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 luminance
part of the signal, and the greater number of horizontal lines of resolution, the
clearer the video picture will initially appear to be.

VHS Beta SP S-VHS DVCAM D-1

Luminance
3.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 5.75
in MHz
Horizontal
Resolution 240 360 400 440 460
in TV Lines

You will note that as you move from earlier VHS recorders on the left to the best
professional machines on the right, that both the amount of luminance
information 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 recording
process. After almost three decades of use, the two-inch quad format gave way
to one-inch tape. Initially there were "Type A" and "Type B" versions of the one-
inch format.
But, it was the Type C version that became the next major standard, especially in
countries using the NTSC video standard.

With the one-inch Type C format, still-frame, slow- and accelerated-motion

playbacks were possible for the first time. During the 1980s, Type C (shown
here) was the dominant format in broadcasting and production facilities.

Name: U-Matic

Dimensions: 8 5/8 x 5 3/8 x 1 3/16

Tape Width: ¾ inch, ¾ inch SP

Horizontal Resolution: 330 lines

Year Introduced: 1971

Description: Commonly referred to as ¾ inch, U-matic was extremely popular for

the industrial/educational market and was the video format of choice for
electronic news gathering (ENG) during most of the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Full-sized tapes can hold up to one-hour of footage; the smaller, more portable
‘field’ decks use tapes that can record 20 minutes of video material.

Like all of the cassette tape formats, 3/4-inch U-Matic cassettes had a record
lockout function to keep important material from being accidentally erased.
When the red button (shown in the photo on the right) was removed, machines
would not record on the tape.
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. At
the time, VHS has the potential of recording eight hour capacity (although this
capacity has recently increased to ten hours with the advent of T-200 VHS
videocassettes).

Description: VHS (also commonly referred to as ½ inch) was designed to be a

consumer format used mostly for playback and recording on home VCRs. Its
main 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 the
videotape format of choice for distribution. However, the video and audio quality
of 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

Horizontal Resolution: 400 lines

Year Introduced: 1987

Description: Super-VHS is an improvement on video and audio qualities of the

VHS format and was designed primarily for the acquisition of video footage by
professionals who could not afford expensive production equipment. Many S-
VHS decks will record and playback regular VHS tapes – however, S-VHS tapes
will 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

Horizontal Resolution: 360 lines

Year Introduced: 1986

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

Year Introduced: 1996

Description: DV is the first ‘high-quality’ videotape format available to the

consumer 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

Horizontal Resolution: Up to 500 lines

Year Introduced: 1995

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 speed
is nearly twice as fast, which improves the bit-error rate, and results in an image
that 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

Horizontal Resolution: Up to 500 lines

Year Introduced: 1996

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 to
DVC-Pro.
Name: Mini-DV

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

Tape Width: 6.35mm

Horizontal Resolution: Up to 500 lines

Year Introduced: 1996

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 as
the consumer DV format.

Name: Hi-8

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

Tape Width: 8mm

Horizontal Resolution: 400 lines

Year Introduced: 1990

Description: Hi-8 is an improvement on the 8mm format and was introduced

primarily 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

Horizontal Resolution: Up to 500 lines

Year Introduced: 1999

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-8
tapes.