[SBE] Betacam tape types

[Brian Hughes]

Hi All,

I'm not an expert on Betacam tapes so I thought I might ask here. We recently received some older PVW-2600 series SP decks and I'm in the process of checking them out.

I've currently got 3 tapes in front of me and I'm not sure of the difference between two of them. The one I know is a Betacam SP alignment tape that works fine with the PVW, it has the red slider for a rec inhibit. The other two tapes play fine but are standard Betacam tapes, no SP. One is a BCT-20K, the other shows a BCT-20K NP 2.

What I don't understand is the differences between the two non-SP tapes and the use of tabs underneath. One tape simply has the rec inhibit tab and won't record on the SP deck, as I assume it shouldn't. The other tape has the same rec inhibit slot but also has 3 slots near the middle, like an SP tape. The 2nd tape wouldn't record until my boss punched out the same tabs as the SP tape. He doesn't know the difference between these tape either.

Any ideas?

TIA,
Brian Hughes, SBE-CBTE
Broadcast Systems Engineer
Broadcast Television Engineering
Napa Valley College
x3258