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From: boyajian@akov68.DEC
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Beta Hi-Fi Problem/Question
Message-ID: <6214@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Mar-84 08:57:49 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.6214
Posted: Tue Mar 13 08:57:49 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Mar-84 20:08:26 EST
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 39



I recently encountered a problem that results in a question that one of you peo-
ple might be able to answer.

How does the Beta Hi-Fi unit read the stereo signal off of the helical tracks?
Do the heads automatically read the signal, or are there control signals on the
control signal track that tell the heads to read the stereo signal?

The problem that generates the above question(s) is as follows:

The other week, I purchased a Beta Hi-Fi copy of BLADE RUNNER. When I sat down
to watch/listen to it, I found no stereo signal. There are 5 simple tests for
this: (1) the "Beta Hi-Fi" light should come on; (2) the stereo/bilingual in-
dicator light should come on at the stereo position; (3) there should be a much
fuller sound than one gets with a mono tape; (4) there usually is a very notica-
ble channel separation (at least there is on the other BHF tapes I have or have
listened to); and (5) there should be no high-end hiss. The BLADE RUNNER tape
flunked all 5 tests. Just to make sure everything was in working order, I tried
my other 3 BHF tapes, and they were fine. The manager at the store where I ord-
ered the tape let me take their rental copy home (free of charge) to test *it*.
It was fine, so they have sent the "bad" copy back to get it replaced.
	I can't really figure out why there would be no stereo signal on the
tape unless one of the following situations occured: (1) as the recording studio
made 'n' dupes at once from a master, one of the machines was not set for stereo
input (this would mean that a whole batch of tapes would be "bad") or (2) as I
postulated in the question I made at the beginning of this article, there are
control signals on the tape that tell the read heads to read a stereo signal off
the tape and these controls signals somehow got munged.

Even if no one's got an answer to my question, I thought I'd let the newsgroup
know that such a problem can occur (if it's occurred once, it can occur many
more times).

				  --- jayembee
				      (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard)
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