Closeups pg. 2

Front of unit, with all doors closed

Front of unit, with all doors open

Close-Up of Function Buttons

Left side of unit

Right side of unit

Close-up of Digital Picture controls

Rear

Perhaps the most interesting Betamax of them all!! The LV-1901 (aka LV-1901D) was released in late 1975 at a whopping $2395. It combined a 19" Sony Trinitron color TV with an SL-6200 1-hour Betamax, which recorded and played back only 1 hour tapes (when you could find them)! It had a built-in 24-hour 1-event timer (using the then-standard 1970's-style leaf clock), as well as a second TV tuner (so you watch one channel while you recorded another), and a camera input that accepted the optional black-and-white Sony camera. There are lots of pics of this unit, so please allow time for them to load!

The LV-1901

Right-hand side, showing Betamax and its smoked plastic cover opened

Closer shot of the Betamax

A closer shot yet of the Betamax

A close-up of the left side of the Betamax, showing the Betamax logo, the tracking knob, and the non-locking pause button. Notice also the 3 lights at the bottom, for Power On, Standby (which came on when the tape was threading or unthreading!), and Record.

Close-up of the right side of the Betamax, showing the Memory button and the 3-digital counter

The original, original Betamax logo!

Shot of the main tuner (UHF/VHF dials), TV Volume and Contrast controls, Playback & Record Lamps, Source control, TV Power button, and VTR Power and Timer Buttons.

The right-hand side of the unit, showing the secondary tuner controls, Clock Set and Timer controls, and (behind the closed door) the TV controls. Next shot shows the secondary tuner controls opened, and the TV controls door opened.

An extreme close-up of 3 controls next to the secondary tuner: AUX activates the secondary tuner, MON (MONitor) lets you momentarily watch the secondary tuner while you're recording off the primary tuner, and AFT turns on the AFT for the secondary tuner (AFT = Automatic Fine Tuning, so the station won't drift. A necessity, before the days of quartz tuning!)

A close-up of the Clock and Timer setting buttons. Note the vertical clock and red pointer next to the leaf display; this was the for the timer setting, in 10-minute increments!

The 1985 Sony GCS-50 is an all-metal, no-nonsense industrial SuperBeta editor. This unit has many unique features:

*It has Beta Hi-Fi audio AND two-channel linear audio, yielding 4 audio channels!
*Has a huge locking jog/shuttle wheel that enables audible linear audio while in slo-mo!
*It has a hidden BIs/BII Record Speed Selector Switch, which is a toggle switch below the jog/shuttle dial (see close-up below).
*It has an elapsed hours meter inside the unit (see close-up below) so you can track the elapsed hours.
*It also has true video insert editing, and two-channel audio insert editing (audio dub), whereby you can change the Left linear channel, or the Right channel, or both.
*It has a Framing Servo Switch, which is used for enabling automatic correct
field selection by the editing deck in a feeder/recorder setup. In the pre-roll, the record deck monitors the incoming playback fields, so that the right frame relationship is "bumped" or "slewed" as the two decks roll forward to the editing point. This is a very professional kind of function, usually reserved for 3/4" and BetaCam decks. Without it, you can get a "glitch" or vertical jump at the edit point (cut). (Info supplied by Rod Stephens.)
*The unit has a Remote/Local switch, usually found on high-end industrial VCRs. Cancels front-panel operation when the optional RMK-151 Wireless Remote is used.
*The SuperBeta on/off switch is labeled "High-Band," which is the Japanese name for Superbeta.
*This unit has a Dew light.....a feature found on some, but not all, industrial VCRs.
*The Microphone input is two-channel and can accept a Stereo microphone.

This unit records with the same razor-sharp picture quality as the SL-HF1000, yet plays back with the same soft picture as the SL-HF900.   As you can see, this is a VERY versatile machine!!! A ton of these have appeared on eBay over the last few years.

Close-up of the Record Speed selector switch, which toggles between B-Is and B-II Recording. Usually there is a piece of tape covering this switch, that has to be removed.

Pic courtesy of MisterBetamax.com. Used with permission.

Each GCS-50 has an hours of operation meter (or mercury clock) that displays the amount of time that has accumulated on the video heads. It is located under the top cover in the right rear corner of the IF-11 board (see photo below). Once these clocks run out, they cannot be reversed. The clocks can be removed and switched end-for-end for renewed use before they reach the point of no return, but as is human nature this didn't take place very often in the real world. They were usually ignored and allowed to run out. Check out the location of the small gap on the clock in the photo at the left...it is very likely that this unit had a real zero hours of use on its heads.

Description and photo courtesy of MisterBetamax.com. Used with permission.

	Left side of the GCS-50 Photo courtesy of MisterBetamax.com. Used with permission.
	Center of the GCS-50 Photo courtesy of MisterBetamax.com. Used with permission.