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From: gordon@uw-june (Gordon Davisson)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Re: VHS vs. Beta
Message-ID: <1757@uw-june>
Date: Tue, 4-Sep-84 17:17:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-june>.1757
Posted: Tue Sep  4 17:17:49 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Sep-84 03:46:20 EDT
References: <1026@ucla-cs.ARPA> <1307@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 31

[Bill the Cat for President!  Opus for Veep!]

   I recently acquired for a time a Granada (local TV rental place; I believe
the actual brand name is Hitachi) VHS recorder from a friend, primarily to
copy Doctor Who tapes a friend in California is sending me (are you reading
this, Dave?).  I also have a Beta SL-5100 (not particularly new) machine, so
I have had the opportunity to compare the machines close-up.
   The two machines compare feature-wise: they both have seven-day timers,
pause and fast-forward and reverse scan.  The VHS machine also has a "frame-
advance" feature which the Beta lacks, but I consider that minor, as it isn't
terribly useful.  The paused picture on both machines is pretty bad by today's
standard.  The main difference is the fact that the VHS machine is slow!
There is a several-second delay when pressing "play" on the VHS machine for
the picture to come up on the screen, compared to about 2 seconds on the Beta.
If you press "rewind" on the VHS machine while it's playing, it pauses several
seconds before it begins to scan, while the Beta machine does it instantly.
   My overall impressions of the VHS machine are that it is clunky and slow.
I suppose people who've had VHS exclusively don't notice this as much, not
knowing that there is a better way, but when you have to live with one after
having Beta, I begin to consider kicking it.  I'll take Beta, thank you.

     Human:  Jamie Green @ Gordon's Account
     UUCP:   {ihnp4,decvax,tektronix}!uw-beaver!uw-june!gordon
     ARPA:   gordon@uw-june

            Gordon hates flames, so send 'em in!

P.S.  Please note that I am not a tried-and-true Sony fan (except to the point
that I acknowledge that they make good products), nor am I a general VHS-ill-
wisher (in fact I considered buying one until I tried the one I'm using now),
I am just relating my experiences with the machines.