Beta Beta Beta

So with the extra time on my hands due to unemployment, I decided to work on some projects that have been around the house. One of these projects is to try and find a way to get my old high school marching band tapes onto the computer. Problem #1 is that I don't have any way to do it. I know that there are stores that can transfer my tapes to cd, but I don't currently have the money and I am a little leary on giving these special memories to a stranger. I remember that Dan had a toy that he bought that could transfer the tapes, but I could never get it to work. So I found his little machine and brought it home again. After some internet searching I found out that the version that I have has a problem with windows vista and I need a newer version. So I upgrade the newer version and get the silly thing to work. Problem #2 is a bigger problem. The tapes are in the beta format. At the time it was the better format of the two, but vcr's had better marketing and won out in the format wars. I was hoping that a friend on facebook would have one sitting in their basement, but no such luck. Dan was able to buy me one on ebay that I can hopefully sell for the same price so it isn't a total waste of money. So far the machine only will run for a couple of minutes before it locks up. I can't tell if it's the machine or the tape. I am trying to edit out the mess ups, but still have some work to do.