Oct 21, 11:37 pm show options

Newsgroups: alt.video.vcr
From: - Find messages by this author
Date: 21 Oct 2005 14:37:38 -0700
Local: Fri, Oct 21 2005 11:37 pm
Subject: Tape-eating Beta machine.
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Hello,
About a month ago, I bought a Sears Betamax (model #5317) from a local
flea market, the man said that it had barely been used, that he'd
gotten it from a woman who'd never taken it out of the box.
For the first month of ownership, I had good reason to believe him.
The machine performed spectacularly (it is my third Beta machine, both
previous ones being Sony models, one from 1979, the other from
1985...amazingly, the 1979 model [the SL-5400] is still running well,
whereas the 1985 model [the SLHFR-70] died after eight months). But
yesterday, I noticed the sound of tape crinkling when I pressed
"rewind". A short while later (I use my VCRs pretty much constantly),
it ejected a cassette with some wrinkled tape trailing out. Not too
severe, though. I concluded that the gears were fragile, and that I
should use the older machine for re-winding, to save wear and tear on
the tape. I also know that the Sears Betamaxes are made by Sanyo...and

thus, many of them (my deck included) thread like older VHS
machines-they release the tape after every "stop". They have a
reputation for eating tape. But hey, I said to myself, some people
have had these machines running for 20 years, so this isn't the end of
the world.
This morning, I tried to rewind a tape just a little bit, to review one

scene, and then the transport functions appeared to shut down. I
couldn't eject, play, fast-forward, rewind, record, or pause the tape
at all. So I just now opened the machine up and snipped the tape free
from the works, and I tested it, it works fine. But it did give me
quite a scare, so I'm wondering...is there anything I can do to help
prevent this from happening again (and preventing more wrinkled and
damaged tape, for that matter)?
I'd really appreciate any information.
Thank you,
W. Dyess.


gerry wrote:
One of the reasons Sony Betamax lost out to VHS VCRs was Betamax's
reputation for bad rewind motors. But eating tape is not limited to
Betamax VCRs. The Beta VCR I have never ate tapes when I used it, but
I got rid of a Toshiba VHS VCR that ruined tapes over 10 years ago and
still have a JVC VCR that also ruined one or two tapes. My only
suggestion is that you shake the tape before inserting it, to loosen
the tape, in case the tape had been tightly rewound.


shaking the tape? That is absolutely useless advice. A slack tape is
likely to chew more easily and in any case, if the tape is packed too
tight you'll need to respool/re-wind it, which shaking wil not do.
Anyway, this is not an audio tape where the spools can jam against the
cassette housing, videocassettes in contrast have far more elaobrate
tape paths and will not jam if the tape is would 'tight' on the spool .


The machine clearly has perished rubber idler tyres or other parts in
the drive which lead to slippage, and the deck not spooling the tape
back into the cassette when unthreading. This will mean replacement of
the relevant parts, especially given the fact the OP's vcr has been sat

around and probably still has the 20 year old originals (they tend to
die after about 5 or 6 years if not earlier). These parts deteriorate
if you use the deck or not.
Get it to a tech if unsure how to proceed, or see www.repairfaq.org 's
vcr section
-B.



gerry wrote:
'Absolutely useless" If the tape sensor on his old Betamax is in bad
shape, putting in a tightly rewound tape is the last thing to do.

what do you mean by 'tape sensor'? since this may mean cass-in leaf
switch, IR/ light sensors etc etc, to avoid any doubts define that part
please.

Shaking a cassette has almost no effect on slackness, but it does cause
the hub to move a little, loosening the hub. I am speaking from
personal experience, I have a Betamax VCR. As to the comment that the
tape is not an audio tape, my understanding was tha Betamax VCRs were
exactly like audiotapes,

....then you have no 'understanding' at all. I repeat: the 'shaking a
casstte' approach will not solve this kind of problem and it will
recurr.

with no 2 second prewind like VHS units, whose
M-loop design had the tapes wind around the recording drum in an
M-shaped path. Betamaxes were much better for editing than early VHS
models because of that simple tape path (later VHS VCRs fixed that
problem).

....relevance of that last comment to this discussion?? we were talkng
about poor spooling and tape eating, not the relative merits of editing
facilities.

Someone who has bought an old Betamax does not seem like the
person who would spend at least $75 in an attempt to fix worn out parts
in a 25 year old VCR, on a repair that may not last long.

I can see you're speaking from experience here - and your experience is
clearly very little....please explain why repairing a vcr 'may not last
long'.

Why is it
that people with the least information try to sound as if they know the
most.

I was hoping you would answer that, but then again, just from reading
your ill informed and speculative post you seem to have already done
so!

"Perished rubber idler tyres?" The rubber on the tape guide path
posts in a Betamax machine are not auto tires that come in contact with
a hard surface.

I was talking about the spool clutch and similar 'transmission' parts.

The repetitive stress of winding a tape around the
helical drum, the stress in drawing a tape out of the shell and the
minor problem that any Beta tape the guy has could be over 20 years old
all contribute to tape loading and playback failure.

....and the reason why that process is failing now is probably due to
perished rubber parts which have deteriorated (yawn).

You notice that in this posting, I have stuck to the facts

No, you have stuck to non technical speculation verging on abuse.

as I know
them from personal experience. And having a 20 year old Betamax, I can
tell you, b, that the parts on a Betamax do not deteriorate after 5 or
6 years,

Many rubber parts like idler tyres and belts in vcrs deteriorate in
about that time - sometimes takes longer though, but not uncommon to
have to replace them. I see this condition daily. In fact I have
recently had to replace numerous pinch rollers in vcrs made as little
as 4-5 years ago.

those machines were expensive and built like rocks, until
their rewind motors burnt out from overuse. And use spellcheck next
time you make a posting, b, if you want to impress people with your
technical knowledge.

spellcheck what?
I'm not out to impress anyone, just wanted to point out a likely and
well documented failure cause I see daily. Sorry if you didn't like it,
maybe you should find yourself a non technical NG where your ill
founded comments and criticisms may find a more willing audience among
the technically ignorant.
-regards, B.

Methinks, you doth protest too loudly. Have it your own way. Your
mean comment about shaking a tape to loosen it was uncalled for. Now
you have have spent a considerable amount of time criticizing my
comments. It is not worth the effort, since, as you must know, VCRs
are at the end of the line, having had a good 25 year run from 1978
(when they became widespread must-have but very expensive consumer
items) to 2003 (when DVD players really took control of the movie
rental market). Have a nice day, from a "technically ignorant person."
Ha, ha, ha!

"gerry" wrote in message
oups.com...
Methinks, you doth protest too loudly. Have it your own way. Your
mean comment about shaking a tape to loosen it was uncalled for. Now
you have have spent a considerable amount of time criticizing my
comments. It is not worth the effort, since, as you must know, VCRs
are at the end of the line, having had a good 25 year run from 1978
(when they became widespread must-have but very expensive consumer
items) to 2003 (when DVD players really took control of the movie
rental market). Have a nice day, from a "technically ignorant person."
Ha, ha, ha!



What does this have to do with anything????