Beta or UHS? Get the facts in 1976

[ARC Tech-109]

Okay so the moment everyone (almost no one) has been waiting for; Old-school U-Matic video captures from the early 1990's. Yes I have finally got everything captured and uploaded to YouTube in its native low-def 4:3 glory. Everything is direct from my old U-Matic tapes that were recorded using a JVC CR-4900U portable and captured on the Sony DXC-M3A when it had good tubes, only the night scenes were shot using a DXC-3000 and they look ghastly.

The signal chain starts with my VO-2860A feeding a NOVA 800 full frame TBC and this was run into my Sony DVW-A500 DigiBeta and chop & paste edited running the decks as a master & slave pair with all the signalling SDI then captured using a NewTek Tricaster Broadcast TC-550 which uses a mild hardware mpeg-2 then uploaded to YouTube and watered down even more. No the end video is not 4K or even 1080P but rather a testament to the resiliency of the U-Matic format. This was state-of-the-art before DVD's and I'm sure the critics will have plenty to say, don't expect an apology from me.

The issues I was having earlier were the result of multiple codecs and a timing issue with my one TBC that wasn't apparent as I use all CRT's. A complete recapture and direct upload in the mpeg-2 format eliminated all of this and for a 30-something year old video it doesn't look terrible.

Anyway check it out tell me what you think, flames will be ignored... or laughed at.

https://youtu.be/2HlJLsBXHxQ