If the camera outputs a downconverted, PAL in your case, standard definition component signal, then yes, you can record it to BetaSP.

As for lines of rez, you're getting horizontal and vertical mixed up. The pixel dimensions of the SD downconvert PAL would be 720x576, and after all the filtering that goes on, you can measure about >500 lines of horizontal resolution, and probably about 400 vertically because of the filtering to avoid interlaced twitter in the PAL (or NTSC for that matter) system. If you could output a progressive PAL signal from the camera without that filtering, you'd get >500 lines measured vertical resolution. The pixel resolution is like the theoretical max, and measured lines resolution is sort of a measured practical reality.

Graeme

> regardless of it being 720p, opposite to what somebody said.

Well you can sort of downsample it to NTSC or PAL, but as Graeme suggests: it will be nothing like 720p when it comes back off the tape. You cannot actually record 720p on anything but a digital medium.