Date   : Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:08:06 +0100
From   : zeem.uk@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: Leccy @ Acorn World '09

2009/9/27 Rick Murray <rick@...>:
> Alex Taylor wrote:
>
>> I eventually sold it on eBay, for the grand sum of 10p!
>
> Ummm... Aren't you supposed to make a profit on stuff you sell?

I actually got the thing for free, but i should have started the
bidding a bit higher (a quid maybe) because I'm not sure that 10p even
covered the listing fee.

>> ?the controls were a little bit different from the usual Japanese
> ?> stuff that everyone's now accustomed to.

> What, you mean like back in the days of giant piano key controls? My
> first ever Beta had this, plus a MASSIVE (and I mean about 6" tall all
> in) mains synchronous motor for the head drum.

I meant the controls didn't follow the same play/stop/pause layout and
the timer didn't work anything like all the Japanese ones, which were
all fairly similar. If I remember correctly, the 'stop' button
actually meant 'pause', there was some other button for 'stop', rewind
and fast forward may have been called something else, and the timer
actually had a full numeric keypad for entry.

That Beta machine you talk of sounds rather like a Sanyo VTC-9300.
I've broken a couple for spares long ago in the past, and oddly enough
I've got a working one in my kitchen right now. I have a couple more
at my parents' house but I don't know if they still work, especially
as I'm not sure how well my dad's stored them.

> Main memory? Soooo much noise on threading and unthreading. The C-wrap
> is technically superior, but a fair bit slower to do, than the
> cheap'n'cheerful VHS-like M-wrap.

Ahh - but most of the Beta machines wrap and unwrap the tape at the
time of cassette insert and eject respectively, whereas the VHS
machines had to do it every time play or stop was pressed.

I've got a Ferguson 3V22 piano-key job (it's at work right now because
I used it to copy a Macrovision-protected tape). Because neither of
them have picture search, the Sanyo 9300 (which was pretty much the
Ferguson's direct competitor) is much, much quicker to use when
searching through a tape because you don't have to wait for the tape
to lace every single time. Plus the Sanyo is quiet in operation where
the Ferguson makes too much motor noise, and the Sanyo's picture and
sound quality is far better (especially given it was a budget machine
at the time). The Sanyo's timer is incredibly crude though, although I
quite like it for that.

-- 
Alex Taylor