Need recommendation on good Betacam deck
 

Well, the title sort of says it all. :) Got a new project with a bunch of Betacam tapes to transfer, but I don't have a Betacam deck. I looked on eBay, and unlike Digibeta decks (which all seem to run $3-$4K, even used), a Betacam deck can be had for under $500. But I have no idea which are the good models or what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any experience with Betacam decks, or any general advice in this area? Thanks in advance.

Sony UVW-1800. Its a no frills Betacam SP deck, but a popular model with TBC built in. Plenty of them on ebay, just make sure the listing shows hours on the deck. The manual should have service intervals for reference. The only thing missing from this model is the TBC proc-amp controls, they require a BVR-50 remote.

Thank you--that's exactly what I was looking for. I have external proc amps, so that's not an issue, but the internal TBC is good thing to have.

You weren't kidding: 74 decks pop up on eBay! Thanks again.