HDCAM

SMPTE 367M, also known as SMPTE D-11, is the SMPTE standard for HDCAM. The standard specifies compression of high-definition digital video. D11 source picture rates can be 24, 24/1.001, 25 or 30/1.001 frames per second progressive scan, or 50 or 60/1.001 fields per second interlaced; compression yields output bit rates ranging from 112 to . Each D11 source frame is composed of a luminance channel at pixels and a chrominance channel at pixels. During compression, each frame's luminance channel is subsampled at , while the chrominance channel is subsampled at , meaning 3:1:1 chroma subsampling. HDCAM supports recording at 24 FPS for film production applications, but it can be configured for television production. Similar to MPEG IMX, the helical scan head drum is in diameter. The helical tracks read by the video heads in the drum, are wide. The video heads have a 15.25° azimuth. Audio is also recorded on the helical tracks. ==HDCAM SR==

HDCAM SR was introduced in 2003 and standardised in SMPTE 409M-2005. It uses a higher particle density tape and is capable of recording in 10 bits 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 RGB with a video bit rate of , and a total data rate of approximately . The increased bit rate (over HDCAM) allows HDCAM SR to capture much more of the full bandwidth of the HD-SDI signal (). Some HDCAM SR VTRs can also use a 2× mode with an even higher video bit rate of , allowing for a single 4:4:4 stream at a lower compression or two 4:2:2 video streams simultaneously. but it is no longer in widespread use. HDCAM SR storage media production was paused for five months after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami damaged the only Sony factory producing it, which triggered some migration away from the format. Production of HDCAM SR media ceased in 2023. Some HDCAM VTRs play back older Betacam variants, for example the Sony SRW-5500 HDCAM SR recorder plays back and records HDCAM and HDCAM SR tapes, and with optional hardware also plays and upconverts Digital Betacam tapes to HD format. Tape lengths are the same as for Digital Betacam, up to 40 minutes for S and 124 minutes for L tapes. In 24p mode the runtime increases to 50 and 155 minutes, respectively. HDCAM tapes are black with an orange lid, and HDCAM SR tapes black with a cyan lid. mode is known as SQ, and mode is known as HQ. Sony also announced a higher compression mode called SR Lite. As with the 440 and 880 mode, SR Lite utilizes the MPEG-4 Part 2 Simple Studio Profile but decreases the bit rate to 220 Mbit/s for 60i and for 50i. SR Lite is locked at 4:2:2 color sampling but still maintains 10 bit pixel depth. It also allows for 50 and 60p at the cost of a doubled data rate (440 Mbit/s for 60p). The Sony SRW-5800 HDCAM SR VTR has the ability to record both the left eye and right eye of 3D content to a single tape. It syncs the two eyes together and takes up twice as much space on the tape as a normal recording. Other HDSR decks also support 3D such as the SRW-1 HDCAM SR Portable VTR and the SRW-5500/5000 which can play back either channel A or channel B of the Dual Stream 4:2:2 recording. ==See also==