Rare 1962/63 Peto Scott VTR on EBAY!!!

[Troy Walters]

Hi all. Been browsing the vintage video section on UK Ebay and found a rare 1962/63 Peto Scott 1 inch reel-reel VTR on there with 12 tapes !!! According to the seller there is "Morcambe & Wise" episodes and other BBC programs!!! These must date around the early/mid 1960s!!!

Anyways the seller wants a fair whack of money for it, something about £185 so if any of you collectors here are interested in it, here is the link:

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3072631551

With a bit of luck there might EVEN be a Dr Who episode on it, let's hope and pray .

Cheers
Troy

[H Hartley]

Which begs the question. Why the tape contents have not been listed?
OK it maybe the old Brit system of 405 lines but he also lists 405 line televisions for sale as well.

[Gary C]

this looks a nice piece of kit!!

[Gareth R]

Hate to piss on anyone's chips, but don't make the classic mistake of assuming that just because the video recorder dates from the mid-60s, the recordings on the tapes will too.

Tapes were so expensive back then that they were re-used frequently, and it's not out of the question that if these ones do actually contain 405-line recordings, they could be from as late as 1985...

If they *are* 405-line recordings, then obviously you'll need a 405-line TV to view them - and above all, despite the seller's assurances that the stop/start buttons work, assume that the deck is broken until proven otherwise, and expect to have to take it apart piece-by-piece and find unobtainable parts to get it working again.

This *could* be a kind of Holy Grail - a mid-60s domestic VTR that is in full working order and whose accompanying tapes contain mid-60s programmes. Experience, however, suggests that it's just as likely (if not more so) to be a very expensive doorstop with tapes that won't play on any working Peto-Scott.

If you've got the money and the electronics experience to take a gamble, make sure you let us know what the result is!

[Troy Walters]

Hi Gareth. You're pretty well right about that. As I've been transferring VCR cassettes a lot whether they be standard play or long play, some VCR tapes I have have recordings as early as 1975 on them and some have recordings as late as the mid 1990s with a common as crap Steven Segal (Seagull ) Movie "Under Siege" on it.

And I'm currently transferring a whole stack of VCR cassettes now which a lot date about 1981 but have bits of earlier recordings on them at the beginnings and ends. Sadly rare early Aussie music shows like "GTK" and "Night Moves" have been overdubbed in the early 80s with movies which are widely available on DVD. But I have recently found a rare almost complete 1980 Don Lane Show with KISS guest appearing on it on one tape and that transferred beautifully with pretty much no glitches ;D. So I'm pretty much relying on pot luck finding lost programs.

I can only guess that the tapes for this Peto Scott VTR will have recordings dating as early as it was released up to maybe the early/mid 70s as in the early/mid 80s I assume a lot of people would be using either Betamax/VHS if they had the money or a Philips N1700 because Philips VCR machines really dropped in price once VHS and Betamax came in. I've got old newspaper ads and in 1978 when Philips N1700 and VHS came in the Philips N1502 dropped from about $1000 AUD in 1977/early 78 to around $700 AUD in late 1978.

Anyways whoever buys it and gets the machine crankin' and plays the tapes can only keep his/her fingers crossed that something really rare will show up. Just gotta hope the tapes aren't sticky or they would need a bloody good baking!

Cheers
Troy

[Gareth R]

I emailed the seller enquiring further about the true condition of the machine, and got this response...

"I understand your concern. However i would not want to make any commitment as to its working status as the machine is so old and could obviously fail at any
moment.

All i can tell you is that around 15 years ago the BBC borrowed the machine complete with the tapes as they wanted to recover the material that is contained
on them. They said that after a little coaxing they got the machine to work quite well.

Of course that was 15 years ago and the machine has been in storage ever since so may not work now, but hopefully that should indicate that the heads are ok"

So if what he says is correct, then the tapes don't contain any missing material. Can anyone - Paul Vanezis, perhaps? - investigate to see what, if anything, was recovered from the tapes 15 years ago?

[Jay]

Any news on this story...?

[Gareth R]

I've spoken to some people who were working in the relevant departments of the BBC 15 years ago, and they reckon the seller's story is rubbish.

They also went on to explain that those Peto-Scotts were truly nasty beasts that were horribly unreliable at the best of times. Apparently there's a good chances that the motor drive amps are blown, and there is another common fault with them (can't remember the details) that requires the replacement of parts that are effectively irreplaceable because they're germanium and there's no modern equivalent that will work.

So in other words, there's a high probability that the machine has no practical use beyond a doorstop or a boat anchor. That said, however, it *might* work (if the buyer has a 405-line TV to connect it to)... and the tapes *might* contain something interesting!

[William Martin]

Guest-Gareth said:

I've spoken to some people who were working in the relevant departments of the BBC 15 years ago, and they reckon the seller's story is rubbish.

They also went on to explain that those Peto-Scotts were truly nasty beasts that were horribly unreliable at the best of times. Apparently there's a good chances that the motor drive amps are blown, and there is another common fault with them (can't remember the details) that requires the replacement of parts that are effectively irreplaceable because they're germanium and there's no modern equivalent that will work.

So in other words, there's a high probability that the machine has no practical use beyond a doorstop or a boat anchor. That said, however, it *might* work (if the buyer has a 405-line TV to connect it to)... and the tapes *might* contain something interesting!

whoever has it would be advised to disable the record facility, it would be a shame to wipe something at this stage