Posted by Bill on 10/24/06 02:25

>> That immediate gratification remark refers to the fact that my Betamax
>> tapes deteriorated greatly over the years, while my VHS tapes, dating back
>> 26 years now, are still in fine shape. Unrelated to the current DVD scene,
>> I know, but typical of my experiences with Sony.

This makes me wonder about your Beta deck and its condition at the time
of recording. I have a stack of Beta cassettes, recorded on a Sony
SL-2710 Beta deck, dating back to 1984, recorded in both the Beta II and
Beta III mode. Every tape still plays back beautifully on that same
deck...I just pulled out and watched a program from one of those tapes
last week. I stuck mostly with Maxell blanks at the time, though all of
my tapes have held up beautifully...but Maxell became a favorite, as
even their standard Beta L-750 tape showed visibly less noise than
standard Sony or Fuji blanks did at the time, especially in the Beta III
mode.

The only tape that I have a problem with was the first Sony L-750
cassette that had been purchased--and it wasn't the cassette that was
the issue, it was the deck...a horribly calibrated Sanyo model, their
first Beta Hi-Fi machine. The few programs that I recorded with it play
back with horrible periodic mistracking on the Sony deck...and they
didn't look that good when played back on the Sanyo deck either, back in
1984, which is why I packed it up and returned it to Circuit City for a
refund after only a couple of days.

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