Hints: Home User Formats

We have two different classifications of video formats and the “Home User Formats” is the most common. These formats are VHS, VHS-C, SVHS, SVHS-C, Video8, Hi8, Digital8 and MiniDV.

Just in case you aren’t sure what you’ve got, here are some of the formats we cover at The Video Copy Company, and a bit of info about each…just click on the pictures below.

Each format pretty much represents an era of home video and a significant change in the technology and quality available at the time.

VHS (Video Home System) is the oldest format on this list, being released to the UK public in 1977, and by 1980 had beaten its closest rival, Betamax. It is also, without a doubt, the most popular format we convert here at The Video Copy Company.

Though bigger in size but poorer in quality, VHS boasted longer recording times than Betamax, which sparked the interest of the general public as they found it was more suited to recording longer sporting events, and with the advent of the long play facility in newer VCRs, those long recording lengths doubled, so an E180 video tape, which would normally hold 3 hours of footage could now hold a massive 6 hours!

VHS could also be used in camcorders, but these where huge, cumbersome devices. In the early days, the user would hold the camera in one arm and would also need to carry a heavy tape recorder in the other.

This prompted JVC, the inventor of VHS, to produce a smaller, more compact version of the VHS tape; VHS-C in 1982.

This tape was the same thickness as VHS, but was about a third the size in depth and width. Though it could only record for a fraction of the longest running VHS tapes, it was still a massive advancement as the camcorders could now be smaller, lighter, and above all else, cheaper!

Not only that, but as the thickness of the cassette was the same as VHS, VHS-C tapes could be placed into a special housing which allowed the tapes to go straight in to the VCR machines at home and immediately watched.

In 1985, Video8 was launched. As opposed to VHS-C, whose tape width was 12.7mm (half an inch) in a 25mm (1 inch) thick housing, Video8 used 8mm tape in a 15mm (half an inch) thick housing. The much smaller size was paired with longer recording times.

Video8 was in direct competition with VHS and VHS-C, and though the video quality of three formats were comparable, Video8 far outshone VHS in terms of audio quality.

The format was a huge success in the home video market, mainly due to the convenient size of the tapes and associated cameras, making it much easier to use on holiday.

Video8 is probably our second most popular format to transfer here at The Video Copy Company.

In around 1987, JVC made another advancement in home video by releasing SVHS (Super VHS). The dimensions of an SVHS tape were exactly the same as a VHS tape. The difference was the quality of the recording. SVHS could produce images that were nearly twice as sharp as and more detailed than standard VHS. The user would need a new SVHS VCR to record and play back tapes in this new quality, but the interest was there – especially from semi-professional and professional video companies.

SVHS was never considered a “broadcast quality” format (though some local TV stations in Canada did use it in the years before digital), but it was still a very good and cost-effective method of producing higher quality images that was available to the general public.

Again, JVC released a compact version called SVHS-C, which boasted the same small size as VHS-C, but with the extra sharpness and detail provided by the larger SVHS tape.

SVHS-C tapes could also be placed in the same VHS-C housing to allow for immediate playback in a home VCR machine.

SVHS-C didn’t really gain the public attention of VHS-C, mainly due to the introduction of Hi8 in 1989.

As the public was already used to the benefits of smaller tapes, and as such smaller camcorders, Hi8 was a natural progression for those who wanted SVHS quality camcorder recordings, with the enhanced audio quality that Hi8 offered.

Hi8 cassettes had exactly the same dimensions as Video8, and old Video8 recordings could be played back on Hi8 devices. In most cases, Hi8 camcorders could even record on old Video8 tapes as well!

Needless to say, Hi8 was a success in terms of the public, ranging from home user to semi-professional video enthusiasts.

However, in 1995, The DV format was introduced. DV stands for “Digital Video” and offers a massive improvement in both image and audio quality.

Several companies released their own professional versions of DV tape, which were large and of very high quality, but it was the introduction of MiniDV that really changed things. MiniDV was a tiny cassette – the likes of which the general public hadn’t seen before. MiniDV was largely responsible for ending the dominant run of Hi8 as it was seen as such a drastic improvement in both quality and size that, again, it made taking a camcorder on holiday so much easier.

Though MiniDV was initially introduced as a consumer avenue in to the DV market, due to the quality of recording, relative price and size, it was also adopted by semi-professionals, professional videographers, and even news gathering organisation as the format of choice.

In an attempt to compete with MiniDV, Sony introduced Digital8, which essentially took the technology of MiniDV and applied to the Hi8 format. Sony even licenced their Digital8 technology to other companies who produced camcorders for this format.

Looking at technical specifications, Digital8 and MiniDV were identical as far as recording quality was concerned; even the tape durations of 60 minutes were the same.

The benefit of Digital8 was that this new, higher quality recording could be attained using old Hi8 and in some cases Video8 tapes, though the 90 minute durations in Hi8 mode would be cut down to 60 minutes as the tape would run faster.

Some Digital8 camcorders even had the ability to play back Video8 and Hi8 footage, which was very useful for those wanting to transfer footage to a computer as the camcorder itself would convert the old analogue signal into a digital one, outputting it through a FireWire (IEEE1394) cable.

As well-loved as Digital8 was with enthusiasts and semi-professional videographers, it’s popularity eventually fizzled out to MiniDV.

That’s the brief history lesson over with!

Some of these formats – especially from the VHS family – can prove to be quite bulky, and if you have different formats cluttering up your shelves, getting these tapes transferred to some other media can free up lots of space. Not to mention the longer you leave these tapes lying around, the more chance there is of them succumbing to damage and the risk of losing these precious memories forever.

Here at The Video Copy Company, we provide various options when it comes to backing up your Home User Format tapes;

The most common conversion that we do here is a Video to DVD Transfer. This involves running the video tape through one of our industrial video players and into a machine which will convert the video from, in most cases, an analogue signal into a digital one, burning it onto a DVD-R disc.

We offer two different types of DVD-R disc; Standard DVD-R and Gold Archive DVD-R.

DVD-R was introduced in 1997 by Pioneer and is supported by most DVD players (there is another format called DVD+R which is supported by fewer DVD players. It is important you know which format your DVD player prefers as we cannot be held responsible for converting to the wrong format). We can convert to DVD+R but you must let us know you require this format before we do the conversion.

DVD-R was supposed to supposed to last forever, but it was later discovered that this was not the case. The data burnt to a Standard DVD-R can last between 2-10 years. Sometimes more, sometimes less. At The Video Copy Company, we only use A-grade discs, so our recordings should last 10 years or more.

Gold Archive DVD-R was then developed, which uses layers of real gold and silver to lock the burnt-in information to be hold in place for up to 100 years. You can find out more in-depth information about the differences between Standard and Gold Archive DVD-Rs here…

Though the picture quality, audio quality and storage size are all the same, and both discs can be physically damaged with scratches and finger prints, a well stored Gold Archive DVD-R should last for generations.

An increasingly more common conversion that we also do here is a Video to MP4 Transfer. This involves running the video tape through one of our industrial video players and into a computer, which will then convert the video file into a format that the general public can easily handle, such as MP4.

We can convert the video into other formats, such as MPEG2, AVI, Quicktime, to name but a few. It depends what you want to do with the video and how much storage space is available.

MP4 is the most common format used as it is compatible with most modern smart TVs, PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets, video game consoles and so on.

Once your videos are converted, they can then be copied to a USB device like a pen or an external hard drive, depending on how much footage you have. We like to convert videos to a high quality MP4 file as this will be suitable for re-editing in the future and will look great on high quality TVs. When deciding how much storage space is required, one hour of footage takes up roughly 6GB of space.

It is also important that you let us know if you are using a PC or a Mac as the two systems may require the pen or hard drive to be formatted in a different way. You can find more information about external storage devices here.