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10th Nov 2015, 12:39 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: LEEDS.......North of the River Aire.
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Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
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10th Nov 2015, 12:49 pm | #2 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
I'm just surprised they didn't stop them years ago.
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10th Nov 2015, 12:58 pm | #3 |
Moderator
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Location: Oxford, UK
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
We tend to think of Betamax as a format which died in the 80s, but it survived throughout the analogue era in professional use as Betacam and until after that as Digibeta.
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10th Nov 2015, 4:08 pm | #4 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
Ah ok. Thanks for that Paul.
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Life's a long song, but the tune ends too soon for us all. |
10th Nov 2015, 4:59 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
Just read on Yahoo no more Sony Beta tapes after March 2016.
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10th Nov 2015, 5:40 pm | #6 | |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
Quote:
A. |
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10th Nov 2015, 5:57 pm | #7 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
The early pro recorders used U-matic decks for storage but Sony marketed a semipro model a bit later which used Betamax. That was the PCM-1 I think.
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10th Nov 2015, 6:39 pm | #8 |
Octode
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 1,906
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
There is a particarly "well written" piece on the Daily Mail website which attributes the success of VHS to porn. One reader comments that "Betamax tapes were made of asbestos"...
Seriously though, I do wish things like this were reported accurately and not treated as a cobbled together series of factoids. |
10th Nov 2015, 7:55 pm | #9 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
While not wanting to defend the DM’s journalism, it's true that VHS took off partly because the format dominated the video rental market, which was a huge driver in the mid 80s. Porn was a small but significant part of that.
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10th Nov 2015, 9:37 pm | #10 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,637
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
I believe the fact that Thorn were prominent in both the VCR and the rental markets helped.
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10th Nov 2015, 11:25 pm | #11 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kington, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 3,657
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
Quote:
The machines which used Betamax used the EIAJ pseudo-video format, which was simpler to implement but always gave an error on drop-in edits because words went across frame boundaries. The first machines were the PCM-1 and PCM-100, both 525/60. both big and bulky. The real breakthrough came with the PCM-F1, which was in the same size package as the SL-F1 portable Betamax. This was an excellent bit of kit, which revolutionised professional audio capture overnight, even if editing had to remain analogue for a few years...unless you had access to the Sony pro kit. This was followed by mains versions, the PCM 701/501/601. |
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11th Nov 2015, 8:55 pm | #12 |
Pentode
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Wirral, Merseyside, UK.
Posts: 118
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The last betamax tape
Here is a interesting article the last Betamax tape will roll off the production line in March 2016 – 40 years after the format was introduced
http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/10/betama...#ixzz3rDMq2eym |
11th Nov 2015, 9:29 pm | #13 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: San Martino di Lupari, Veneto, Italy.
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Re: The last betamax tape
The last and only L-500.
Libra |
12th Nov 2015, 10:57 am | #14 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
I was reading the Independent in the pub yesterday, and in their article, one of the reasons cited for Betamax being beaten by VHS as far as consumer VCRs were concerned was that the former had a maximum recording time of an hour
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12th Nov 2015, 11:22 am | #15 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 708
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
If you worked in a widget factory and you made a badly fitting widget you would get a severe reprimand, maybe even pay docked or fired- if you worked in a hospital the consequences of mistakes are obviously dire- yet as a journalist you can continue to be highly paid for writing badly researched nonsense and spending the afternoon down the pub...the sub editor must be just as thick as well?
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12th Nov 2015, 11:51 am | #16 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
...and presumably not old enough to remember video cassettes.
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12th Nov 2015, 4:31 pm | #17 |
Octode
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 1,349
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
I feel pretty sure the BBC article has been silently altered since first appearing. It specifically mentioned 3hr vs 1hr and I don't see that now.
When I first saw that error on the morning the article appeared I sent a tweet to BBC Technology pointing out they had an L750 (3Hr 15Min) cassette in the picture. Other parts of the article seem a little different too. |
12th Nov 2015, 10:23 pm | #18 |
Hexode
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 497
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
When Betamax first started in NTSC countries the max recording with an L500 was indeed an hour. Later they halved the speed and introduced the L750 giving 3 hours (NTSC) and 3 hours, 15 minutes (PAL and SECAM).
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13th Nov 2015, 9:48 pm | #19 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Hull, East Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 2,083
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
I thought the earthquake and floods in Japan back in 2011 had damaged a tape making plant, which they weren't going to rebuild (because the format was almost obsolete).
I wonder whether that was a Sony plant & for what format. |
13th Nov 2015, 10:43 pm | #20 | |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
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Re: Sony says goodbye to Betamax tapes.
Quote:
It may be even worse than that - the initial press release may have been picked up by an agency like the Press Association, and one of their staffers may have written the original story, which has then been rehashed by lots of news outlets. This sort of thing has always gone on, but financial pressures mean that it's now completely routine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churnalism |
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