A Quick Guide to Camcorder Formats
Digital8 and Mini DV, 8mm and Hi8, VHS and S-VHS? A quick guide to camcorder formats.There are lots of camcorder formats in use today. They come in a myriad of confusing names that all sound alike. If you've ever wanted to find out what the differences are between camcorder formats like VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C and S-VHS-C, keep reading. If you're curious about the distinctions between 8mm, Hi8, Digital8 and DV then this guide to the camcorder formats will be very helpful.
For each type of videotape, there are some important features to examine. First, there's the picture quality of the camcorder format, which is expressed in lines of resolution. The more lines of resolution you have, the better your picture will look. Next is audio dub. Audio dub is the ability to record audio over existing video without erasing the video portion. Next is the format's ability to resist generation loss, or the video noise that occurs when you copy a tape. Combine these features with factors like tape length and size of the tape (and camcorder) and you have a pretty good idea of the features that differentiate the camcorder formats. Let's take a closer look at them format by f…
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