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BETA player responses



Someone wrote:

"Roy, I was disappointed that your responses were not shared with
the list."

Oh, the pressure!  In my own defense, let me say it was only
yesterday and I have been hoppin' on all the other stuff I do.
Equipment budget requests, job descriptions/postings to compose,
digital projects group meetings, next week's staff meeting,
yaddayaddayadda, you all know the drill.  And I don't know from
which list, ARCHIVES-L or AMIA-L, the plaint came; so I'll cross-
post them again.  Sorry, all youse reg'lar archivists, to bore you
with machinery.  But that said, here you go, a compendium of the
responses, for which again, let me say thanks!  The first few are
background and types of players available; the last one is a good
idea for making cooperative arrangements with local TV stations.
Thanks again,


BETA PLAYER RESPONSES:

****************************************
there are machines that take both the tiny beta tapes and the big
ones.
the machine that I am fortunate to have here is a Sony
videocassette
player UVW-1200 RGB. it's an excellent machine with a
headphone jack and a
great remote for scrolling to exactly the frame you want. I highly
recommend this machine.



**************************************
  Beta and BetaSP are
usually the same thing, people just call BetaSP (or BSP) Beta for
short.
The term Beta encompasses a few formats though.  There are
Betamax (once a
rival for vhs), Betacam Oxide and Digital BetaSP.  Betamax isn't
really
used very much anymore and can only be played in a Betamax
deck (which are
very hard to find).  Betacam Oxide is still used (although BetaSP is
now
the standard) but it has only 2 channels of audio campared to
BetaSP that
can have 4.  They can be played in any standard BetaSP deck but
you can
only record to Betacam Oxide on a BVW75 or 70 (but since you're
just
playing back you won't need to worry about that).  Digital BetaSP
is a
high quality, digital version of the BetaSP and is also quite a bit
more
expensive. The larger the tape signifies length.  Once a BetaSP
tape is
over 30 min. it will be the larger size(60, 90 & 120min.).  30 min.
tapes
are usually smaller but you can also get large size 30 min. BetaSP
tape
stock. We use Sony machines here and the PVW2600 is a good
basic playback
machine that you can run both BetaSP and Betacam Oxide if
necessary.  It
also comes with a shuttle so you can travel and pause on specific
frames.
The UVW1200 is a simpler machine that doesn't have that shuttle
mechanism.
 I'm not sure if that machine plays Betacam Oxide either.  This
machine is
of course cheaper.  I think it lists for around $6,000.

*************************************

The domestic format from 1975 was called Betamax and after it
was beaten
commercially by the VHS format, around 1982, Sony reincarnated
the system
as Betacam. Betacam uses a higher coercivity [700-750 oe] oxide
tape
running about 2.5 times faster than Betamax at over 4 inches per
second to
record better quality component video in a more compact format
than the
portable U-matic or 1" composite formats used up until then.
Because of
the higher running speed, the standard [now called small] sized
tapes only
ran for about 30 minutes, so a large size was introduced for up to
90
minutes running time. Betacam SP uses a metal particle tape with
even
higher coercivity [around 1500oe] with increased luminance
bandwidth and
some smart chroma processing.

************************************
egard to your Betacam/Betacam SP question, there are several
routes to
go. First, a little history. Betacam (known as Betacam oxide) was
developed in the early 80's. Small cassettes, two channels of
audio. Audio
is non-Dolby. Betacam SP, developed around 1986, featured higher
quality
video, recorded on Metal tape, and featured an additional two
channels of
FM audio. Uses small or large cassettes. Usually Betacam SP
recordings use
Dolby noise reduction on channels one and two.

There are basically three models of Sony Betacam SP machines.
A Betacam SP
machine can play both oxide and metal tapes (Betacam and SP).
An older
Betacam only machine cannot playback Betacam SP tapes. The
three series of
machines are: BVW series PVW series UVW series. The BVW
series is the
standard workhorse that will play back any Betacam/Betacam SP
tape. All
audio channels, Dolby and non-Dolby tracks one and two, and the
FM tracks
3 and 4. They cost around $40,000 new, around $15, 000 used, for
the BVW
75 model. Play only models, such as the BVW 60 or 65 (I can't
remember
which) will cost less. If you get this series of models, you will be
covered in all aspects. The PVW series is not quite as rugged, and
will
not allow the playback of tracks 3 and 4 (the FM tracks). New,
around
$20,000, used, around $10,000. The UVW series is designed to
play back
only the SP tapes, although I have seen no problems with oxide
tapes.
However, there is no track 3 and 4 playback, and there is no way
to turn
off the Dolby noise reduction. Cost new around $9,000, used not
much less.
They are very popular machines as basically no one uses oxide,
non-SP
recordings. And the demand for reproduction of tracks 3 and 4 are
slim.

So, in an archive situation, to cover all possible situations, audio
tracks, oxide vs metal, and Dolby noise reduction situations, I
would
recommend looking into a BVW series machine, play only, or
record/play,
that is used and clean. I might suggest, that with the current
conversion
of many TV stations from Betacam to DV Pro, that you might find a
good,
clean machine that could be donated to your facility. Contact your
local
network affiliates, present your case, and I'll bet you will find a
willing donor.

****************************************************************

First, the format you are speaking of is formally known as Betacam
(the
old format which was a competitor to VHS was actually called
Betamax).

There is no difference between small format Betas and large format
Betas,
other than the amount of tape the cassette can hold (30 min.
maximum on
the small ones and ninety minutes on the large).   Of course, you
can buy
"large mouth" Beta players, which play both sizes of cassettes or
"small
mouth" machines which will only play small format cassettes and
are
presumably cheaper, though obviously less useful.  (The distance
between
the reel hubs is different on each size cassette, so a universal
machine
has to be able to adjust, depending on what size tape it "senses"
has been
inserted.)

There is a substantial difference between Beta and Beta SP,
largely having
to do with the way in which the chrominance information is
encoded.  The
result of which is more vibrant colors and somewhat less signal
loss when
dubbing from generation to generation.  This is accomplished by
the fact
that Beta SP is recorded onto something called "metal particle"
tape,
instead of regular "oxide" tape used in standard Beta recording.
Two
things to note here:  SP tapes are more expensive than oxide
tapes and SP
machines can record and playback both kinds of tapes, but regular
Betas
can only play and record on oxide tapes.

If I were you, I would acquire an SP machine.  It is the newer and
superior of the two technologies and is likely to stick around
longer.
Sony makes two lines of Betacam machines, I think, the BVW
professional
series and the UVW industrial models.

N.B.  Sony makes two other formats with "Beta" in their names:
"Digital
Betacam" and "Beta SX".  Digi-Beta is an entirely different beast
and is
much more expensive (very high quality).  Beta SX is a newer
technology,
which has some interesting qualities, but hasn't been widely
adopted.  It
is a compressed, digital format, but it backwards compatible with
Betacam
and Beta SP.  (Which is to say, SX recordings will only play back
on SX
machines, but SX machines will playback SX, SP and regular
Betas.  Good
for television stations like mine, with large libraries of file footage.
However, Sony is showing yet another new format that looks like it
is
positioned to supplant SX . . . .)


**********************************8

Stations are usually reluctant to donate equipment, but have you
tried
negotiating with them?  An agreement that we entered into when I
worked at
a public television station in Seattle (with a local museum) was that
we
(the station) would transfer the film for free, but would then be able
to
use the footage transferred for free in broadcast productions.  Profits
from the sale of home videos of those productions were divided
between the
station and the museum - I don't remember the percentage split.  It
was a
grand deal - local historic footage was preserved and shown to the
public.
 It was great for nostalgia programming - the "things that aren't there
anymore" type of shows.  The museum benefited, the station
benefited, and
it was a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say.

*****************************************

Thanks again very much to everyone who responded!

Roy ("I'll bet with my [inter]net / I can get those Things yet") Webb




Roy Webb, C.A.
Multimedia Archivist
Special Collections
J. Willard Marriott Library
295 South 1500 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah   84112
(801) 585-3073  //  fax (801) 585-3976
rwebb@library.utah.edu

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