Betacam - Variants

The trade name of a videotape cassette recorder and camera system of TV broadcast standard, introduced by Sony in 1981, initially for electronic news-gathering but widely adopted internationally for all forms of video production. It uses component recording with separate luminance and chrominance tracks on ½ in (12·7 mm) tape at a speed of 10·15 cm/s in compact cassettes, 156 × 96 × 25 mm. Betacam SP is an improved version using metal-particle tape for higher bandwidth and better picture quality.

In casual use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, or a Betacam video recorder.

All Betacam variants from Betacam SP on use the same shape cassettes, meaning vaults and other storage facilities do not have to be changed when upgrading to a new format. Betacam cameras can only load S tapes, while VTRs can play both S and L tapes. The cassette shell and case for each Betacam cassette is colored differently depending on the format, allowing for easy visual identification.

Variants

Betacam / Betacam SP

The original Betacam format launched in 1982.

The original Betacam format records on cassettes loaded with oxide-formulated tape, which are exactly the same as its consumer-market oriented predecessor Betamax, which was introduced 7 years earlier by Sony in 1975. A blank Betamax-branded tape can be used on a Betacam deck, and a Betacam-branded tape can be used in a Betamax deck.

The only difference between Betamax and Betacam is that the former records in composite format (much like VHS, U-matic, or 1" type C videotape), while the latter records in component format and at a much higher linear tape speed, resulting in much-higher video and audio quality over Betamax. A typical L-750 length Beta cassette will yield about 3 hours of recording time on a Betamax VCR at its BII speed, while it would only yield 30 minutes on a Betacam deck or camcorder.

Betacam was initially introduced as a camera line along with a video cassette player. It was primarily designed as a feeder deck for A/B roll edit systems, usually for editing to a 1" Type C or 3/4" Umatic cassette edit master tape.

With the popular success of the Betacam system as a news acquisition format, the line was soon extended to include the BVW15 studio player, and the BVW40 Studio Edit Recorder. The BVW40 enabled for the first time editing to a Betacam master, and if setup and wired correctly, true component video editing.

At its introduction, many insisted that Betacam remained inferior to the bulkier 1" Type C and B recording, the standard broadcast production format of the late 70s to mid 80s. The recording time is the same as for Betacam, 30 and 90 minutes for S and L, respectively. Tape speed is slightly slower in machines working in the 625/50 format, increasing tape duration of 1 minute for every 5 minutes of run time.

Betacam SP is able to achieve its namesake "Superior Performance" over Betacam in the fact that it uses metal-formulated tape, as opposed to Betacam's oxide tape. Sony designed Betacam SP to be partially forward compatible with standard Betacam, with the capability that Betacam SP tapes can be played in oxide-era Betacam VTRs, but for playback only. Betacam SP-branded tapes cannot be used for recording in consumer Betamax VCRs like oxide Betacam tapes, due to Betacam SP's metal-formulation tape causing the video heads in a Betamax deck to wear prematurely, which are made of a softer material than the heads in a standard Betacam deck. However, Betacam SP tapes can be used without a problem in ED Beta VCRs, since the ED Beta format uses metal-formulated tape as well.

The new Betacam SP studio decks were the players, the BVW60 and BVW65, with Dynamic Tracking and the Edit Recorders, the BVW70, and the Dynamic Tracking model, the BVW75.

Sony followed up the SP Field Recorder with the BVW50, that could record and play the large size 90 minute cassettes.

Until the introduction of the BVW-200 camera though, the camera and recorder configuration was a docking system. Like every other Betacam camera system, and unlike the DigiBeta DVW700, the camera could not playback in color without the use of an outboard adapter.

In the early 90's a "pro" or "industrial" line of decks was introduced, with model numbers that echoed the naming conventions of Sony's 1970's era Umatic editing decks.

Betacam and Betacam SP tape cassette shells varied in color depending on the manufacturer. Many companies sold Betacam tapes, sometimes of their own manufacture, sometimes rebranded.

Digital Betacam

Digital Betacam (commonly abbreviated to Digibeta or d-beta or dbc) was launched in 1993. It supersedes both Betacam and Betacam SP, while costing significantly less than the D1 format and providing high quality and reliability. S tapes are available with up to 40 minutes running time, and L tapes with up to 124 minutes.

The Digital Betacam format records a DCT-compressed component video signal at 10-bit YUV 4:2:2 sampling in PAL (720×576) or NTSC (720×486) resolutions at a bitrate of 90 Mbit/s plus 4 channels of uncompressed 48 kHz PCM-encoded audio.

Some Digital Betacam equipment can also read Betacam and Betacam SP tapes.

Digital Betacam is considered to be the gold standard of formats for standard-definition digital video, is capable of outperforming cheaper digital formats such as DVCAM and DVCPRO, and associated equipment is comparatively expensive.

Another key element which aided adoption was Sony's implementation of the SDI coaxial digital connection on Digital Betacam decks.

Digital Betacam tapes are a muted blue, and are typically found in a blue cassette container.

Betacam SX

Betacam SX is a digital version of Betacam SP introduced in 1996, positioned as a cheaper alternative to Digital Betacam. All Betacam SX equipment is compatible with Betacam SP tapes. S tapes have a recording time up to 62 minutes, and L tapes up to 194 minutes.

Together with Betacam SX, [Sony] introduced a generation of hybrid recorder, allowing use of both tape and disk recording on the same deck, and high speed dubbing from one to another.

Betacam SX also features a good shot mark feature, that allows marking of each scene for fast retrieval. A tape deck can scan the tape for recorded marks of each single cassette, and show it to the operator.

The cameras themselves are generally considered by most sound recordists to be quite noisy in operation, possibly because the amount of computer processing power, and subsequent generated heat, leads to cooling fans being used to keep the camera at a reasonable temperature.

Betacam SX tape shells are bright yellow. Betacam SX machines have gone out of production, although the format is still used by some productions.

MPEG IMX

MPEG IMX is a 2001 development of the Digital Betacam format. It uses the MPEG compression system, but at a higher bitrate than Betacam SX. It lacks an analog audio (cue) track as the Digital Betacam, but will read it as channel 7 if used for playback.

Compression is applied in three different formats: 30 (6:1 compression), 40 (4:1 compression) or 50 Mbit/s (3.3:1 compression) which allows different quality/quantity ratios.

With its new IMX VTRs, Sony introduced some new technologies including SDTI and e-VTR.

All IMX VTRs can natively playback Betacam SX tapes, and some, such as the MSW-M2000P/1 are capable of playing back Digital Betacam cassettes as well as analog Betacam and Betacam SP cassettes, but they can only record to their native IMX cassettes. S tapes are available with up to 60 minutes capacity, and L tapes hold up to 184 minutes.

IMX machines feature the same good shot mark function of the Betacam SX.

MPEG IMX tapes are a muted green, however, the new XDCAM format allows recording of MPEG IMX on a tapeless format, Professional Disc

HDCAM / HDCAM SR

HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is a HD version of Digital Betacam, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible (1920x1080) resolution, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF modes.

HDCAM SR, introduced in 2003, uses a higher particle density tape and is capable of recording in 10 bits 4:4:4 RGB with a bitrate of 440 Mbit/s.

Some HDCAM VTRs play back older Betacam variants, for example, the SRW-5500 from Sony, an HDCAM SR recorder, plays back Digital Betacam, HDCAM and HDCAM SR tapes, and tape lengths are the same as for Digital Betacam, up to 40 minutes for S and 124 minutes for L tapes.

HDCAM tapes are black with an orange lid, and HDCAM SR tapes black with a cyan lid.

440 Mbit/s mode is known as SQ, and 880 Mbit/s mode is known as HQ, and this mode currently (year 2005) only available in portable models.