A VHS cassette is a hard shell cassette containing a 12.7 mm (7½ inch) wide magnetic tape wound between two spools. This set-up allows the tape to slowly pass over the various playback and recording heads of a VCR. The thicker type of tape also helps to avoid jams during playback. These tapes can hold any amount of material, ranging all the way up to 8 hours, depending on the recording mode. The best resolution appears when the recorder is set on Standard Play. Commercial prerecorded tapes are almost always recorded in this mode. We can transfer VHS to DVD with exact precision. Any speed reduction, to Long Play or Extended Play, will result in the corresponding video quality reduction as well. When we convert VHS to DVD, our movies will reflect this relationship.

This tape is commonly used in most camcorders, as it was one of the original formats for camcorder tapes. VHS-C’s are smaller than VHS tapes, but operate on the same magnetic tape principles. The cassette houses one main spool and another take-up spool. Just like when we copy VHS to DVD, a geared wheel moves the VHS-C tape forward. These tapes can range anywhere from 30 minutes to 120 minutes. The VHS-C conversion to DVD is completed with the help of an adapter.


 

In 1985, Sony of Japan introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras. Because of its compact size, Video8 became very popular in the home movie market. The 8mm magnetic tape is wound between two spools, held in a hard shelled cassette. These tapes may look very similar to audio cassettes, but they function very similarly to VHS tapes. These tapes captured between 90 and 120 minutes of footage, depending on which recorder is used.


 

To compete with the growing technology, the Video8 evolved into the Hi-8. The Hi-8 tapes have a resolution of 400 horizontal lines and a recording time of 120 minutes.

Reflections Video recommends this media for those customers who wish to participate in editing home movies. The miniDV features intraframe compression, a standard interface for transfer to non-linear editing systems, and good video transfer quality. These 65 x 48 x 12 mm, or “S-size�, hard shell cassettes usually run between 60 and 90 minutes, but 80 minute tapes are also available and the cassettes can even record 120 minutes of video in EP/LP mode. This “tape� is actually consists of digital signal rather than analog signal, unlike its magnetic tape predecessors. The miniDV format supports both 12bit and 16bit audio tracks. Reflections Video uses 16bit as the standard for digital tape transfers.

This tape is the digital variant of the Video8 tapes. It is Sony’s brand of the digital hi-8 tape and very comparable in video conversion quality to the miniDV.