Sony BVW-75P (BetacamSP)

[Restoration73]

I have acquired a couple of these (disposal) with tapes and would be
interested if there is a member who has any experience of them. TIA

[agardiner]

I have a little experience. Lots of experience in using them back in the day, and a little on servicing/repairing them. Rusty though and don't have the manuals any more.

[agardiner]

Excellent machines by the way.

[Restoration73]

I've checked, one is a BVW-70. I'll hook them up to a monitor and see what happens.https://betacam.palsite.com/bvw75spec.shtml

[bobbyball]

These are nice machines which give a good picture. They have 4 channel sound and there are also digital variants. The original machines were just "Betacam" but there seems to be a more popular variant called "Betacam SP". These use a different tape formulation. Two sizes of cassette, the "big" machines can handle both but the portables usually just the smaller ones. These smaller tapes incidentallly are identical to Betamax casssettes but the tape speed is much higher. You can apparently use the "Betacam" tapes in a Betamax machine but you must not use the "SP" type tapes as they will quickly wear down the head drum, must be a more abrasive formulation. The large tapes can last as long as 90 minutes, a slight improvement on the earlier U-Matic format where the tapes lasted 60 minutes maximum. There are record and playback, and playback only machines, usually linked to edit controllers. I'm not sure whether these machines were used on actual broadcast TV or possibly more on ENG activities and studio editing.

[agardiner]

Not sure of the extent of on-air use, but ITV used to use them for TX, that is in the days before they were one company of course.

[Halfabee]

Great machines and a huge improvement over the original ‘Betacam’ news gathering format. Broadcasters used them from the end of one inch reel to reel in the mid Eighties, until the introduction of ‘Digibeta’ and the magic of ‘preread’ in the mid Nineties.
When used in a purely component environment, the pictures were still good for up to four or five (if the director insisted on ‘one last change’) generations.
A.F.A.I.R. the most common fault was with the lacing mechanism, both belt and dead spots on the motor and of course the heads. Make sure everything is scrupulously clean before inserting a tape, pay particular attention to the opto-sensors.
If you have a 75 and a 70, then you can join them with a serial cable and you have an edit pair, controlled from the front panel of the 75… hours of endless fun awaits!
As John (HKS) would say, they were happy days.

[Restoration73]

I have had a play and can confirm the excellent quality.The machine needs a good clean
but the only fault is that it can snap the leader when fully rewound. This does not
happen with jog/shuttle. Supplied were some production tapes and adverts, all I had was a PasB of an old "Net Rescue" episode which I had never viewed. Some tapes have
spurious colour flashes and I don't know if it records in 16:9. On the '70 the display is not working, but may be repairable.

[red16v]

Originally Posted by Restoration73

I have had a play and can confirm the excellent quality.The machine needs a good clean
but the only fault is that it can snap the leader when fully rewound. This does not
happen with jog/shuttle. Supplied were some production tapes and adverts, all I had was a PasB of an old "Net Rescue" episode which I had never viewed. Some tapes have
spurious colour flashes and I don't know if it records in 16:9. On the '70 the display is not working, but may be repairable.

16:9 and 4:3 are 'electrically' the same apart from the aspect ratio contained within the signal so it will record either. (We used to call wide screen 625 16:9 pictures reduced height for in reality that's what they were - a swizz).

As others have already said the BVW-75SP was the analogue full broadcast spec version and could be used in any role unlike the non-SP version which was not really full broadcast standard. We had no non-SP versions. The BVW-75D was the 'digital' version although in reality a 'D' version just had an additional module fitted internally to the rear of the unit (about the size of two cigarette packets in tandem with a couple of BNC's on the business end facing the operator IIRC) which decoded the incoming SD digital signal to it's component parts and thence on to the internal signal paths etc as per normal, so in reality this was a quick fix for Sony before the DVW series of machines.

We had dozens and dozens of these machines including their side loading versions for use in Sony's Betacart (the machine that some companies used to play out the commercials). When we eventually took them out of service we had piles and piles of them in all sorts of broom cupboards, in fact they were sometimes used as door stops when trying to keep heavy sound proof doors open etc - I kid you not. Did the 75 maintenance course at Sony Basingstoke but don't remember must about that I'm afraid.

No monetary value these days, I hope not much cash passed hands.

[stainless]

Originally Posted by Restoration73

(We used to call wide screen 625 16:9 pictures reduced height for in reality that's what they were - a swizz).

I used to (and still do) call it 'shortscreen'. After all, it often chops the top of a person's head off.

[agardiner]

From memory - (long time ago) these machines used optical sensors at the end of each tape path to detect the leader (similar to how it was implemented on VHS but with separate sensors at each end). Probably just a failed lamp.

The colour flashes are most likely worn tape, but do check the heads etc are nice and clean. The faulty VF display will almost certainly be failed capacitors in the 30V drive circuit.

[Restoration73]

Thanks for all the tips, i sort of gave up looking at VCRs so it's a learning curve. I have
a better monitor. I also have a VO-5800PS U-matic which works well, lucky as the
VO-5850PS emitted smoke and stopped yesterday.
Yes the tape path and drum must be clean, as should the tapes which need careful
storage. BTW the cost was £0 so I am not complaining. Like all old tech it needs to be
regularly used.

[Retrotechie]

With the VO-5800, it sounds like the class X2 Rifa caps have blown. Easily replaced, but obviously use X2 rated replacements.
Sony sold thousands of BVW-75s and it was the flagship model, with dynamic tracking and full editing capabilities and cost around £40k in 1987
I have two in my collection (including serial number 2) as well as the PCM version (BVW-85P), the side loading beta cart (BVW-95P) and an office player BVW-22P. I also have one of the original betacams, BVW-40P, which is a bit of a beast and only takes small tapes. Sony broadcast VTRs were well known for their reliability, as opposed to the Panasonic MII series (although the pictures were fantastic).

Aside from failing capacitors, another issue is the tapes themselves deteriorating, although some brands are worse than others. I guess nothing lasts forever, and tape is essentially sticky tape and rust !

[Restoration73]

I will look out for a print maintenance manual. Most of the tapes are Fuji or Maxell. I think
it is worth preserving. I was given a new old stock Panasonic SVHS AG-MD835P which
looks rather good. At this rate I'll end up with a collection.

[HurtyAC]

Just to point out that all Betamax and Betacam, Betacam SP, DVW, HDW and SRW's use magnetic tape end sensors. Beta machines all have Foil leaders and tails. I you look you will see the tape feed sensor coil as the tape comes out of the cassette and another where it enters the cassette. The coil is part of an Oscillator which causes a change of frequency when the foil part of the tape passes. I know all the Sony machines in detail from the SL8000 Betamax through to the SRW5800 high bit rate HD recorder. We still service these machines, DVW500/510P, MSW2000, Betacam SX, HDW and SWR series. We have a tape library of 100's of thousands that are still being archived so 5-10 years of transferring to get through.

[Stuart R]

Hello,

I may still have the two-volume service manual up in the loft, plus a set of extender cards. I'd like to hang on to them (not sure why) but could lend them out if you if that would help. Saves a lot of guess-work. Send me a PM if you want to arrange some transportation.

Mechanical problems required various Sony Jigs and test tapes, sadly my employer just left them behind when we were forced to move buildings.

Someone, somewhere has a lot of our footage to archive and we have donated them some slightly less aged Betacam SX machines that will playback the old Betacam SP tapes.

Although a full broadcast machine, in my limited ITV experience they were used in News and Sport and a bit of local (off-peak) television drama and current affairs. Anything shot in an office with Venetian blinds would be an instant give-away as the TBC repeated lines of picture lost through drop-out.

From memory, isn't the BVW70P the one with no Dynamic Tracking? So no noise-free still frames or vari-speed and a missing switch at the RHS of the LED display.

Best Regards,

SR

[Restoration73]

HAC, yes the leader is a metal non-translucent foil. I think I can fix the breakages although I may need to find/make a splicing block.
SR, well I hope to purchase a manual but will let you know. Prior to this I just about
know about U-matic and SVHS machines, not my expertise though.
The BVW70 is completely dead apart from the fan, but was also free.
I didn't know the original cost - you'd need a licence to print money to buy one then.

[HurtyAC]

Hi All, The Betacam SP machines came 4 flavours and the same again in the NTSC variant. BVW60P PAL Player only, no DT. BVW65P PAL Player only but with DT, BVW70P PAL Recorder/Player no DT, and BVW75P Player/Recorder with DT. DT is dynamic tracking so picture would play back at 1 X reverse and up to 3 X forward. The NTSC variants where the BVW60/65 and the BVW70/75. No "P". We had over 500 machines to look after, half Betacam SP and and the rest DVW500/510's.

[andrewferguson]

It's worth noting that these things are getting harder to find, and prices (at least on ebay) are beginning to reflect that. [Source: I've been looking for a Betacam SP deck for a for a few years now in order to play back some tapes I have, so far unsuccessfully - although being in Scotland really doesn't help given what these things weigh].

By far the most 'coveted' seem to be the Sony J30 compact models, that can do Betacam SP, Betacam SX, Digital Betacam and IMX (and are much smaller and lighter than the BVWs). These are now in the mid-hundreds range on ebay, so while definitely still a fraction of their original value, they are worth something.

But even the BVW-75Ps are fetching higher prices, particularly if they are known to work.

[Stuart R]

Originally Posted by Restoration73

I didn't know the original cost - you'd need a licence to print money to buy one then.

The last one we purchased was in 1999 and our notes say £18,000.

SR