Star Trek... Now on Betamax!

[BJ Wagner]

I know I'm dating myself here, but I'm curious just how many of you out there are old enough to have ever bought any of the Beta tapes from the 80's?

Not long after I bought a few episodes on Beta, I made the switch to VHS and remember collecting TOS, TAS, TNG and even a season or two of DS9. Oh what money I wasted on multiple formats.

 

[John Clark]

We did have a few betamax, but no Trek. My cross format there was VHS to DVD.

I don't actually remember seeing that many beta releases for sale, though our local video store had a good selection for rental for a while until they went all vhs (then later dvd before closing)

 

[BillJ]

I'm old enough to remember Beta, but my Dad bought VHS right from the start.

 

[Noname Given]

I went with VHS as well back in the day - but I do recall many of the TOS Star Trek feature films being released on Batamax first; VHS later.

 

[Tosk]

I never had any Betamax, but I still have a bunch of Trek Laserdiscs. Not as old, but still a relic.

 

[Tracy Trek]

I remember Betamax, but we never used them.

 

[Orac]

Fun fact: The porn industry killed the Betamax format by choosing to release their movies only on VHS.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I know I'm dating myself here, but I'm curious just how many of you out there are old enough to have ever bought any of the Beta tapes from the 80's?

I had ST:TMP, ST II, "The Menagerie" two-parter and "Space Seed" all on Betamax in the early 80s. When "The Cage" (b&w/colour compile) was coming to Australian home video, our club was asked to help out with promotion and, for my troubles, I was offered a free lunch and a copy of ST III on home video (when it was still at its expensive rental price, not sell-thru). CIC-Taft Home Video was able to get me the Beta version which none of my local stores wanted to stock.

But it was obvious Beta was fading away...

 

[Forbin]

Yup. I got Errand of Mercy on Beta, JUST before I realized it was going to die. I bought the rest on VHS. Then on the single-disk DVD releases. Then the Blu-Ray season sets.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I've never collected episodes. I had the movies when I was a kid on VHS - because we would rent them on Beta. Later I got the box set of the movies on VHS, and presently I have them all on DVD - except Beyond, of course.

I still have a Betamax VCR hooked up in my living room - I still have some videos my Dad took with his camcorder when I was young, and a copy of the original "Annie", and a 4 1/2 hour recording from MTV from 1988 (so, actual music videos). It works fine except that it shoots tapes out with surprising force when eject it pressed - though, yes, I know: I need to get those home videos copied to something current.

 

[Forbin]

Yeah, I pulled a couple of old "home movie" VHSs out of a cabinet to reminisce, and a few of them played fine, but a few of them were shot to hell. Oh well. . Oddly enough, the dead ones were the high-end, expensive Memorex "archive quality" tapes.

 

[SPCTRE]

(obligatory)