5600, which could record more timer events than its predecessor and was slightly more costly. (Now with a changer you could record more events on each cassette.) Last was the last full featured model with this case design, the SL-5800. It has added features like variable speed scan and clear pause with step motion. The SL-3000 in the lower right is the first Beta portable unit. It only recorded in one speed, but it would play back and . Why no ? Sony reasoned that for quality sake and for added stability was the best speed for a portable. Plus it would have added weight and this unit was already more than most people wanted to carry around for very long. It was basically a spin off of a professional unit that Sony had already been offering to broadcasters, the SLO-340 (shown later when we explore "The Professional Betamax"). The SL-3000 also had a tuner/timer unit that separated from the recorder and turned it into a home recorder, an innovation soon copied by VHS. Click to the next photo (PLATE 4) and it shows the next big change in Betamax, the front loaders. Gone was the press down tray located on top of the recorder. Now you could stack things on top or place the VCR in a rack because the cassette went into an opening in the front. Technically stacking things on top was a bad idea but being able to put the units into a home entertainment center (also marketed by Sony) was a good thing. These SL-5000 series units proved to be very popular and five design variations were offered. You could tell Sony was ready to do battle with VHS because these units were built like a tank. Note that the SL-5000 series Betas started after the SL-5400, 5600 and 5800. The numbering was for reasons known only to Sony. Click on the picture (PLATE 5) and here we see the next major improvement in Beta. Now the cassette slot has moved to the left where it would remain from now on, but the biggest change was inside. A new transport mechanism was introduced called the 711B. The tape path components were moved around and reduced in size. This allowed for slimmer, more compact and lighter weight units. These new Betas were marketed as the E-Z (as in easy) Betas with the idea was that anyone could used these smaller compact machines to record their favorite sports programs or soap operas. Their footprint was smaller, the units were bolder and their operation was superb. And they were simple to use. (Evidently someone thought that video recording was just too complicated for the average user.) These Betas had big buttons, large easy to read displays and were very simple to program. By now Sony and the other Beta manufacturers were in a bloody war with VHS. Innovation and ease of use were major factors in winning over customers. All of these units recorded in and , and played back in . Click the picture (PLATE 6) and here are more additions to the slim line Betamaxes. By now customers had many models to choose from. There were simulated wood grain cabinets, different colors and various button configurations. All the time Sony was pushing the superior picture quality of the format, recording time was no longer used as a selling point. Changers were not available for these models but they didn't totally disappear as we will find out as we go on. But there was something new in the works, the best was yet to come.
Click the picture and the first Betahi-fi stereo units are shown (PLATE 7).
The first one to come out was the SL-5200. The larger, older cabinet design was the only one large enough to accommodate the first generation of FM stereo electronics. Betahi-fi featured true high fidelity stereo with qualities unmatched by almost any other audio recording format, video or not. Many people bought these just to record music. There was no wow and no flutter, the audio coming out almost matched perfectly with what was going in. Up to now this was unheard of in any kind of a recorder. Sony did this by inventing a way to insert the stereo inside the picture signal. Effectively generating a writing speed for the audio of over 23 feet per second. Only digital audio could come close. Surely VHS could never match this. Beta finally had a competition killing quality they simply could not match, and never did. Their drum was too small and the smaller recording span wouldn't allow inserting the necessary FM carrier information into the signal. Instead they did something inferior called imbedding. They added two more heads to their drum to lay down the stereo audio first and then record the video signal over it. This method worked because the audio signal was different from the video. But it was tricky. The stereo would begin to disappear after a number of playbacks. That is why all hi-fi VHS recorders also had linear stereo tracks as a back up. Fitting the stereo processor in the newer E-Z Beta slimmer cabinets wasn't possible early on so a new size cabinet was adopted that was slightly larger. These were the SL-2700 and SL-2710 Betahi-fihi-fi stereo was a technological triumph. Only studio recorders could rival the technical quality and frequency response that these units could produce. Because Beta required more electronics this feature was reserved for the higher end models that also cost more. Both of these units would accept a changer (AG-500). There were some later units that could be adapted to Hi-Fi by adding a decoder. We will discuss those a shortly. So as it turned out that the masses didn't really care about better technology, greater picture performance or sound quality. They wanted what every one else way buying. They wanted cheaper VCRs with a longer recording time. This was something that Sony and Beta wasn't very good for. So Beta had to focus on a different market. The one they had always appealed to, the quality conscience, constantly curious and feature aware minority. The pro-sumer. It had worked for them in the past with televisions, audio and professional gear. This forward thinking group became the feeding ground for Beta. It spawned a new population category, they become known as Betaphiles. Unfortunately video recorders eventually became a commodity item like record players or radios. Video went viral. Click the picture. (PLATE 8)
These are the neat little Sony portables that complimented the E-Z Beta cabinet size. They also separated from their base unit, the tuner/timer, to go on the road. The portables were light, fully featured, played all three speeds and recorded in and . When attached to their base they became a fully fledged home recorder. Other Beta manufacturers followed suit and portables were everywhere. But they were soon to be made almost obsolete because, once again, something new was on the horizon (more on that later). Click the picture (PLATE 9) and look at the nice line up of cameras that were introduced to go with the portable recorders. These worked with Beta portables other than Sony as long as it would accept their proprietary K-type cable connector. (Sony ran a tight ship.) They would even work with the older SL-3000 portable (pretty clever). Some of Sony's home units had a K-type connector and the camera would operate the VCR for indoor recording. Sony tried hard to build a system that, if you went with Beta, you had lots of options to spend your money on. There was also no shortage of accessories to purchase for enhancing your Beta recording experience. Along those lines lets click on the picture
(PLATE 10) and examine a couple of total deviations from the familiar Beta. I will discuss these now because one is anything but portable and the other is a projection television system. These are two of the most unique models of Betamax. On the left is the original LV-1901A console we've already discussed. It was the first and one of a kind to never be replicated in any form. No TV/VCR combo units came after it. The other one is an interesting projection unit that had a Betamax VCR built-in. (I sell the FP-60 in my "Betas For Purchase" section.) It was made for theater presentations, seminars, sales meetings and for fun. The cabinet color suggests it was considered a member of the professional Beta group, and it was priced like it. Two models were made, one (the FP-62) didn't have the recorder built in. It was just the projector. While we on unique how about we slip into the realm of novelty. Click to the next picture and see the three talking Betamaxes. (PLATE 11)By the way by now it is becoming difficult to keep these models in a particular order. The were innovations, specialty units and ones that offered unique opportunities and features. If you want to see the Betas in chronological order click here to see the Beta timeline.
Here is another unconventional idea from Sony. The reasoning might have gone something like this, lets have the VCR actually speak and tell you if the clock isn't set, a cassette is inside or the timer is set wrong (plus a host of other helpful hints). Not only show you in the display as before but actually tell you in a synthesized voice (that you can also turn off). Kind of like a faithful pooch or a valet to help you through the steps of operation and set up for your VCR. These three units did just that. They were not hi-fi stereo but another distinctive addition to the already popular slim line Betas. However, the extraordinary concept didn't prove popular enough to continue on into future models. These units would accept a changer (AG-500). Click the photo again (PLATE 12) and here's an idea that proved to be very popular, the Betahi-fi ready Betas.
Betahi-fi stereo was a great shot in the arm for the Beta format. All the trade publication gave it high praise and recommended it highly for those that considered good sound was as important as a good quality picture. The only drawback was the added necessary electronics made the stereo units slightly higher in price than the monaural Betas. So Sony came up with a way for customers to purchase a monaural Betamax then add stereo later. These VCRs had a special plug in the back so that a proprietary hi-fi decoder could be added later. Once installed these monaural Betas became full fledged Betahi-fi stereo VCRs. Five different models were made each with varying degrees of features. There was even a SuperBeta unit (more on SuperBeta in a moment). Click on the picture (PLATE 13) and here are the two adapter models made for the hi-fi ready VCRs. One was made before broadcast stereo was released (HFP-100) and one for after (HFP-200). Click to the next picture (PLATE 14) shows the first SL-HF series of Betamaxes. The stereo units before these were simply designated as SL-XXXX Betas but now Sony decided with these new models (and all that followed) would have the SL-HF prefix. The "HF"now now was the official designation for all consumer stereo units. These first four each took a step up in features as their numbers following the SL-HF went higher. A general rule now for Sony models but not to be completely trusted, as you will later see. None of the units up until now could receive off-the-air stereo broadcasts (Called MTS). Sony began making Betahi-fi stereo VCRs before a broadcast standard had been adapted in the USA. Two of the above came out late enough to feature MTS stereo, these were the SL-HF400 and SL-HF600. The SL-HF300 and SL-HF500 above did not. Told you that you couldn't trust those numbers. The reason for this was they didn't come out at the same time. So what if you wanted to receive stereo and already had a SL-HF300 or SL-HF500? Sony thought of that too. A MPX plug had been added to their units as far back as the SL-5200, the first Betahi-fi. By using this plug and a decoder from Sony (and others) you could also turn these units into stereo broadcast receivers. Pretty nice of Sony and pretty nifty. There is something else pretty sweet in this picture. The first SuperBetahi-fi VCR, the SL-HF600. Ah… SuperBeta! By bumping up the luminance signal Sony improved the already superior picture of Beta. It also helped that video tape had improved over the years so that a higher frequency signal could recorded. VHS did counter with HQ models but they never quite matched SuperBeta. They had slightly better electronics but the signal wasn't much improved. It was just a way to counter SuperBeta. Something else happen around this time that was pretty dramatic. Sony shook the world by introducing the first camcorder.
Click the picture (PLATE 15) and we see another clever innovation from the Beta camp. Betamovie, the worlds first camcorder (camera and recorder combined in one unit). They accomplished this by using a video drum that was half the size of conventional Beta with one dual azimuth recording video head. They were compact, lightweight and completely compatible with the home units and Sony couldn't make them fast enough to meet demands. Five units were made over several years. The first two (with lower numbers) had a pick up tube and later ones sported a solid state CCD imager. As you would expect the first ones recorded standard Beta, later ones SuperBeta. All recorded in the single speed of except the last one, the BMC-1000 Pro. It was and had an even higher quality picture due to a new picture improvement called Hi-Band. It was still backward compatible but was the Crème de la Crème for die hard Betaphiles. Click the picture again (PLATE 16) and here we have the second installment of SL-HF units. Now the numbers get really confusing and the features variations can't be relied on. Generally the higher numbers meant more features. All were SuperBetahi-fi and all received stereo broadcasts.
The next picture is of the multi-standard units (PLATE 17). These were pretty special and just illustrates how far Sony went to appeal to every segment of the world market. They sold Betamaxes all over the planet so in addition to the PAL and SECAM broadcast units sold in other countries Sony also made units that played and recorded multiple TV standards. Some of these are models are shown here. Multi-format simply means that these VCRs could go from one country to another, one broadcast standard to another and record and play several formats. Great for travelers, people in the military or multi-resident homeowners. Click the picture (PLATE 18) and here are some interesting specialty Betas that were made for another niche market. These models only played back… as in no recording mode. Introduced for use in presentations, rental or display situations these models are quite rare and unusual. Several had no pause, still or scan. They were super cheap and simple. The next photo (PLATE 19) shows the other end of the spectrum. These are some top-of-the line models that became legend among Beta supporters. Full featured and sporting effects that were unmatched in consumer video recording. Click the picture again (PLATE 20) and we see the opposite. Here are the budget recorders. Made near the end of Beta manufacture these low end units were made to compete with the cheap VHS models. In the next photo (PLATE 21) are more low end SuperBeta models. Click the picture again (PLATE 22) and these are the SL-S series of units that were sold in countries around the world that used the same NTSC broadcast standard as the USA. These were also some of the last Betamaxes made. Click (PLATE 23) and here are the first digital Betas that used special electronics to stored video and produced unique effects like flash motion, mosaic, PIP, etc. Kind of a novelty at the time but the digital technology would find its way into future Betas. That takes us to the next picture (PLATE 24).
Here are the Extended Definition Betas. ED Beta was the last major upgrade to the Beta format. Up to this point every recording made on a betamax had been backward compatible but ED Beta is different. The luminance is so high on these that metal formulated tape is needed to successfully record it. ED tapes will not play in a regular Beta VCR. But the ED Betas units will record and play standard and SuperBeta tapes in stereo and monaural. They were backward compatible as long as you didn't try ED Beta recordings in your regular Beta. So just how much the improved is the picture of ED Beta? It is Incredible! Over 500 lines of resolution, better than the NTSC USA standard television broadcast picture. ED Beta was the highest quality most featured Beta format VCRs Sony ever made. The next photo (PLATE 25) are of the last special feature Betas made. Some were made before ED Beta and several made afterwards. What you see here are the last of their kind as noted in the picture. The model SL-HF2100 was the pinnacle of SuperBetahi-fi. It was the 15th anniversary buttonless Betamax, unlike any other before or after it. The SL-HFT7 was a model intended for consumers that wanted a VCR with its own stereo amplifiers built in, just add speakers (optional from Sony but others can be used). It also feature digital audio enhancement for creating a concert hall effect or simulated stereo. The last two SuperBeta only units made are shown here, the SL-700 and again the SL-S600. The next photo (PLATE 26) shows some Beta devices that were never made. The things of legend that occasionally popup in forums and on search engines. Shown are just some configurations that Sony or no other manufacturer made, but could have. Kind of just imagineering. Click the photo one more time (PLATE 27) and this last photo in this chapter is the (never made) adapter that many people would have liked to of had made but was not to be. The Beta to VHS adapter, it would have been a technological nightmare and just was not feasible. Looks good though. That covers the life span of Beta, a wonderful passion with a very unpleasant ending. What a saga! Could anyone have imagined such an outcome considering the world changing innovation recording video would become. Hollywood should do a movie or PBS a docudrama. But id digress. In the section that comes next we look at how Beta dominated the professional world of video recording. Another success story with a happier ending. In this arena there was never any doubt who was the clear winner. Bet you know who it was. To got to the next panel "The Pro Betamax" click here.
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