Trying to play old Beta tapes

[razielle]

My aunt had beta max back in the day, and I was hoping to copy her old tapes to DVD for her.
I bought a betamax player on ebay and got ripped off - it was literally broken into pieces when it arrived.
After much hunting, I found a friend of a friend who has a beautiful Sony SL-HF500 Hi-Fi Beta recorder, in the original box with original packing, remote control, and user manual. So I eagerly borrowed it, rushed it home, hooked it up to my TV, and popped in a tape.

But although the tapes "play" -- every one of them is a completely snowy and distorted picture.
None play in color, and there is a giant horizontal white line across the bottom (about 2/3rds down the screen)
Above this line, the movie is displayed as 4 tiny images, and below the line it is two tiny images. All distorted with fuzz and smaller lines.

I know squat about video. All I could try to do was fiddle with all of the buttons and settings but nothing even comes close to making the video viewable. It's far far beyond something Tracking could adjust.

My husband said it might be because our TV is new -- or because it's digital -- or whatever he was trying to suggest to me in the midst of my frustration.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I need to find an old TV to play these on?

(The cassettes are L500 Ampex videocassette, from 1980-1983. The store sticker on the Betamax box says February 1986.
And I was using the red/white/yellow plugs to connect the player to my TV if that matters.)
I can't really do anything to the betamax player, since it's not mine. But the problem doesnt seem to be with the tapes or the player, but rather my connections or TV setup.

[filmboss80]

From your description, it may be something as benign as tracking or as serious as worn-out tape.

Did you adjust the Sony unit's tracking control during playback? That should have helped, if you bothered to do it.

If the tracking control does not help, try cleaning the heads on the player unit. If that does not help, it may be a lost cause.

And, no, you don't need and old TV.

[razielle]

Yes, I tried the Tracking control. It adjusts the image slightly, but doesnt make it any worse or better.
I tried every button... the AFT button, the beta hi-fi selector button, the Sharpness control, and the 50/60 Hz Timer selector.

But if it's just that the tapes are worn out, would Every single tape play the exact same? (4 pictures on top, two on bottom) ?

[jagabo]

PAL vs NTSC?

[DB83]

How are you trying to connect this to the tv ? My Beta (and it died more years ago than I remember) only had a co-axial connection (there other name for that escapes me right now). But essentially, this is an analgue device. If your tv does not have analogue or cannot understand analogue then I can well imagine how the picture is getting screwed up.

[wulf109]

Be sure your using the RCA jacks for input and output and record something and see if it plays back.
Also if your using the RF connector make sure the recorders output is set to the same channel as the TV,be sure both are to channel 3 or 4.

[filmboss80]

One of the things that concern me is your mention of Ampex L-500 tapes. Those things tended to decay and flake oxide faster than the Sony and Fuji brands. After 24 years, they can't be holding up very well.

But without seeing the actual image, it is hard to fully assess the problem. Jagabo presented the PAL/NTSC issue, and that might be the case. From what country did the videos come?

[DB83]

Not familiar with Ampex but over here we also had dubious quality video-tape brands - scotch was one such villian for me at least.

But I do not think what you describe is 'drop out'. The VCR could be faulty now - head alignment etc. When did your friend last use it?. But it could also be the signal issue. Thanks to those who mentioned the magic words 'RCA' and 'RF'. It is last one I was searching for as that was the only connection I had on my old VCRs.

[hech54]

1. What country did your aunt live in when she recorded these tapes?(see Jagabo's post)
2. I think I've found a picture of the back of this machine via Google but I cannot
make out the connections. Like Wulf and DB said earlier....double check your connections.

[yoda313]

It seems like people missed this line in the original post by razielle:

And I was using the red/white/yellow plugs to connect the player to my TV if that matters.)

So the rca plugs were being used.

The fact that black and white was mentioned (assuming the program was originally color) it does appear to be a pal/ntsc issue.

[DB83]

If found this on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-SL-HF500-HI-FI-BETA-BETAMAX-PLAYER-RECORDER-VCR-/350349770177...item5192793dc1

Interesting switch on the base of the unit