Format Terminology (page 2)
Video8/Hi8, 270/400 Lines, Mono or Stereo
Kodak released Video8 in 1984. Users were enjoying their VHS decks, but the size of the tape made camcorders extremely bulky. Kodak's miniature tape was about 20% the size of the clunkier VHS and allowed the creation of extremely portable cameras. Sony produced an upgraded version of Video8 called Hi8 (which stands for High Band) with significantly improved image quality. Hi8 players can play Video8 tapes, but not the other way around.
Digital formats
As the sun set on the 20th century, digital was just coming to consumer video in America. The equipment was changing rapidly, as was the method of distribution. Largely now, video was either transferred by DVD to large, multi-channel home theaters, or, in an interesting turn, watched at rather low resolutions on portable devices.
Digital 8: 500 Lines of Resolution
Digital8 is a highly-improved version of Video8, launched in 1999. It uses the same tapes as Hi8, but it moves the tape at twice the speed. The quality of Digital8 is the same as that of Mini DV, but the decks and camcorders never really took off. Unfortunately, the format is now considered dead by many.
DV and Its Variants
In 1995, Sony announced that it was releasing two cameras that would use digital (rather than analog) video, meaning lossless duplication and 25% more lines of resolution than Hi8, among other things. Other manufacturers like JVC and Panasonic rapidly followed suit. Professional videographers flocked to the new format, and it wasn't uncommon to see a bunch of dinky football-sized cameras mixed in with huge Betacams on the press riser at events. Indie moviemakers even started using them instead of 16mm film (the 2004 Sundance sensation, Open Water, was filmed with Sony DSR-PD150s and DCR-VX2000s). Soon afterwards several "professional" versions of DV appeared, each of which touted improvements on the vanilla versions.
There are three popular versions of the DV standard:
Mini DV: 500 Lines
Mini DV cassettes can store 60 or 90 minutes, depending on which tape speed you use. The very small tape size (65x48x12mm) makes them very popular and easy to transport.
DVCAM: 500 Lines
Sony developed DVCAM, geared towards wedding, corporate and industrial videographers. It uses the same tapes as Mini DV, but the transport moves 33% faster through the camera, allowing for wider data stripes across the tape. Cameras that can record DVCAM can also record and play back in standard DV mode.
DVCPRO: 500 Lines
Panasonic launched DVCPRO for professional television journalists, with price tags that figure accordingly. A DVCPRO editing deck can cost as much as two used cars. DVCPRO uses a different type of tape and is able to give extremely precise edits with linear editing systems. There are two additional variants of DVCPRO: DVCPRO50, which has a bitrate twice as high as DVCPRO, and a high-definition variant called DVCPRO HD or DVPRO100. DVCPRO achieves these features by higher tape transport speeds. DVCPRO50 runs the tape twice as fast as standard DVCPRO and DVCPRO100 runs it four times as fast. Therefore a 66-minute DVCPRO tape will last 16 minutes and 30 seconds in DVCPRO100 mode.
