Betamovie is the brand name for a range of consumer grade camcorders developed by Sony for the Betamax format. By "camcorder" is understood a single unit comprising a video camera and a video recorder.
Betamovie records analog video on a standard Betamax cassette.
A range of models was manufactured for the PAL and NTSC formats. The first model, BMC-100P (PAL) and BMC-110 (NTSC) was released in 1983 making it the first commercial consumer grade camcorder. While only standard beta units were available in PAL, several SuperBeta models were produced for the NTSC format.
Due to constructional limitations, the Betamovie has no playback function. It is only capable of recording. This limitation, along with the decline of the Betamax format in the late 1980s, caused Sony to abandon the Betamovie line just a few years after its initial release in favor of its newly developed Video8 format.
History
As far back as the 1960s, cameras were available for the reel-to-reel portable VTRs of that time. These cameras were similar in size and weight to the cine-cameras of the day. They generally used a single video camera tube. However, these systems were not in common use by ordinary consumers.
After the introduction of VHS and Betamax formats in the mid 1970s, videocassette recorders (VCR) started gaining mass market traction—by 1982, 10% of UK households owned a VCR. The first two-piece camera/VCR systems emerged in around 1980. These units included a portable VCR, which the user would carry on a shoulder strap, and a separate camera, which was connected to the VCR by a special cable. These systems were cumbersome and heavy. For example, the portable Sony SL-3000 VCR from 1980 weighed around 9 kg without the battery. The accompanying camera (e.g. HVC-2000P) would weigh around 3 kg Thus, the complete setup could easily weigh in excess of 13 kg.
In order to be more appealing to the typical consumer wanting a practical device for recording home movies, a more compact and preferably one-piece device was needed. The first such device, the Betamovie BMC-100/110, was released in 1983 by Sony. Although the term was not in common use at that time, such a device would later become known as a camcorder, a single unit comprising a video camera and a video recorder. The BMC-100/110 weighed just 2.5 kg and was a much less cumbersome solution than its predecessors. The whole device could be supported on a user's shoulder. In order to achieve such weight and size reductions, several key components had to be miniaturized. One major requirement for a one-piece camcorder was miniaturizing the recording head drum. Sony's solution to this involved recording a non-standard video signal which would become standard only when played back on full-sized VCRs. A side effect of this was that Betamovie camcorders were record-only. As instant playback is one of the main advantages of video cameras over cine-cameras, lack of a playback function presented a considerable limitation and effectively limited Betamovie to those who already owned the Betamax VCRs required to view their recordings.
In 1984, JVC presented its own version of a camcorder, the GR-C1, for the VHS format. Although it too had a miniature head drum, the JVC engineers developed a different solution to drum miniaturization, which made it possible to record a standard video signal on the tape, so the user of a VHS camcorder could review footage on location and copy it to another VCR for editing. Sony was unable to duplicate this functionality, and this Betamovie failing so was a primary reason for its early loss of market share.
Despite this development, Sony held on to the Betamovie for a couple of years more, releasing some more advanced models, especially for the NTSC market. However, in 1987, Sony finally abandoned the Betamovie in favor of its newly-developed Video8 format.
Technical overview
Betamovie uses a standard-size Betamax cassette, and the recordings produced are in standard Betamax format, suitable for playback on a standard Beta deck.
However, in order to achieve the necessary miniaturisation, a non-standard recording method and head design are used. As a result of this, Betamovie camcorders themselves are record-only and do not support playback of recordings.