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VTC-9000 (1977)

Original Sanyo Japanese Beta, a rebadge of the Sony SL-8100


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VTC-9100 (late 1977)

Sanyo's first American Beta deck, recorded and played Beta II only.


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VTC-9100A (early 1978)

Slight revision of the VTC-9100 (differences currently unknown).


VTC-9300 (1978)

European version of the VTC-9000 which had a slightly more advanced timer and a bank of pushbutton tuners.


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A great teardown with lots of internal photos of a VTC-9300 can be found here.


VTC-9300PN (1978)

Alternate styling of the VTC-9300 for some regions.


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VTC-5500P (1978)

Reformatted Beta II deck for the European market with pushbutton controls and remote pause. Allegedly shown off at CES in 1978 for an American release with a full function remote, but seems to have been dropped in the US in favor of adding a full-function remote to the VCR-5000 to make the VCR-5050.


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VCR-5000 (mid 1979)

The VCR-5000 (and the very similar VCR-5050), $1,095 at launch, had a manual tuner and single event timer and could record and play in Beta II and III. This beat the Sony SL-5400 to market for the first Beta III speed VCR in America, with the VCR-5000 being advertised as out by June and the SL-5400 not being available until October.


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VCR-5050 (late 1979 - early 1980)

Very similar to the VCR-5000, but with a full function remote control instead of just remote pause. The remote control jack was located to the left of the tracking dial on the front, and did not have the remote pause jack of the VCR-5000.


VTC-9500 (1980)

Another VTC-9300 based machine, allegedly this one was smaller and "neater." (Movie Maker, June 1980)


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VTC-9540 (1980)

Slight variation of the VTC-9300 and VTC-9300PN, with a slightly different design language but the same layout and capabilities aside from a voltage selector on the back.


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VTC-5600 (1980)

Soft touch Beta deck for Europe with an odd design. Also resold by Fisher in the UK.


VCR-4200 (1981)

Toploader Beta II/III machine with one event, three day timer and remote pause. The basic design of this model would be adapted into many other Sanyo and Sears VCRs.




VCR-4300 (1981)

Upgraded VCR-4200 with a seven day, three event timer and full function remote.




VPR-4800 (1981)

The VPR-4800 was a portable Beta deck with companion VTT-481 tuner-timer module. One of the smallest non-Sony built Betas, it accepted a K connector camera and used a clone of the Sony NP-1 battery.


VCR-3900 (Late 1982)

The first VCR to debut at 400 dollars in the US. Records and plays in Beta II and III, three day, one event timer, and remote pause.


VCR-4000 (Late 1982)

Very similar to the VCR-3900, but with a woodgrain top case.










VCR-7300 (Late 1983)

Sanyo's first Beta hi-fi, in the uncommon-for-Beta "boombox" formfactor. Roughly portable at about 16 pounds, it could record for about 40 minutes on an NP-1 battery. When plugged in, the timer offered one week, one event recording and cable-ready tuner.




An in-depth review of the VCR-7300 appears in the November 1983 issue of High Fidelity magazine.





VCR-4400 (1984)

Very cheap and excellent-selling Beta, and Sanyo's last in a long line of decent toploaders. Very stripped down model for the time with a simple wired remote and three day, one event timer.




VCR-7250 (1985)

Sanyo's first SuperBeta hi-fi deck