Had to pick between a VHS rip and a Betamax copy of a lost 80s cartoon

I came across two leads on an old Saturday morning show that supposedly only aired once in 1984. One was a VHS transfer from a collector in Ohio, the other was a Betamax copy from a guy in Florida. I went with the Betamax because he said it was recorded directly off the air, no generations lost. It took three weeks to arrive and the picture had some tracking issues, but the audio was crystal clear. Has anyone else had to choose between two formats like that, and did you regret it?

3 comments

3 Comments

kelly.keith8d ago

Man that Betamax call was the right move. I had the same thing with a lost 80s punk documentary, had a choice between a third gen VHS from some guy in Pennsylvania and a direct off air Betamax from a collector in New Jersey. The Betamax had this weird audio warble on the left channel but the picture was so much sharper, no contest. I swear direct recordings off the air on Betamax capture this warmth that VHS just never had.

william8168d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah I totally get that warble thing. I once spent three months tracking down a first gen recording of that long lost episode of The Prisoner my uncle swore he had on Betamax, only to find out the tape had been used to record over half of it with an episode of MacGyver. Guess I should have checked the label before I bought the whole "mystery tape" lot on ebay. But yes, that Betamax picture quality is real, even when the content is a mess.

ninah108d ago

That warble on the left channel, is it something that happens with a lot of first gen Betamax captures or just a specific model issue? I've got a SL-HF900 sitting in storage that I always thought had a minor audio quirk but never dug into it cause the video was so clean. Makes me wonder if it's a known thing with the Beta Hi-Fi heads getting slightly misaligned over time.