Can I use HDCAM tape for recording HDCAM SR video?
No. Sony’s HDCAM SR (superior resolution) format records more color at a higher resolution. But, you don’t get more color and more resolution without creating more data. And that’s why HDCAM SR requires a new kind of tape. HDCAM SR records in 4:4:4 full bandwidth RGB color, while HDCAM is a 3:1:1 format. Plus, SR has a higher picture resolution, 1920×1080 pixels, compared to 1440×1080 for HDCAM. All that additional sampling translates into a lot more data. In HQ mode, the data transfer rate required by SR is 880 Mbps (megabits per second) or over 6 times the data rate of 140 Mbps for HDCAM. Even in standard mode at 440 Mbps, SR still moves more than 3 times the data that HDCAM does. Dealing with the extra data requires two things — a better compression algorithm and a higher density recording media (tape). On the compression side, SR employs the new MPEG 4 compression scheme which is more efficient than the DCT codec used with regular HDCAM. On the recording media side, the new SR tap
