Clients client has informed my client that they will be delivering the video they want on the web as Beta SP. Now, last time I checked, Beta SP means they have it on tape only. My two questions are:
1, is there a digital format that people refer to informally as Beta SP (please god!) or are they really going to send a tape?
2, if it is on tape, I will get to request it ripped to a format of my choice. Which format leaves me with the most options to convert it to multiple other formats such as wmv, quicktime, etc to offer people the most choice in watching it on the net. I am thinking mpeg? Am I right? Most other formats would be compressed to greater or lesser amounts already and might be with proprietary codecs (like avi and mpeg-ii I think?)
Appreciate any advice, and no, sorry it isn’t p0rn
Beta SP was the biggest video tape format for pro use for many years. A cousin of the wonderful Beta consumer format, but with higher quality tapes, faster tape speed, etc. A typical Beta SP tape length is 30 minutes.
To play back a Beta SP tape requires a Beta SP player. Ordinary Beta VCRs won’t work.
As to which digital format to convert to there is only one family of high compatibility format: MPEG. Now you could do MPEG3 or MPEG4, each of which has several variations, etc. MPEG3 would be playable on the most number of different systems now, but MPEG4 is the way to go down the road.
I would save the video to a DVDr, use an MPEG3 version on a web site now and upgrade later to MPEG4.
There are shops in any good sized city that will convert Beta SP to a DVD for a less-than-modest fee. Hit the Yellow Pages.
Judging from my TV experience, they probable mean that the player that will be hooked up to a computer will be a Beta SP machine-- and nothing more. Never forget Barbarian’s rule of computers-- people born before 1970 don’t understand them, and never will.
Sounds like you’ll be getting it on tape. But at least it’s on professional grade tape (as opposed to getting it on a VHS cassette).
The digital format to rip it to will depend on what formats your editing software is capable of handling. Typically you’d want it digitized to a format that will apply the least amount of compression. A raw video format would be best, but at the expense of storage space (~31MB/second of uncompressed video).
