PLAYER ONLY UNITS
Why make models that would only play tapes and not record? To give the rental trade a way to rent Beta movies to folks that didn't own a VCR. They wanted to watch movies plus they get a chance to try out the Beta format. Maybe a movie was only available in Beta. That explains the VCPs that were designed to do just that but there is an interesting side note. Near the end of the life of Betamax Sony licensed the manufacture of some stripped down players that had no special effects. No pause, no scan, and some with no tuners. These were marketed in locations where cost was a big factor and all they wanted was something to just play tapes. These weren't made to withstand the riggers of the rental trade. Not many were made and few exist today. They were so cheap that in many cases they were tossed after no longer being needed.
|
