lionel@eludom.DEC (Steve Lionel) (09/13/85)
Some of you may have seen ads for Sony SuperBeta in the October issues of some magazines. I find these ads a bit silly, featuring Bugs Bunny of all things, but at least they're advertising! Anyway, the copy at the bottom says to call 1-800-BETAMAX for more information on SuperBeta. I did and found the number was not in service. I then called the Sony hardware hot-line (800-222-7669) and asked about it. I was told that because the ads showed up in October issues of the magazines, that they weren't going to connect the 800-BETAMAX line until October! I guess nobody told them about magazine schedules. Anyway, I asked about the supposed compatibility problems of playing SuperBeta tapes on non-SuperBeta VCRs. I was told that there would be some "overmodulation noise" (whatever that might be), but that it would typically only appear on non-Beta-Hi-Fi VCRs. This made sense to me, as I recall that the Beta Hi-Fi format involved raising the carrier frequency a bit - probably enough so that the still higher frequency of SuperBeta doesn't bother it. I intend to try this out with a friend's SL-HF600 and my SL-2700. It's an important question if there is a hope of SuperBeta prerecorded movies (which, according to Video, there is). On a related subject, the October Video Review makes a big deal out of what they insist on calling "SuperVHS", even though JVC doesn't call it that. As I suspected, while the "HQ VHS" picture looks sharper, it contains no more information than regular VHS. Picture detail is not increased at all, and the signal-to-noise ratio is still mediocre (at least in their test of the JVC deck). It's also interesting to note that the principal cause of the improvement, increased white-clip level, is still significantly below the white-clip level of Beta (200% vs 260%). As best as I can tell, VR has not given equal play to SuperBeta and has not reviewed a SuperBeta VCR. (The October Video does review the Sony SL-HF900, and they can't praise it enough.) Steve Lionel