[ARC Tech-109]

U-Matic looked better than Betamax and even better than VHS but it was limited to 60 minutes of record time, Fuji did have 75 min tapes but they sometimes rubbed inside the cases. Where U-Matic really shines is the reliability and longevity of the format and medium itself. I have hundreds of U-Matic tapes going back to the 1980's that still play just as well as the day I made them, during the 80's I had this obsession of recording MTV videos using a Sony VO-2600 taking the video from a generic cable box and the stereo audio from my Fisher receiver... seemed like a great idea at the time. Now 40 years later they still play perfectly albeit they look like 80's analog CATV but without the VHS smear or dropouts. It's been suggested that I do digital caps of all my tapes, back then I was a teenager with unlimited time today in my mid-50's spare time is a little hard to come by.