In message , Mark Carver
writes
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:
A neighbour of mine recently asked me if I knew of anyone interested
in a Betamax VCR. I told him he had to be joking and found one
on e-bay to show him, £0.99.
Price actually sold at? And there are some versions that are very
much in
demand.

Different issue entirely. Betamax has been superceded and requires a
ready supply of consumables (tapes) to be effective.
Still easily obtainable as they are shared with the pro BetaCam
system.

Only the original Betacam oxide tapes (pre Betacam SP and therefore pre
1988) will work in domestic Betamax machines. The SP/SX/DigiBeta/M50
tapes are metal formulations. Magnetically they won't work, and
mechanically they'll damage the Betamax heads.

The Betacam oxide tapes did work very well though :-)

In any case if a Betamax machine comes with a selection of serviceable
tapes, what's the problem for timeshift use ?

I've got some unused betamax tapes somewhere

--
geoff