‘Betamax didn’t die. It just evolved and got better’. Today we look at an easy way to identify NTSC VHS tape and explain how Betamax, first introduced in 1975 evolved into the world’s most successful broadcast production video formats.
Analogue video recorders and camcorders recorded different types of signal onto videotape depending on which country they were intended to be sold. Whilst there is a long list of which countries use PAL, NTSC or SECAM broadcasting the general rule of thumb is that USA & Japan was NTSC, most of Europe, New Zealand and Australia was PAL. France and parts of Eastern Europe used SECAM.
- PAL – Phase Alternate Line
- NTSC – National Television System Committee
- SECAM – Sequential colour with memory
PAL, NTSC or SECAM?
You can’t usually tell what type of recoding PAL, NTSC or SECAM is on a tape because they all share common cassette shells and use exactly the same 1/2″ tape format. There are sometimes clues in how the cassettes or packaging is labelled. PAL market blank tapes tended to be marked as E60 for 1hr, E120 for 2hrs etc. Meanwhile NTSC market blank tapes were marked T60 for 1hr etc. However, it was perfectly possible to use either cassette in any machine.
If you have a VHS or camcorder tape that may have originated outside the UK, doesn’t play in colour, shows an squashed image or plays at the incorrect speed then it could be an NTSC or SECAM tape. We can digitise the tape correctly to a modern digital format.
Betamax went digital and then HD
We show side-by-side comparisons between Sony Betamax tape, Sony BetacamSP and a full sized Digital Betacam tape. The Betacam family of tapes were based on the same cassette format as Betamax.
It’s true that Betamax failed to compete with VHS in the home video market but Sony didn’t give up on their robust 1/2″ video cassette format. Betamax tapes were relatively small making them ideal for use in video cameras. Sony broadcast modified the Betamax tape formula which became Betacam. The first Betacam tapes were interchangeable with Betamax tapes.
So Betamax didn’t die at all. Under the Betacam brand the it improved and was used in 1980s and 90s broadcast television and commercial video production right up to and including high definition. HDCAM and HDCAM SR were also based on the same cassette format which was standardised in 2005 across the television production world.
Learn more about our home video to digital conversion services or see our broadcast tape conversion service.