Betamax

[hubgearfreak]

Investors are unlikely to invest in something that has no guaranteed market

you're dead right there, TV has the potential to be the great educator, and in this house, we all recently enjoyed a series called victorian farm - - i doubt it would ever have been made in a free market

People like me and Mick are who give up their TVs now are a trickle at the moment but may well turn into a flood

so, i suspect that the predicted flood of people exploiting loopholes, will eventually lead to even more x-factor and big brother

[eileithyia]

We have a Betamax C7 in the loft, in it's original box with the leads and the instruction manual we bought in 1983 for £600 odd second hand. The £45 VHS cheapy we bought brand new from Asda has been placed up there next to it."

Good job you cleared the table out then!

[patricktaylor]

... the golden age of internet forums is waning ...

And the vacuous invention called Twitter seems to be in the ascendancy. For reasons I don't really understand, it's become a phenomenon. Perhaps it's just easier than Facebook. Quote: "No-one ever lost money by underestimating human nature."

[Mick F]

We have a Betamax C7 in the loft, in it's original box with the leads and the instruction manual we bought in 1983 for £600 odd second hand. The £45 VHS cheapy we bought brand new from Asda has been placed up there next to it.

Good job you cleared the table out then!

We have a big loft BTW, fully floored out so there was plenty room. There's even more room now that the table has gone!
(Room for a train set?)

Actually, I called this thread after our old Betamax machine because, like has been said, TV will become obsolete just like Betamax has. They have both been excellent systems.

TV could be the "great educator", and Betamax was the best system out of them all. VHS won out coz it was cheaper to produce. TV was cheap too, but in this day and age when there are other things out there, it is rapidly becoming pointless. Pay per View/Commercial TV will eventually win out too unless general taxation comes into play via central government. Perhaps only one state channel?

I filled in the online declaration yesterday evening:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-y ... ded-top12/
I await a snotty letter.

[aj]

Welcome to the club Mick, I ditched the TV ten years ago, moved house and left the TV at the old place, never miss it and don't even bother with the iplayer thingy either, do enjoy the radio though.

[thirdcrank]

... I filled in the online declaration yesterday evening:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-y ... ded-top12/
I await a snotty letter.

I hope you will update us with developments.

aj

Have you had any grief with home visits etc?

[Mick F]

I hope you will update us with developments.

Will do!
If there are any, that is. I do hope they come round to check. That will be the end of it then.

Actually, this thread is a bit of "evidence" I suppose. It shows that my decision was a considered one. There's threads on here (can't be bothered to find them at the mo) where I've been discussing packing in the TV for a year or more.

We stopped the direct debit last year, then paid a lump sum for the licence. I guessed that when the bill for £142 came round again, it would spring us into action. The trouble with the DD is that it just gets paid once a month and you are never faced with a decision to pay or not pay.

[fausto copy]

[/quote]
How can one tell if there's nothing worth watching unless you've already seen it? Surely otherwise you're simply providing a biased view based on a line of text and title?[/quote]

Well that's easily answered.....nearly all the main channel programe are repeats and it seems that the newly-available (to us at any rate) digital channels, just show an endless loop of repeats day in and day out.
Only can usually tell if a new programme will be interesting or not, and can even read the review via the info button.
I was only trying to say that one can be selective in what one watches, rather than sit in front of the box all day, waiting for something good to come along.
Which is what I now seem to be doing with this forum.

[kwackers]

Well that's easily answered.....nearly all the main channel programe are repeats and it seems that the newly-available (to us at any rate) digital channels, just show an endless loop of repeats day in and day out.
Only can usually tell if a new programme will be interesting or not, and can even read the review via the info button.
I was only trying to say that one can be selective in what one watches, rather than sit in front of the box all day, waiting for something good to come along.
Which is what I now seem to be doing with this forum.

I quite like the repeats on the digital channels - mainly because I don't have the time or inclination to sit and watch something on the offchance that it's good.
So basically if I hear that a program was well worth watching then I make a mental note and catch it again on a repeat.

(Unlike Mick I can't stomach the digital artefacts on iPlayer - or any of the other watch again type services. In fact I'm not overly fond of digital TV - I remember when 'r wer a lad the green fuzz at the back of a presenter in a nature program was made up of individual leaves, bushes and even trees....)

As a footnote, I can't say I see much evidence that TV was better back in the old days. I simply think as an audience we were less sophisticated. These days TV caters for a much wider audience of varying interests and tastes, it follows therefore that the amount of programming that will appeal to an individual is likely to fall as their interests represent a smaller proportion of that shown.

[patricktaylor]

Five people live in this house, which has four TV sets (and five computers). During the lighter days I don't watch TV much - mostly Channel 4 News, a few sports such as Wimbledon, F1, and Tour de France, plus the occasional documentary. But during the winter I wouldn't want to be without. I wouldn't ever sit down and just take anything that comes, though. My viewing for the next few days is all planned out.

Tonight there's a documentary about Black Holes, which I really need to know more about as they could be important. And on BBC4 there's a repeat of Attenborough's 'Life', which is amazing and which I missed last night. And tomorrow starts a new series of Spooks. Great stuff! (but it means I'll have to watch The Making of Modern Britain when it's repeated very soon). Then... on Thursday there's a documentary about Mike Perham, the 16 year old who sailed round the world and about whom I wrote a disapproving blog entry a few months ago. And on Friday is one of my very favourite programmes: Unreported World, on Channel 4. I don't yet know what I'm watching on Saturday (if anything) as I don't yet have the Guardian Guide we buy on that day.

Betamax, BTW, must have passed me by. I've no idea what it is.

[Si]

Betamax, BTW, must have passed me by. I've no idea what it is.

the campag MTB group set of the video recorder world - worked fine but couldn't compete in the end

[thirdcrank]

Betamax was the Sony system, built to exacting standards and ergo (to carry on the Campag theme) it was in competition with VHS which was a whole lot cheaper and so VHS was the format adopted by Video hire shops etc. Betamax was much better for anybody just recording from air and not wanting to hire pre-recorded stuff - it is / was a version of the professional studio system used by such as the BBC.

[patricktaylor]

Right. Thanks. We have a Commodore Amiga up in the attic.

[Mick F]

Also, we have one of those TV games from the 70s.

Two joysticks, orange unit with buttons for different games, battery driven, makes a beeping noise and you play tennis, basket-ball or target shooting on it. It needs a TV, so I don't think we'll be playing it again!

Yes, you're right. Betamax was Sony. We bought it from a rental company in Helensburgh in the early 80s. Renault dealers were giving them out for twelve months free rental if you bought a new Renault. Some folk kept them on and some handed them back, so we bought one of the returned ones. We had to take out finance to buy it - £600 new, but thinking about it, we paid £399.99 and took a couple of years to pay it off. It was a fantastic bit of kit.

Top loading, programable for up to two weeks in advance, took up to 3hrs of tape with the facility to set it to extended play for 6hrs. The movie rental shops back then had two isles - VHS and Betamax, slowly over the years the Beta isle became less and less. By the time we moved here to Cornwall, the rental shops had all but gone over to VHS. We managed for some years into the late 80s or even early 90s.

The cassettes were smaller and lighter than the VHS. Beta was neater!

[glueman]

Betamax, BTW, must have passed me by. I've no idea what it is.

the campag MTB group set of the video recorder world - worked fine but couldn't compete in the end

Mine's still going strong 17 years later. Included steel seatpost!