In article ,
Mark Carver wrote:
Still easily obtainable as they are shared with the pro BetaCam system.

Only the original Betacam oxide tapes (pre Betacam SP and therefore pre
1988) will work in domestic Betamax machines.

Indeed. Which is way I said BetaCam rather than BetaCam SP. But the tapes
are still available, or were last time I looked.

The SP/SX/DigiBeta/M50 tapes
are metal formulations. Magnetically they won't work, and mechanically
they'll damage the Betamax heads.

What about the last generation high band Betamax machines? I'd guess they
used metal tape?

The Betacam oxide tapes did work very well though :-)

In any case if a Betamax machine comes with a selection of serviceable
tapes, what's the problem for timeshift use ?

Yup. And if the tape is oxide shedding it's no big deal to replace it with
stuff from a VHS cassette. That's what I did with my V2000 machine.

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Dave Plowman London SW
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