For camcorders, Sony adapted the Betacam system with its Digital Betacam format, later following it up with the cheaper Betacam SX and MPEG IMX formats, and the semiprofessional DV-based DVCAM system.

* 720 × 486 ( 486-lines ): Digital Betacam ( professional ), Betacam SX ( professional )

Betacam SX S tape

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.

The Betacam SX system was very successful with newsgathering operations, which had a legacy of Betacam and Betacam SP tapes.

Some Betacam SX decks, such as the DNW-A75 or DNW-A50, can natively play and work from the analog tapes interchangeably, because they contain both analog and digital playback heads.

Betacam SX uses MPEG-2 4: 2: 2P @ ML compression, in comparison with other similar systems that use 4: 1: 1 or 4: 2: 0 coding.

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 scanning of the tape, looking at recorded marks on each single cassette, and showing the markers to the operator.

Betacam SX tape shells are bright yellow.

Although Betacam SX machines have gone out of production, the format is still used by many newsgathering operations, including CNN, Canada's CBC and CTV, San Diego's KFMB-TV and NBC's operations in the San Francisco Bay Area at KNTV and KSTS.

In August 2011, Betacam SX tapes were found in Muammar Gaddafi's underground studio in Tripoli.

Digital video compression uses H. 262 / MPEG-2 Part 2 encoding at a higher bitrate than Betacam SX: 30 Mbit / s ( 6: 1 compression ), 40 Mbit / s ( 4: 1 compression ) or 50 Mbit / s ( 3. 3: 1 compression ).

Comparable formats include Sony's Digital Betacam, launched in 1993, and MPEG IMX, launched in 2001.

MPEG IMX is a 2001 development of the Digital Betacam format.

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.

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

* Betacam IMX ( Sony )

Sony claims that at 50 Mbit / s it offers visual quality that is comparable to Digital Betacam MPEG IMX is not supported in the XDCAM EX product line.

* Betacam IMX ( Sony )

It would eventually be replaced by cheaper systems using video compression, most notably Sony's Digital Betacam ( still heavily used as a electronic field production ( EFP ) recording format by professional television producers ) that were introduced into the network's television studios.

Sony Betacam SP Camcorder “ Digital 1000 ”.

All Betacam variants from ( plain ) analog recording Betacam to Betacam SP and digital recording Digital Betacam ( and additionally, HDCAM & HDCAM SR ), use the same shape videocassettes, meaning vaults and other storage facilities do not have to be changed, when upgrading to a new format.

DigiBeta, the common name for Digital Betacam, went on to become the single most successful professional broadcast digital recording video tape format in history.

Digital Betacam L tape

Digital Betacam ( commonly referred to as DigiBeta, D-Beta, DBC or simply Digi ) was launched in 1993.

The Digital Betacam format records a lossless 3 to 1 DCT-compressed digital component video signal at 10-bit YUV 4: 2: 2 sampling in NTSC ( 720 × 486 ) or PAL ( 720 × 576 ) resolutions at a bitrate of 90 Mbit / s plus four channels of uncompressed 48 kHz / 20 bit PCM-encoded digital audio.

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

The final Betacam SP camcorder was the BVW-600, which paired a digital professional video camera front section, very similar to the one on the DigiBeta DVW-700, with an integrated Betacam SP recorder.

Like every other Betacam camera system, and unlike the DigiBeta DVW-700, the camera could not play back in color without the use of an outboard adapter.

In the professional and broadcast video industry, Sony's Betacam, derived from Betamax as a professional format, became one of several standard formats ; production houses exchange footage on Betacam videocassettes, and the Betacam system became the most widely used videotape format in the ENG ( Electronic News Gathering ) industry, replacing the U-matic tape format ( which was the first practical and cost-effective portable videotape format for broadcast television, signaling the end of 16 mm film — and the phrase " film at 11 " often heard on the six-o-clock newscast, before the film had been developed ).

A followup format called M-II — effectively the Panasonic enhancement of M-format as SP was Sony's enhancement of Betacam — was a great improvement.

Sony continued its hold on the professional market with its ever-expanding 1 / 2 " ( 1. 27 cm ) component video Betacam family ( introduced in 1982 ), which, in its digital variants, is still among the professional market leaders.

There is anecdotal evidence that some TV stations purchased ED-Beta equipment as a low-cost alternative to professional Betacam equipment, prompting speculation that Sony's management took steps to prevent its consumer ( ED-Beta ) division from cannibalizing the sales of its more lucrative professional video division.

Once Betacam became the de facto standard of the broadcast industry, its position in the professional market mirrored VHS's dominance in the home video market.

But in the key area of video recording, Betacam and Betamax are completely different.

The Betacam quickly became the standard for both broadcast news and in-studio video editing.

In colloquial use, " Betacam " singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself.

The cassettes are available in two sizes: S and L. The Betacam camcorder can only load S magnetic tapes, while television studio sized video tape recorders ( VTR ) designed for video editing can play both S and L tapes.

In addition to improvements in video quality, the Betacam configuration of an integrated professional video camera / recorder led to its rapid adoption by electronic news gathering ( ENG ) organizations.

Betamax records relatively low resolution composite video using a heterodyne color recording system and only two recording heads, while Betacam uses four heads to record in component format, at a much higher linear tape speed ( 10, 15 cm / s compared with Betamax ' 1, 87 cm / s ), resulting in much higher video and audio quality.

Betacam was initially introduced as a camera line along with a video cassette player.

The BVW-40 enabled for the first time editing to a Betacam master, and if set up and wired correctly, true component video editing.