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When Sony introduced the Betamovie it created a sensation. It was the first commercially available compact video recorder/camera combination. Before it was offered to the world marketplace, in was introduced first in Japan. Several months prior to its Japanese release Sony promoted it's new innovation with advertising, and a promotional contest that offered a prize to anyone who could figure out how they did it. Where was the tape going inside the body of the case? How could it match the larger tape path? How did they make it compatible? The answer was an innovative design than utilized a video drum one half the normal size and having a single dual-azimuth video head. The single head was switched twice to record a single frame of picture information. Everything was scaled down too, except the cassette and the tape. An examination of the photo above is helpful in seeing the various size relationships of the components. How popular was the Betamovie? Sony (the sole manufacturer) couldn't make them fast enough to meet the demand. The Betamovie had one drawback though, it would not play back. To see what you had recorded you had to either already own a Beta unit or go buy one. A good deal for Beta and a good deal for Sony, but ultimately seen as a negative by the general public. As time went by the novelty wore off and sales began to fall, just at the time when the machines were really getting good. Does this sound familiar or what? From the technical standpoint, Sony didn't make any friends among repair technicians either. To adjust these units requires a lot of skill and patience. They were small and you had to be a watchmaker to take them apart. (Although looking back they are large compared to the tiny camcorders being made today.) Doing a path alignment or testing demands that the unit be altered electronically so it will play back. A special piece of test equipment is also needed to access the necessary signals needed. What ultimately happened was Sony, along with selected approved centers, ended up being about the only people that would tackle these machines. They were expensive to purchase and if something went wrong, equally expensive to get repaired. The technology was a great, but it came with an aggravating downside. Click on the picture and you will see a page from the service manual on setting up the Betamovie for a tape path alignment. Click again and there is a picture of the converter that allowed the technician to access the signals for service. Click again and you see the manual showing the connections. Click again for another view. Click again and here are shown some diagrams illustrating the abbreviated tape path that the new design employed, along with some information about what appears on the scope during adjustment. If you've been through the "BETA REFURBISHING" section, this last page should look familiar. We are talking Beta here, after all. So that is an overview of what went on when you shared a few tender moments with a Betamovie in need of some TLC. I no longer repair the Betamovie because of capacitor leakage destroying the imager (seen as a cloudy video when viewing after recording). |