I have F1, 501, 601 and 701 decoders. Generally I use a PCM-501ES with an added S/PDIF output, which works better than the PCM-601 when there are gaps in the original recordings. Alas my Tascam SS-R250N does not support 88.2kHz sample rate even though it does higher than this. Here in PAL lands, most of the tapes I get in are true 44.1kHz sample rate. I do de-emphasis within Audacity. It is important to use a Beta machine with a PCM switch, which disables the DOC (dropout compensator), or add this feature yourself. Only then can the decoder's error correction work properly.
Finding a decoder, and a decoder with digital out at that!, would be unobtainium here. I think it would be easier here to digitize the video to FFV1 lossless video. The original stream are preserved that way, and from there use digital processing with avisynth or similar to extract the digital audio stream. That part would need a bit of development, but nothing very difficult as long as the format are documented. (And it is, I've been told.)
I have F1, 501, 601 and 701 decoders. Generally I use a PCM-501ES with an added S/PDIF output, which works better than the PCM-601 when there are gaps in the original recordings. Alas my Tascam SS-R250N does not support 88.2kHz sample rate even though it does higher than this. Here in PAL lands, most of the tapes I get in are true 44.1kHz sample rate. I do de-emphasis within Audacity. It is important to use a Beta machine with a PCM switch, which disables the DOC (dropout compensator), or add this feature yourself. Only then can the decoder's error correction work properly.
As far as I knw professionals used uMatic and reel to reel, Small production and hobbyists used Beta and VHS, though mostly Beta.
Finding a decoder, and a decoder with digital out at that!, would be unobtainium here. I think it would be easier here to digitize the video to FFV1 lossless video. The original stream are preserved that way, and from there use digital processing with avisynth or similar to extract the digital audio stream. That part would need a bit of development, but nothing very difficult as long as the format are documented. (And it is, I've been told.)