Betacam vs Betacam SP vs Digital Betacam

[DVtyro]

Originally Posted by ARC Tech-109

I have recorded Betacam SP on oxide tape in the past with the only penalty of more dropouts.

Thanks!

So, SP machines allow to manually choose SP or regular mode no matter what the tape is? I thought there was a detection hole or something that would prevent doing this.

So between regular Betacam and SP the major difference is that the basic machine cannot record on metal tape? Playback wise they are compatible backwards and forward?

M and M-II are not compatible at all? M-II cannot play M tapes?