In the late 1970s there was a product that dominated consumer electronics. Not audio, or computers, but Video. People even wrote songs about it Not surprisingly this was the very first song played on MTV, back when the M stood for Music I recently read an article that said that in the mid 1980s 70% of Japans exports of consumer electronics were VCRs. With only three TV channels in the UK at the start of the 1980s, VCRs and Video Rental shops were very popular in the UK. 2.8 million homes in the UK (one in six households) had a VCR by 1981 despite the machines costing about a months average wages. Recently, after not having one for thirty years, I decided it was time to get another Betamax VCR (despite not having any tapes to play on it). The trigger was a comment on a forum that used Betamax tapes are far more likely to have 1980s programmes on them than VHS ones (which were still readily available ten years ago). Looking at what was readily available on Ebay I grabbed a Sony SL-F1, untested buy it now for £45. Since it didn't have the matching PSU I could believe in was untested. The reason I chose that machine was: I am only really interested in playback (although it will allow me to try a Sony Video camera I bought years ago). There is no point in having a built in timer and tuner when VCR tuners will only pick up Analogue TV that is no longer broadcast The machine could well be the smallest Betamax playback machine ever made The reels are direct drive. There is only one, easily accessible belt in the entire machine If it is good enough to be marked as a Sony landmark product https://www.sony.net/Fun/design/history/product/1980/sl-f1.html it is good enough for me It took a couple of weeks from getting it, to working out the connections and getting suitable parts to make a lead, but having done that I was pleased to get good playback from the one tape I have bought so far. So that is what has been occupying me for the last month. I know someone else here @autoreverser ? had a really old Sanyo recorder. Does anyone else have any old VCRs ? On the VHS front I have (somewhere) the Mitsubishi portable I paid $340 for back in 1984, a high end JVC SVHS machine under the TV hooked up to a capture card, and various spare machines elsewhere. Finally, and getting back to audio, the matching Sony PCM-F1 module allowed playback and recording of CD quality sound before the CD came out. I doubt if I will find one of those for £45 though.
i still got one of the my favourite movies ever as an original Beta, it‘s an italian classic comedy: Brancaleone da Norcia (part II) those are the movies where the Monty Pyton‘s guys got inspired to make Knights of the coconuts and Life of Brian...
Jabberwocky just came on Amazon Prime, I thought I'd never be able to see that movie again, it disappeared over the decades. I've got three+, I kept my original Sony Beta from around 1983, all metal construction, heavy and it probably still works fine. I also scored a Sony Professional VHS that I think was used in hospitals, it was way too nice to pass up. Then I have a full size Sony 8mm and one or two smaller 8mm units that came with the Sony Cameras. Someday I'll have a retro TV set up but the recorders are shrink-wrapped right now. I kept all of my old tapes from the 80's, mostly movies but some late-night TV shows, mostly music videos (USA Nightflight).
If you have half an hour to spare and are interested in European VCR take up this is where i got some of the figures from
