Betamovie

Betamovie
Sony Betamovie BMC-100P
IntroducedMay 1983
EncodingNTSC, PAL
Recording mediaBetamax cassette
Recording time on L-830 cassette:
PALUp to 216 min.
NTSCβI: 100 min.
βII: 200 min.
βIII: 300 min.
Write mechanismSingle head Helical scan
PlaybackNot available
Intended usageHome movies
MarketConsumer/Amateur
Developed bySony

Betamovie is a series of consumer-grade camcorders developed by Sony for the Betamax videotape format. As a camcorder, each unit combined a video camera and a video recorder into a single device. Betamovie camcorders recorded onto standard Betamax cassettes.

Sony produced models for both the PAL and NTSC video standards; the first models, the BMC-100P (PAL) and BMC-110 (NTSC), were released in 1983, making Betamovie the world’s first commercial consumer-grade camcorder. While only standard Betamax units were available in PAL regions, several SuperBeta models were released for the NTSC market.

Due to design limitations, Betamovie camcorders lacked playback capability and could only record video. This restriction, combined with the decline of the Betamax format in the late 1980s, led Sony to discontinue the Betamovie line after just a few years and shift its focus to the newer Video8 format.

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