Cleveland’s Ray Glasser, who maintains the Ultimate Betamax Information Guide, is a hardcore collector of Betamax equipment and tape recordings. He recently joined YouTube and posted his introductory video explaining how he first became obsessed with the Betamax format in 1975, which he then used to start recording television for over 25 years. He has over 2500 Betamax tapes of TV recordings.
One of the gems in Ray’s collection is the amazing 1975 “The Flying Clouds” promotional video for the very first Sony Betamax.
This is a promotional video, named “The Flying Clouds”, for the very first Sony Betamax, the LV1901D Betamax/Console TV combination. The unit was released in late 1975 with an MSRP of $2495, and included a 1-hour Betamax VCR and a 19” Sony Trinitron TV. A copy of this video was given away with each unit!
via » TV in Japan
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s a proper enthusiast. All those beta tapes I never got round to transferring. Used Beta decks that work carry a heavy price on eBay.
We had one of the very early Betas, built like a tank (& looked like one too) and one more Sony after that. They both lasted for years until they finally met the great head wear angel in the sky.
Most of the videos I made in college are on beta. I’ve been meaning to try to find a way to digitize them (though I’m not even sure what condition they are in since I haven’t played them since the late 80s).
My parents bought an early home beta machine that came in two pieces. One a tuner, essentially, and the other a recorder. The tuner you hooked to the TV and the recorder you could hook to the tuner to tape TV shows or sling over your shoulder and attach to optional camera to tape those special moments that only 100 lbs of equipment could capture.
I bought my first Beta vcr back in September 1984.It was a Sanyo Betacord with a wired remote control.Even then,people were AGAINST me buying one & suggested VHS instead.I eventually bought my 1st VHS vcr in February 1987.I acquired my grandfathers 1983 Sony Betamax when he sadly passed away.Like others,I plan to transfer my beta stuff to Dvd as well.My sanyo is currently lent to a friend who was transferring some Beta stuff to dvd for me.The sony was out of commission for a while.I recently had it repaired-the tapes were ejecting & weren’t staying in!Less than a week later & spending $100.00 for the repair-it’s doing the SAME thing!!!!! Luckily it has a 30 day warranty on it & the reapir shop is nearby.
MANY of my old beta tapes had white static lines periodically thru them.Most haven’t been played for a long time.I’ve been recording since then.My 1st recordings were from the summer of 1983.
Ray,
You’re one cool dude!
Watching your “Keeping Betamax Alive†video sure brought back sweet memories.
I just did some spring cleaning and found a HUGE BOX of SuperBeta HiFi tapes that I recorded from 1985 to 1995. Some of these are VERY RARE recordings of rock concerts that have never been in print on any home video format, just aired on television.
Example – the Rolling Stones concert on FOX
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DA123AF933A05756C0A966958260
I thought these tapes were lost forever so you can imagine how happy I am.
My tapes are all protected in the pro plastic cases, each and every beta tape I own.
I have been a fan of the superior BETA format and these tapes were recorded on my SLHF400 SUPER BETA HIFI machine that I purchased brand new in 1985.
That machine is gone now. I will need to transfer these tapes over but I need a S-BETA-HF deck.
Thanks for all the info and advise Ray.
Thank you for sharing this page and inspiring the rest of us beta-heads.
Ivan
To Scott Beale: thanks for all the notes and videos on this page about my and my Beta involvement, really appreciate it!! However, can you update some things? My YouTube “videoholic2007″ account was suspended in late 2007, so all the YouTube links on this page will not work. The same videos are still on YouTube, but under my new account as “videoholic2008″. I have a second account as “videohollic2008″ (note the two L’s) as well. Also, the betainfoguide.com site is down permanently, as I can’t fund the expense for it anymroe. But…the Beta site still lives on my Geocities account, under http://www.geociites.com/videoholic2000/index.html – all the pages are still there. Please acknowledge receiving this note, I’d appreciate it!! Thanks, Ray Glasser
Thanks Ray, I’ve updated the links.
Scott, please update my YouTube link – the Intro video – to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uSZ9mK85FQ
They took down my latest two accounts, which is why you can't play the video. I now have it on my “videoholicreturns” account, which has ONLY camera-original videos, so I don't think YouTube will ever suspend it.
Also – gotta clear up one point – I NEVER collected on VHS. I still save TV shows on Beta, and movies on DVD!
Thanks,
Ray 8-23-08
Ok, I've switched out the embed for the new one.
Regarding the reference to VHS, I that would have come from one of the original resources I used to write this post. I went ahead an removed it.