What make is it kyle?
We had a Betamax top loader.
In those days the machine was
rented from the likes of Radio Rentals,D E R,Granada or Stepek.
Betamax was slightly more expensive than VHS (When it arrived) to rent,but the general consensus was that it was the far better format.
I reckon the thing that killed Beta was tape rental itself.
The best videopits in our town charged 50p more for a Beta release than a VHS release.
VHS was rented at two quid a night whilst Betamax was £2.50 a night.
Fifty pence nowadays seem laughable,but back in the early eighties ten bob would've swayed you to ditch the Beta and begin renting a VHS machine.Especially as you weren't tied into any contract,it was a matter of signing the paperwork and they'd come and switch over the machines.
No direct debit in those days either.I remember my mother going into D E R every week and paying the telly and video rental!
Christ they could've probably bought them five times over!
(Maybe not:-as when video recorders first arrived on these shores,they were ridiculous amounts to actually purchase!)
One of the first films we rented for our machine was SCANNERS.
Later on Radio Rentals and D E R were swept up by the Thorn Emi group.
All these chains started jumping on the tape rental bandwagon with the VIDEO AT HOME label,however,the choice was very limited compared to the independents and the obscure titles we love on this forum would NEVER have seen the light of day in one of these shops!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Rentals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_EMI