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This is the Sony BVH 500 Video Recorder

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Eyes Of A Generation.com


In the video, notice that the tape reels are stacked on top of each other! One-reel spins one way and the other reel spins the other way! Amazing!

There are some good war stories in the comments section below, but here is more on this unique machine.

Being described as “portable” is fine, until you try to pick it up. It’s one of the strangest transports ever put into the field: the tape reels are stacked vertically, spinning in opposite directions like some kind of engineering dare. It looks more like a prototype someone forgot to un‑invent.

Operators who used these in the ’70s and early ’80s remember the same things: • Heavy as sin, especially once you loaded the battery • No TBC, but surprisingly solid recordings • Great as a recorder, barely passable as a player • A nightmare to thread if you were tired, rushed, or — as one commenter joked — “a few beers in” • Interchangeable with BVH‑1000 decks, which made it useful as a field backup.

It’s one of those machines that makes you appreciate how far “portable” has come — from a 40‑pound shoulder‑breaker to a DSLR that fits in your hand and outperforms half the trucks these things fed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEdGo1eGYEw

Source

25 responses to “This is the Sony BVH 500 Video Recorder”

  1. Bill Shrode

    I always loved how they, (RCA, IVC, Ampex, Sony) all used the word “portable” so loosely. I suppose it referred to anything that didn’t have at least 1 rack of support gear attached. But seriously… 3M used the same type of transport system in their 93/94 series background/foreground (read “elevator) music players prior to switching to the “Fidelapak” style cartridge format.

  2. Philippe-Louis Martin

    i use Ampex VPR 3

  3. David Fell

    I think we used these in college; mid 1970s.

  4. Stephen Bires

    @Bill June 14, 2010. Knew him well.

  5. William Koeppen

    Huh! strange looking thing, was that something grandpa used?

  6. Stephen Taylor

    I used one. Funny that now a canon 5D is Broadcast Quality!

  7. Mike Formby

    Try threading that after a few beers.

  8. Chuck Conrad

    I have a Hitachi HR-100 in my collection which is very similar. It sure does weigh a lot!

  9. Howard Malley

    One of the biggest believers in this format and did thousands of shows using this was Starfax run by a brilliant man who has sadly passed–Ron Stutzman.

  10. Craig Fisher

    Oh buddy, do I remember lugging that thing around!

  11. Roger A Summers

    I think I saw this when I was looking for a Revox reel to reel.

  12. William Pettigrew

    It seems like these guys are doing a lot of speculating. Pretty funny.

  13. Darryl Coleman

    Load them with batteries and carry one for a half hour. You had to be a strong man.

  14. Richard Pizzoni

    AHHH its a SONY 500. what a nightmare to fix… Ate battery too If I remember.

  15. Mark Gulbrandsen

    We had a BVH-500 at the station I worked at. It was only used as a back up. It had no TBC but it had full interchangeability for playback on the BVH-1000’s we also had and the images off it looked fine.

  16. John J. Roche

    I master many shows on those. The unitel ( now Denali) trucks had at most 5ks on board. I would have 10 of those hanging on hooks on the wall., I could unload/ reload on about 39 seconds. At the end of the show you would be putting tapes back on original source reels for hours!

  17. Dave Wertheimer

    I had to schlep one on a few shoots for WMVS in 1984 with a TK 76!

  18. Pierre Seguin

    I used Hitachi HR-100

  19. Joe Reaves

    Used this one and the Ampex model back in the mid-80’s.

  20. Frank Berry

    It did make good recordings. It was designed as a recorder … not as a player. It had only the most basic playback capabilities.

  21. Shirley Gastmann

    See them? I used to repair them. And once… I was the video tape operator that had to change reels mid flight in a helicopter with the doors off. Now that was fun, trying to thread the tape blowing in the wind. Actually was a very good recorder. No time base corrector though.

  22. Tom Shustack

    I can remember having to “stand by” while we change the reel… Time to check the pager for calls.

  23. Jay Hartigan

    Why couldn’t they find one of us that actually used this recorder all over the country for years to do this demo. These guys had no business showing the fine recorder. I still have one in my basement.

  24. Frank Berry

    Ampex VPR 20 was the same. Reels stacked.

  25. John Luff

    There is no copy protection on 1″ type C recorders. They simply don’t understand the technology…terrible misinformation…

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