Betamax transfers from video99.co.uk  



The most affordable and flexible Betamax transfers in the UK. 

A personal service by an engineer with 30 years of video experience.  Transfers to USB stick, hard disk or DVD.

Discounts for quantity.  Lowest prices in the UK but the highest quality.

Easy order form here

Beta (Betamax / Betacord / Betamovie)

A typical Beta (Betamax) tape

You may have seen my Beta video pages already.  From that arose a steady stream of requests to transfer Beta (Betamax) tapes.  Many early portable recorders with cameras were Beta.  The world's first camcorders were all of the Beta format, so there are a wealth of precious memories on Beta tapes.  For almost 20 years now, since the earliest DVD recording equipment was available, I've been making people happy by carrying out the highest quality Betamax transfers.  Beta can give significantly better results than VHS, and my equipment gets the very best from your tapes.  Video99.co.uk has a wealth of expertise in Betamax transfers and has the very best equipment.



 

 

 

 

 The world's first camcorders were Beta.


I can transfer all Beta (Betamax) tapes, with the best possible picture quality.  If your Beta tapes may be recorded with HiFi stereo BetaHiFi sound, let me know and I'll be able to use this to get brilliant sound quality too.  As well as UK recorded tapes, I can do NTSC and SECAM television system transfers for Beta tapes recorded on equipment from anywhere in the world.  

Betamax to DVD.  Most customers take USB stick or hard disk, but DVDs are still possible:

Basic Menu, £13: Up to 2:30 hours on one DVD, with top quality pictures and sound.  The menus are limited to just a title, but you get a chapter point every 5 minutes so it is easy to move around the DVD.  Extra copies of these DVDs cost just £3.50 each and are recommended.

Deluxe Menu £22:  Up to 1:30 hours on one DVD, with top quality pictures and sound.  Nice menu icons showing what is on that part of the recording, and if you email me with titles I will put them on the DVD for you too.  I place the chapter breaks at points of interest or new recordings.  These menus look like professionally recorded DVD films.  Extra copies are very cheap, just £2.50 each, and well worth taking.

Transfers to video files:

Nearly all customers now take video files on a USB stick or hard disk (depending on quantity).  Typically we provide large DV-AVI files of 13GB per hour, ideal for nearly all PC and Mac video editing software, and almost all customers also take the very inexpensive option of additionally having smaller MPEG4 files which will play on most modern TVs which have a USB socket.  Assuming at least 10 hours, the cost for Beta  to video files is £9 per hour of useful material.  Just email me for details.

You might find this useful, it gives you a guide of how long each type of Beta (Betamax) tape runs for.

Tape type	Running times (maximum) for PAL
Beta L830	3 hours and 35 minutes (215 min)
Beta L750	3 hours and 15 minutes (195 min)
Beta L500	2 hours and 10 minutes (130 min)
Beta L370 (unusual)	1 hour and 38 minutes(98 min)
Beta L250	1 hours and 5 minutes (65 min)

Television systems explained
PAL	NTSC	SECAM
YES	YES	YES

Probably uniquely within the UK, video99 also supports the NTSC Beta I recording speed (including BIs high band and Beta HiFi sound), as well as the more popular Beta II and Beta III speeds used with the NTSC television system for international recordings.  Also handled are the quite rare SECAM recordings made on French, Middle Eastern and other foreign equipment.  What this means is that if you have a Betamax tape recorded on equipment outside the UK, video99 is the only transfer service who can definitely handle your recording and will not let you down. 


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How to request a Betamax video transfer.

We have a new and easy order page, just select what kind of tapes you have and supply your details.  If for any reason you get stuck filling out the form, just email me and I'll help you personally.  It's a personal service I offer, not like some of the big video editing houses.  I understand that in many cases you will not be able to tell how much material is on the original recordings, I will give you an estimate of costs initally and we can deal with payment once completed.  Some models of Betamax machine may be taken as part or full payment for Beta transfers, so if you have one to dispose of, do mention it to me.

In days gone by, customers usually took DVDs which would be £13 for up to 2.5 hours.  However these days, nearly all customers prefer video files on a USB stick (for perhaps one or two tapes) or on a hard disk (more than two tapes), which cost around £9/hour assuming 10+ hours.  I would never recommend taking DVDs unless there is some special reason you require those, since video files are higher quality, easier to edit, share and back up, and so a much better archive format.

When you receive your tapes back, you may notice that the record tabs have been removed. The first thing I do with a tape is make sure that it cannot be recorded on, so protecting your important recordings.

Note that some studio formats Betacam and Digital Betacam tapes look very similar to domestic Betamax tapes, but they require different equipment and do cost more.  We also support PCM digital audio recordings from Beta tapes, as well as Beta HiFi stereo sound for both NTSC and PAL recordings.  We also now support SuperBeta NTSC tapes for all three NTSC tapes speeds (BI, BII, BIII).


Please read our Terms and Conditions, which form part of the agreement.

Back to the main www.video99.co.uk page.

Also see the video99.co.uk Questions and Answers (FAQ)

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More interesting reading on the Beta (Betamax) format.  

See my main Beta in the UK web page too.

I have written a useful page on how to service Sanyo Beta video recorders, fitting reel idlers and belts to them, and where to source parts, and created YouTube videos on servicing Sanyo and Sony Beta video recorders and the Sony SL-C9.

Urban myths, true or false.

• Beta is better than VHS:  TRUE.  Due to a higher video write speed on Beta, it is true that a good Beta video recorder will outperform any VHS machine in certain respects, particularly bandwidth (often quoted as vertical lines, nothing to do with 625 lines on the UK PAL TV system), and video noise.  Some VHS models made a real effort to overcome these weaknesses but were always struggling with a fundamentally simpler and cheaper format.  On the other hand a good SVHS recorder will outperform any normal Beta recorder in all important aspects.  The only advantages of VHS over Beta are a slightly higher linear tape speed which gives a marginally better mono sound track on VHS, and a slightly longer playing time using similar tape technology of 4 hours as opposed to 3 hours and 35 minutes on Beta.  (I know 5 hour VHS tapes exist, and if the same tape were loaded in a Beta tape, you would get a tape which should run for around 4 hours 30 mins.)  As well as improved picture quality, another advantage of Beta over VHS, is much smaller cassettes.  A minor technical advantage is also that the autostop system used for Beta is a very reliable magnetic sensor, whereas VHS  used a cumbersome optical tape-end sensor system which caused a great many breakdowns is early days in particular
• There used to be a Beta to VHS adaptor:  FALSE.  This is a magnificent gadget that you load a Beta tape into, then pop into a VHS recorder and you can play the tape.  I like this myth because people still write to tell me that it is true, and that I don't know what I'm talking about when I say: NO SUCH ADAPTOR COULD EVER HAVE EXISTED!  I'm glad we've cleared that up.
• Sony lost a fortune on the Beta format.  FALSE.   Millions of Beta format machines were sold and the professional Betacam version has been a huge success in TV studios the world over.  In economic terms, Sony will consider the Beta format to be one of their biggest ever product lines.
• Sanyo and Sony are the same company.  FALSE.   Though the two companies have often co-operated technically, and both backed the Beta format.  The Sanyo Betamovie camcorders where rebadged Sony units, but this is probably the only occasion Sanyo used Sony equipment.  A look inside a Sanyo VTC-M40 Beta Hifi video recorder will show a large amount of the Hifi electronics are sourced by Sony.  Sanyo also backed Video8 rather than VHS-C in the later analogue camcorder days, but as time went on, virtually all other manufacturers dropped VHS-C in favour of Video8 too.  The two companies have backed differing high density DVD formats, which is a sign that they may be growing apart.  Sanyo and Fisher ARE the same company.
• Beta came out before VHS:  NOT REALLY.  In the UK, both formats arrived at pretty well the same time, and unlike in the USA, they both had similar running times from the start.
• Beta was more expensive than VHS: NOT REALLY.  Sony machines tended to be more expensive than Sanyo.  The VTC5150 from Sanyo was £239.95 in Comet in 1984, a price which compared favourably with any VHS models of the time, and making it a best-seller.
• Beta tapes are smaller than VHS:  TRUE. Beta tapes are significantly smaller in length and width, but are exactly the same depth as VHS tapes.
• Beta tapes run for less time than VHS because the tape runs faster to get a better picture:  FALSE. I've seen this drivel written on a web site which is supposed to be a encyclopedia.  The only reason the longest Beta tapes run for less slightly time than equivalent VHS because they have a lot less tape loaded in them, hence they are much smaller and lighter.  In fact Beta tape runs much SLOWER than VHS and gets a higher resolution of picture.  How?  It's complicated, but the video writing speed is faster on Beta due to a carefully designed head wrap system.  In effect the Beta format packs more information onto less tape.
• Beta machines are larger than VHS:  FALSE.  Some early Beta machines were larger than similar vintage VHS models but later models were of similar size or even smaller than typical VHS equipment of the same vintage.  The Sony SL-F30 for example, is just 8cm deep.  Sony Beta machines are usually heavier than other makes of either format.
• TV studios use Betamax.  FALSE.  They use Betacam which is not the same as domestic Beta (Betamax).  The blank tapes are sometimes compatible though.  You CANNOT play domestic Beta tapes on Betacam equipment, even though they will physically fit, you will get fast sound and no picture.  I know, I've tried it!  I can also transfer Betacam, BetacamSP and Digital Betacam studio tapes to DVD and video files.

Testimonials and social media.

We are listed on the independent Freeindex service, you can read and add to reviews there.  Most customers use that method for testimonials now.

We also have a collection of fascinating testimonials from some famous names, see the famous names testimonials page. 

Please also subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can see some of the work we do and fantastic equipment we have. 

All material on this web site is copyright www.video99.co.uk and www.colin99.co.uk though trade marks remain with the manufacturers.

See my Beta (Betamax) web page.  

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