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The small size of the tapes was probably the big misstep Beta made.

I used to record stuff in LP, though years later when it comes to watching it back, it's shocking how poor the quality is, especially the sound. Plus often issues playing the tapes back properly on VCRs other than the one originally used. I am still impressed by how good VHS Hi-Fi audio is though... if you had a machine which could record and play it back anyway.

Apparently, NTSC SP on VHS was about 50% faster than PAL SP, so I'm presuming the picture and sound quality must have been higher to an extent. Obviously NTSC has a higher frame rate (though a lower resolution), but only 20% not 50%, so the extra speed must have made some difference, especially with the linear audio track.

I never had a problem playing VHS tapes back that were recorded on videos that have since gone to the great scrapyard in the sky, in fact any playback problems that materialise are usually because the tape's developed an issue. One video I have I know has a playback issue but that's probably because it sat in my wardrobe for twenty years and then when I moved out it's next home was a cupboard under a kitchen counter where it sat for another six years... Surprising it played at all really

I did have a video that could play NTSC videotapes too which may have been a rare beast. Never did find out how the video "knew" whether the tape was NTSC or PAL on playback.

We had a VCR in the late 90s that was tempramental and it was always hard to get videos recorded on it to play back on others. You could usually get most SP recordings to just about play if you fiddled with the tracking enough, but LP videos... even with the tracking, well, this video is from one of those tapes, this is the best playback I could get through trying 3 different VCRs:

Had access to EP as well - Extended Play, which I believe was half as long again as LP, so you could get 9 hours out of a tape that proudly emblazoned "T180" on the box

Of course by the time you get to Extended Play levels of recordability, it wasn't really worth doing because it, well, made LP look decent by comparison. Plus of course not all videos could do it and sod's law always dictates that the next video you had wouldn't support EP recorded tapes - so you'd feed it in and usually the machine would either turn round and say 'what the bloody hell's this?', or you'd end up with something effectively stuck on fast forward because well, that's sort of how this thing works.

Okay you can correct that these days digitally before you dump it on YouTube but that wasn't an option provided by the video

I think EP was mainly for things like security cameras, although it was presumably useful for recordings that were primarily audio.

I recorded everything LP and was perfectly happy with the quality on my machine. It did the job, I could time shift and watch and enjoy. That was all I needed it to do

I used to record a majority of content on EP especially for a series link that wouldn't fit on an LP playback, the quality wasn't the best but it still did the job.
To this day, I no longer have an EP VCR yet I do have a tape recorded in EP mode.

I think the Goldstar VCR we had supported playback in EP, but couldn't record it for whatever reason.

The aformentioned VCR we had which recorded tapes you couldn't play back properly elsewhere was a Goldstar piece of crap!

Goldstar was apparently (it says here) quite popular brand of TV in the US, I dare say a lot of them could probably be seen in films of the 1980s.
Goldstar made all kinds of weird and wonderful things - including tractors apparently.

Effectively rebranded to what is now LG Electronics for some reason, not entirely sure why.

Granada continuity from New Year's Eve 1989, including the final episode of Coronation Street to air in the 80's, (although not the last to be produced) and the 1990 Drama campaign containing an extensive look at VT equipment:

Well yes, unless they were up late in New Year's Eve filming another!


It's odd that there don't seem to be as many clips of Granada floating around online as there are some other regions. That Christmas ident is awful

Yeah, as the first few episodes to air in 1990 were dated 1989, though the first ones dated 1990 were likely filmed the previous year. The Christmas ident definitely takes influence from Granada's presentation at the time, particularly the update to their G arrow logo with the purple background a few months prior: