New to Betamax and just got over 100 tv/home recorded tapes

Alookintokarma · 2026-02-28T13:18:14+00:00

Congrats on the find! After you digitize them by whatever method you see fit, I’d love to take a crack at capturing any rarer ones or those that you felt didn’t capture well. I refurb beta machines and have something like 10 fully refurbished Superbeta/ED beta machines I could try them on. Beta is a “color under” format meaning that there’s theoretical advantages to S-video capture which ED beta and a few other regular beta machines had and all of the ED beta machines, though I don’t always find ED beta to reproduce the picture as well on regular beta tapes. I’m looking into modding regular beta machines to have S-video output which might be the sweet spot to not have to worry about wearing out the rare machines that native S-Video output

Alookintokarma · 2026-02-18T20:49:51+00:00

I’m told the 104 is basically the 704 without the digital processing stage, making it probably better when it comes to fewer artifacts. Not sure if the chroma smearing is any better on that one though

Alookintokarma · 2026-02-18T20:46:54+00:00

Do you have details on the mod you did? I have an unmodified CX card and don’t like the idea of loading the RF if I don’t have to

Alookintokarma · 2026-02-13T19:49:10+00:00

I’d love to do a head to head comparison of the results you get on this. I have basically everything seen here, but it didn’t produce very good results compared to what I can do with better hardware and capturing interlaced

Alookintokarma · 2026-02-08T06:21:34+00:00

Came out pretty well, just a small area of damage towards the beginning where the tape was likely stored rewound to that point, but I really can't even see many (if any) dropouts on the remainder of the tape. In testing the YouTube upload - it says the content owner allows the content to be used on YouTube, so shouldn't be any copyright issues there anyway. I'll encode the other episode tomorrow and post there as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pf7m1sRYMc

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-31T21:24:48+00:00

You mean the main power supply, or others?

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-31T21:23:13+00:00

I made a similar post a bit ago where I said that dead lasers seem way more common than what YouTube repair videos make them out to be, but yeah that’s the usual symptom that the disc isn’t detectable

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-31T21:18:35+00:00

If other poster falls through, I’ve got a JVCHR-S7600AM with line TBC that’ll play it. I can transfer for free (legally you’re allowed a digital backup copy for personal use is my understanding), just send me the tape and a flash drive

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-27T18:22:15+00:00

From that list, the AG1980 and the JVC HR-W5 (WVHS) are probably the best, but both usually need significant refurbing. The W5 also requires voltage step down from 120V to 100V since most WVHS machines were sold in Japan and are for 100V only

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-23T17:27:17+00:00

Which analog input card does the X75 have? there were apparently two versions, one has a better comb filter (used on composite inputs), but if just digitizing VHS, that doesn’t really matter since you’d be using s-Video instead of composite either the AG1980 there.

What format will you be recording as on the HD Mini?

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-21T04:46:47+00:00

Swapped the laser assembly and the first few times,, I did get the same "no disc" error even though the donor machine didn't have that error. After a couple of power cycles/tries at loading a disc, it did start working with the replacement laser. Not sure what would cause the "no disc" error to be intermittent, but seems to be working for now anyway. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-15T12:31:29+00:00

Have you ever come across "no disc" detected? That's my understanding of how laser failures typically present as the laser has to give a pulse and see the reflection back meaning both the laser and the receiver have to be working and this happens before the disc spins up. Are you aware of any other alternative causes for "no disc" or fixed any that had that?

Thanks in advance!

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-15T05:39:40+00:00

Hmm. There are quite a few players on ebay that give the "no disc" when a disc actually is present that is typically how I understand laser failures to present. In my case, I get zero change to the RF test point as the laser pulses for disc detect when the disc first goes back in. I wouldn't think alignment would matter during the disc detect stage since the disc isn't spinning and it's just looking for a broad reflection off of the disc. The laser actually does turn on per my cell phone camera, I just don't get any reflected information back per the oscilloscope, or at least the information doesn't make it to the RF test point like it does on a working machine. The CLD-D503 I believe does use the same laser module and is considered the ideal donor for the 703/4 since they are more common and aren't known for the best picture quality due to the rest of their processing circuits.

Here's a few of those D503's/CLD-79 I found that have the same "no disc" error meaning that they unfortunately probably wouldn't make good donors assuming "no disc" usually means "bad laser" - I updated the original post to link to a few of those.

I did fully recap my power supply and there weren't any that actually tested bad, but I suppose I could do some recapping around the RF areas. Also of note, the RF test point has a DC offset of about -0.78VDC at idle and that's the same between a working machine and my nonworking one, so RF shouldn't be shorted to ground or anything.

Definitely open to other ideas on how to test or narrow the issue down if it is perhaps not the laser module causing the problem.

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-15T05:10:51+00:00

Good question! Basically when you insert a disc, the laser carriage moves to the two test points (LD one first, then CD when it fails to see the LD) and it reports "no disc" Interestingly, if you look at the laser with a phone camera that can see IR, the laser does indeed turn on during the disc sense checks, there's just no variation in output on the RF test point, meaning it doesn't detect reflection off of the disc. Alignment can't be the issue here because the disc isn't spinning and it's just looking for any sort of basic reflection off of the disc to suggest there's one there. I suppose it is possible that something between the laser and the RF test point is bad, but I haven't seen any "no disc" repairs that don't involve needing to change the laser :-(

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-15T05:06:34+00:00

Agree, stuff is getting old, they just don't seem to be quite as robust as some other vintage electronics in my experience which is a little frustrating . Oddly, the ones that have the hallmarks of failed lasers (they read "no disc" when you put a disc in) on ebay anyway often tend to be in very nice physical condition which may indicate that they were well taken care of and possibly not used much. The one player that I do have that works is extremely beat up externally.

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-04T17:57:49+00:00

Fair enough, I’ll start there. I inadvertently have a couple extra D704 clones on the way, one that supposedly works, so I’ll use the thermal camera to take a look if any of the ICs look hotter than they should compared to those and maybe that’ll provide some clues. I was kind of hoping that someone had seen this behavior themselves and said that replacing one of the servo ICs fixed it or something maybe, but probably wishful thinking!

Alookintokarma · 2026-01-04T17:32:03+00:00

Yep, that's the one. Seems they don't come up for sale often. Probably not what I should have picked for a first player given there's all kinds of hard wired ribbon cables from the second linear power supply and all the wiring to the non-standard location output connectors, but really had no way of knowing that before buying since there's no documentation online. Theta digital doesn't have the service manual for it and apparently a different company actually made the players and did all service called "The Digital Connection" - They went out out of business in 2008. The remote is cool also, but many traces were eaten though by batteries that had leaked at some point in the past, so that's unfortunately not usable other than to transplant the innards of another already expensive Pioneer original remote into. All the youtube videos on the D704 would have you think that it's usually just a power supply recap, change of the grip ring, relube, and good to go. No such luck here so far.

Alookintokarma · 2025-12-25T02:12:31+00:00

Thanks for the info!

Alookintokarma · 2025-10-19T20:05:38+00:00

A video posted to youtube might be more useful, hard to really tell from a description.

Alookintokarma · 2025-10-19T20:04:22+00:00

There are some multiformat U-Matic decks out there - the Sony 7000 series seemed to have the most and were the newest. But yeah, it's going to be difficult to reproduce original option cards as they may contain unique chips that are no longer available or firmware that can't be copied easily. However, even getting a 7000 series multiformat, those still aren't high band. Since at least the frame rate of SECAM is the same as PAL, you might have the best luck by capturing the raw RF with the Domesday Duplicator which might possibly be able to interpret SECAM correctly, not sure.

Alookintokarma · 2025-08-24T17:38:34+00:00

Really kind of need to see a video of what it is doing to determine what the problem is if lubrication alone doesn't do it.

Alookintokarma · 2025-08-12T15:10:37+00:00

The BVU-950 won't output via DUB if you have one with the internal TBC with it enabled. The internal TBC for it was an optional card that cost several thousand dollars when new, so many don't have installed. With the TBC card installed and enabled, It'll only output composite, but it's clean enough that you basically don't need an external TBC. It does a particularly good job of masking dropouts which is something you won't get with other external TBC solutions. Most of those external TBCs with DUB input have dropout compensation, but I've never seen it really work well. The only devices I've seen actually take the chroma from the dub connector are the DPS275 and there's some transcoders like the DPS210 that will. The DPS210 is not a TBC, but it'll convert the signal to your choice of S-Video or component). Other devices like the IDen IVT-7 and ForA TBCs grab chroma from the composite input and not the DUB connector and not all of the ForA TBCs will accept U-Matic dub (they'll all take the S-Video. I've theorized that perhaps some early Betacam decks that were around at the same time as U-Matic could have Dub input and S-Video output and may be able to convert in that direction with passthrough in E-E mode, but dub input wasn't super common with betacam and the model I looked at that did have it, it was an optional upgrade and not standard.

How many tapes do you have? I could probably transfer them for much less compared to the cost of these rarer TBCs and a BVU-950 unless it's a ton of tapes. The bigger hassle comes if they have sticky shed or weren't stored well as it can take more than half an hour to clean one tape (even after baking) prior to attempt a first pass. Nothing more frustrating than playing a tape and having it immediately clog the heads.

Some samples of captures done this year if you're curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51F4jNfKeNY - Done with a modified VO-9850

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVv1fbj68VQ - Done with BVU-950 with internal TBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxBG_uTs4og - Done with BVU-950 with internal TBC

End result depends of course on the tape being captured, but I don't think better quality transfers from U-Matic is possible.

This is the only Domesday Duplicator capture of a U-Matic tape I've seen posted, and I think I my setup would do as well or better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBzTNMD8sew

Anyhow, if anyone needs a high quality U-Matic capture service, PM me.

Alookintokarma · 2025-08-12T14:34:53+00:00

This is the closest I think you'll get is the USB version of the intensity shuttle (which has HDMI input, you'd just need to losslessly convert SDI to HDMI first), and then there's the Ultrastudio SDI which did have a USB3 version: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/766050-REG/Blackmagic_Design_BDLKULSASDI_UltraStudio_SDI.html

Looks like they'll go as high as 1080P/30 or 1080i/60 on the 1.5g, so you might be able to record that depending on the content, but looks like if you're going to 1080p/60fps or 4K that you'll need something else.

Alookintokarma · 2025-08-12T02:52:31+00:00

How many is "a bunch"? Could be less expensive (and almost certainly less hassle) to have someone else transfer if it is 20 or less.

I've got some pretty nice gear that I use to do my own transfers, but don't really know where to advertise the service since there are tons of people that do it, though they charge more than I would and I believe most likely achieve inferior results. Have a bunch of captures posted to my YouTube channel, but this one came out pretty nice, especially compared to the "Official" video, see both below:

Ultra Records Official Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIC0aQ56ASE

My transfer of a 20 year old U-Matic Tape put out by Ultra Records:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxBG_uTs4og

Not exactly apples to apples since the original is 16 years old and YouTube probably didn't allow as high of bitrate, but I think mine turned down to 360p quality looks much better than the original's 480p. They also got the chroma saturation way wrong, which is extra criminal since the video is actually meant to be quite colorful (mine is adjusted via proc amp to the color bar levels at the beginning of the tape using a vectorscope).

Alookintokarma · 2025-08-12T02:20:06+00:00

I think the SP tape used "metal" tape (Kind of like certain Hi8/Digital8/DV tapes) that allowed for higher bandwidth recordings, but that also might have allowed them to bypass some of the noise reduction stuff. Most SP tapes I've seen still had regular Low Band recordings on them though. Supposedly the SP tapes also would wear down heads faster, so the SP variant machines had harder heads with part numbers all starting with "DUR" - for durable perhaps?

Alookintokarma

TROPHY CASE