video tapes format

8/7/2019 Video Tapes Format

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Video Tapes Format

Look at this comparison chart on the major quality differences between some of the popular consumer and professional formats.

Keep in mind that the greater the bandwidth (frequency in MHz) of the luminancepart of the signal, and the greater number of horizontal lines of resolution, theclearer the video picture will initially appear to be.

VHS Beta SP S-VHS DVCAM D-1

Luminancein MHz

3.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 5.75

HorizontalResolution in TV Lines

240 360 400 440 460

You will note that as you move from earlier VHS recorders on the left to the bestprofessional machines on the right, that both the amount of luminanceinformation and the lines of resolution increase.

Recall that some engineers now prefer the term "luma" instead of "luminance"when referring to the black-and-white portion of the video signal. The term"luminance" is still widely used in video.

ONE INCH REEL TO REEL

Earlier we mentioned the two-inch tape that started the whole video recordingprocess. After almost three decades of use, the two-inch quad format gave wayto one-inch tape. Initially there were "Type A" and "Type B" versions of the one-inch format.

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp017.htm#resolution

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp017.htm#resolution



Name: VHS

Dimensions: 7 3/8 x 4 1/16 x 1

Tape Width: ½ inch

Horizontal Resolution: 240 lines

Year Introduced: 1976

JVC introduced VHS in 1976, the first successful consumer videotape formats. Atthe time, VHS has the potential of recording eight hour capacity (although thiscapacity has recently increased to ten hours with the advent of T-200 VHSvideocassettes).

Description: VHS (also commonly referred to as ½ inch) was designed to be aconsumer format used mostly for playback and recording on home VCRs. Itsmain advantage over similar tape formats is its maximum record time. Because

of the popularity of VHS machines in the marketplace, it is has always been thevideotape format of choice for distribution. However, the video and audio qualityof VHS tape does not lend itself for professional production or post-production.



Name: Super-VHS (S-VHS)

Dimensions: 7 3/8 x 4 1/16 x 1

Tape Width: ½ inch



Description: Super-VHS is an improvement on video and audio qualities of theVHS format and was designed primarily for the acquisition of video footage byprofessionals who could not afford expensive production equipment. Many S-VHS decks will record and playback regular VHS tapes – however, S-VHS tapeswill not playback on VHS decks.

Name: Betacam SP

Dimensions (5-30 min-pictured on left): 6 1/8 x 3 ¾ x 15/16(60/90 min-pictured on right): 9 15/16 x 5 11/16 x 15/16

Tape Width: 1/2 inch





Description: Betacam SP is the most widely used tape format in the professionaland broadcast industries. Even though portable Betacam SP decks andcamcorders can only record up to 30 minutes of video, larger-sized decks canrecord up to 90 minutes of material.

Name: DV

Dimensions: 4 7/8 x 3 1/16 x 9/16

Tape Width: 6.35mm

Horizontal Resolution: Up to 500 lines


Description: DV is the first ‘high-quality’ videotape format available to theconsumer market. This format digitally compresses each video frame to allow

video information to be stored on a very narrow tape.

Name: DVC-Pro

Dimensions: 4 7/8 x 3 1/16 x 9/16

Tape Width: 6.35mm





Description: This tape format was introduced by Panasonic as their professional

version of the DV format. It uses a similar compression to DV but the tape speedis nearly twice as fast, which improves the bit-error rate, and results in an imagethat is comparable to the quality of Betacam SP.

Name: DVCAM

Dimensions: 4 7/8 x 3 1/16 x 9/16

Tape Width: 6.35mm



Description: DVCAM was introduced by Sony as their professional DV format.The recording tape speed of DVCAM is faster than DV but is slower compared toDVC-Pro.



Name: Mini-DV

Dimensions: 2 9/16 x 1 7/8 x 7/16

Tape Width: 6.35mm



Description: Same as DV except that the videotape is housed in a smaller shell,designed to work in palm-sized digital camcorders. Mini-DV is very popular asthe consumer DV format.

Name: Hi-8

Dimensions: 3 11/16 x 2 7/16 x 9/16

Tape Width: 8mm



Description: Hi-8 is an improvement on the 8mm format and was introducedprimarily for industrial customers that could not afford expensive, ‘broadcast-



quality’ equipment. Since its introduction, Hi-8 has become an extremely popular as a consumer format.

Name: Digital 8 (Is recorded on Hi-8 Tape)

Dimensions: 3 11/16 x 2 7/16 x 9/16

Tape Width: 8mm



Description: Similar to the Hi-8 format except that the video information is digitally

compressed before being recorded to tape. Digital 8 video is recorded on Hi-8tapes.

video tapes format

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