fall inside a hole

Early computer control

A circuit and type-in software for controlling several industrial Beta decks via the RM-300 remote jack from an Apple II or TRS-80 appeared in the July1980 issue of Byte magazine, designed by Dr. Richard C. Hallgren at Michigan State University. This circuit and programs were reprinted in a number of other publications and computer idea books.




JEM Research offered a premade add-in card for Apple II computers to control industrial Betas through the same jack. Shortly after a version that could also control some industial VHS decks from Panasonic with a similar automatic search mode as the SLO-300 series Betas. One application for such a card can be found in InCider vol.3 iss.1.


A version of the PILOT programming language for CP/M called Nevada PILOT supports controlling industrial Betamax decks similarly, also through the jack for the RM-300 remote, however it is wired directly from the deck to a parallel port. Instructions for making the cable (relying on purchasing a replacement cable for the RM-300 from Sony, which is no longer possible) are included.


HIPS, the Human Information Processing Laboratory's Image Processing System, a Unix software package for use in image processing and experimental psychology research, could output to a standard composite signal and was sometimes used with an SLO-323. The hardware command to pause the attached VCR in HIPS is "betapause."


The West

At least one version of video artist Steina Vasulka's The West relied on an SLO-323 and SLP-305 Betamax decks. Later installations ran off of videodiscs instead of Betamax.

Stolen SL-8600s

From a 1978 issue of the Oklahoma Retailer: 23 Betamax SL-8600 decks were stolen in Oklahoma City circa July 1978. I couldn't locate any followup information for if these were ever recovered, but check the serial number of your SL-8600 to see if it was once stolen!




Rent-A-Beta

Often, larger video stores would also have entire VCRs available for rental as well as movies. This was handy if you didn't own a VCR of the format the tape you wanted to rent - or, indeed, a VCR at all. This was also handy if you also grabbed a couple of blank tapes so you could copy whatever movie you were renting, which would obviouly require a second VCR. A handful of Sanyo and Toshiba portables were specifically built into rental cases.