Betacam vs Betacam SP vs Digital Betacam

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Betamax and Betacam were 2 completely different signal recording formats, and are not compatible with each other despite sharing a common cassette shell.

I believe Betacam and SP were compatible but the older machines didn't put out enough oomph to magnetize the new metal tapes to make a recording.

I am not interested in Betamax neither about whether an old machine can record on metal tape. The main question out of the three is whether metal SP recording can be played on a regular Beta.

[redk9258]

Originally Posted by DVtyro

I am not interested in Betamax neither about whether an old machine can record on metal tape. The main question out of the three is whether metal SP recording can be played on a regular Beta.

No. BetaCam or BetaCam SP cannot be played on consumer Beta.

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by redk9258

No. BetaCam or BetaCam SP cannot be played on consumer Beta.

I am not interested in Betamax. Let me rephrase. The main question out of the three is whether metal SP recording can be played on a regular Betacam.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by DVtyro

I am not interested in Betamax neither about whether an old machine can record on metal tape. The main question out of the three is whether metal SP recording can be played on a regular Beta.

Glad you rephrased to ask what you really meant below. To %99.999 of people who know the difference between Betamax and Betacam "regular beta" is Betamax.

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Glad you rephrased to ask what you really meant below. To %99.999 of people who know the difference between Betamax and Betacam "regular beta" is Betamax.

In my defense, I thought that "SP" implies I am talking about Betacam. Anyway, here are the questions, please confirm or disprove the following:

* First-generation Betacam recordings can be played on Betacam SP machine
* Betacam SP recordings made on ferric oxide tape are, basically, standard Betacam recordings? So they can be played on standard Betacam machine?
* Betacam SP recordings on metal tape are SP recordings. I am getting an impression that these can be played on a standard Betacam machine, albeit with lower image quality, wanted to confirm this. Or maybe they can be played with almost the same image quality as SP? Or cannot be played at all?