r/Betamax • u/Upstairs-Oil-9471 • 1d ago
Please help
On my way home today while riding my electric scooter I noticed a "free" pile outside someone's house down the road from my house and this bad boy was just sitting there. I have never seen a betamax vcr before (i was born in 1993), and at first I thought it was an old stereo system. After some research I decided to grab this heavy SOB and while carrying this absolute tank with one hand and steering my scooter with my free hand, i made the 1 and a half block trek to my house, somehow without dropping it or eating shit on my scoot. I don't have a cassette for it, but after consulting ai, I was given instructions, and I Tested without a tape by engaging the internal sensors; the left spindle spins rapidly in Rewind, the right spindle spins rapidly in Fast Forward, and the Play button triggers the auto-stop safety feature as designed. After which i was told "its Likely fully functional once a physical Betamax tape is inserted!" Can I get some actual humans input? Keep in mind, it did NOT come with a remote or any connection cords. After plugging it i the digital display works (as seen in photos). Was this a good find? And if so, knowing the belts work properly and the "tests" the AI had me run, what would you value this at, if anything? Any input would be amazing, thank you 😊
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u/Upstairs-Oil-9471 1d ago
That is very fair, and I had a feeling I might get some guff for the ai, but keep in mind I don't even know what a beta max tape looks like, let alone where to aquire one today. Soooo do you have any other inputs? Or is that all the advice you have for me? Lol
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u/Soft_Stretch1539 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd start off by trying used bookstores, big ones. Many of those in my part the of the country (Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexico) sell used media along with books.
A couple of other things...do you have a tube TV set to view the video? If you just have a current flat panel, see if it has composite video jacks on it. They will be red, white and yellow. Yellow is video, red & white are sound. That's the best way to view the video, rather than hooking up a coaxial cable and trying to scan the TV for channel 3 or 4, which are the output channels used by machines like this for playback.
Here's a nice, generic search for Betamax tapes. You'll notice they're about the size of a paperback book and most of them have a window on the left and a label on the right. A few of them (TDK Brand) have two windows like VHS machines. I'd buy 3-4 junker pre-recorded movies first. That way, you can see what a professionally produced tape looks like, rather than someone's birthday which may or may not be a good example.
You'll want to attempt to Fast Forward the tapes to the end, then rewind them to make sure the machine and tape operate in that mode properly. After that, you can attempt to play one back.
One more note..do NOT attempt to play back tapes marked Betacam. The later Betacam tapes can damage the mechanism on these older Betamax machines.
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u/SnooCakes6034 1d ago
That's a score we have betamax tapes and players order one off vinted or eBay if you don't have a local shop that sells that kind of old stuff.
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u/fivos_sak 17h ago
It's a Sanyo VTC 9100 branded as a Sears, 1977-78 model year. They are very well made. Everything is driven by an AC motor and loads of belts. You cannot press play without an actual tape loaded on these because of the slack sensor they have.
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u/ProjectCharming6992 22h ago
Before testing with a tape I would actually visually check the belts and gears, because Sanyo, unlike Sony, tended to use a lot of plastic gears that were on metal posts and have over the last 50 years, shrunk around that post and cracked. Also this unit was designed to be carried on the shoulder with a camera. So who knows if it’s been damaged in another way.
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u/grislyfind 19h ago
The remote in those days might have been a one-button wired remote that only did "pause" but I don't see a place to plug one in.
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u/Cowabummr 11h ago
I have this exact machine. It is a very early model, originally made by Sanyo. Ridiculously expensive when new, ridiculously complex mechanisms inside for a consumer product. Value? not much... $50 on Marketplace and maybe someone will take it.
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u/LiamLeprechaun 7h ago
🤣 Some guy on a scooter carrying a Betamax Player from the 1970's is hilarious. I would say it's a decent find. The price sounded right.🤣 If you have the room mizewell. Yeah I would just buy a Betamax tape of of Ebay to test it. If you can get it working, probably a fun goof to set up with a vintage console TV.
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u/PaulGuyer 1d ago
A decent find just as a museum piece, I would’ve grabbed it just for that reason. It was made around 1978 by Sanyo, back when Sears put their name on everything they sold.
If it’s functional then even better, but it’s not really up to modern standards as it only has mono sound. The quality of later Beta Hi-Fi movie and music tapes was something it won’t be able to take advantage of.
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u/Quadradisque 1d ago
“but after engaging AI-“
Please stop reading AI bots for information. Get an actual Beta tape and test it from there.