8 mm video format

A professional grade EFP/ENG Hi8 camcorder

An amateur grade Video8 Camcorder

The 8mm Video Format (official names: Video8, later Hi8 and finally Digital8) is an analog video recording format for the NTSC and PAL/SECAM television systems. In 1983, Sony of Japan introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras. Much smaller than the competition's VHS and Betamax video cameras, Video8 became very popular in the consumer camcorder market.

The Video8 format later saw various improvements including higher resolution (renamed Hi8), digital stereo PCM sound (for some professional grade equipment) and finally the move to digital (renamed Digital8). Its user base consisted mainly of amateurs but also saw important use in the professional field.

Overview

Like other consumer-video systems of the 1980s, Video8 uses a helical-scan head-drum to read/write video to the recording media (magnetic tape.) The drum rotates at high-speed (1800 or 3600rpm) while the tape is pulled along the drum's path. Because the tape and drum are oriented at a slight angular offset, the recording tracks are laid down as diagonally horizontal stripes. The recordings are analog. This is in direct contrast to the DAT system (digital audio tape), which uses similar media, but a different head/tape orientation (perpendicular) and additional digital-coding with the recording-modulation.

The 8mm magnetic tape is wound between two spools, held in a hard-shelled cassette. Video8 cassettes share similar size and appearance with the audiocassette, but the mechanical operation is much closer to the VHS/Betamax videocassette. Video8 cassettes come with recording-times of 60 minutes or 120 minutes (NTSC).

The video-quality of Video8 is a mixed bag, outperforming the full-size formats (VHS and Betamax) in some respects but not in others. Video resolution (measured as frequency-response and bandwidth of the recording) is comparable to VHS, with both VHS and Video8 rated at "240 horizontal lines." However, improvements (such as SuperBeta and VHS HQ circuitry) were later made to the full-size formats, giving them the lead in picture-quality. Video8's signal-stability is inferior, due to the smaller head-drum (and tape) being more sensitive to camera movement. In this respect, VHS and Betamax's larger head-drums prove to be an advantage.

The audio-quality of Video8's standard audiotrack is superior to that of the full-size formats. In VHS/Beta, the standard audio is recorded on linear-tracks along the edge of the tape, where they are especially vulnerable to tape-damage. In Video8, the standard-audio is modulated onto a carrier so that they can be recorded in the same manner as the video. This technique is called audio frequency modulation (AFM.) By the time of Video8's introudction, VHS/Beta had already incorporated AFM technology, marketing it as "Hi-Fi stereo." While VHS/Beta AFM was superior in fidelity (and always implemented in stereo), stereo was a rarity on any camcorder. Meanwhile, Video8 has always supported a standard mono AFM-track, and later high-end units offered stereo. Linear-audio does offer a capability not available with AFM -- VHS/Beta linear tracks can be independently re-recorded, without disturbing the underlying video, known as Audio Dub. This feature is available on some high-end Hi8 edit decks by virtue of a digital PCM audio track.

Camcorders

In its originally intended role as a portable video camera, Video8 excelled. Thanks to the their compact formfactor, Video8 camcorders were small enough to hold in the palm of the user's hand. Such a feat was not possible with full-sized Betamax and VHS camcorders, which operated best on sturdy tripods or strong shoulders. And even though the full-sized recorders held the advantage in recording-time (100+ minutes per cassette), Video8's 60-minute capacity served well for most users. Longer sessions generally required other infrastructure to be present (additional batteries or AC power), and hence longer recording-times offered little advantage in a true travelling environment.

Video8's only significant drawback was incompatibility with VHS equipment; tapes made with Video8 hardware could not be played on VHS hardware (and vice versa.) This problem could be overcome by "dubbing" the video; using the VCR to make a copy of the original video, as it was played by the camcorder. Each dubbing generation degrades the copied-signal, placing an upper limit on the number of times a master can be VCR-dubbed.

The VHS-C format attempted to capitalize on the hardware incompatibility between VHS and Video8. VHS-C and VHS share the same 1/2" magnetic-media, but VHS-C stores the tape in smaller cassettes. This limits VHS-C to 20 minutes of (SP) recording-time. To mitigate short endurance of VHS-C camcorders, all VHS-C camcorders offered LP and EP recording-speeds (but with compromised picture-quality.) VHS-C maintains compatibility with VHS by sharing the same recording-system and format. A mechanical adapter allows the small VHS-C cassette to be inserted (and used) by full-size VHS equipment.

Efforts were made to expand Video8 from the camcorder market into mainstream home-video. But as a replacement for fullsize VCRs, Video8 failed. It lacked the long (5+ hour) recording-time of both VHS and Betamax, offered no clear audio/video improvement, and cost more than fullsize VCRs. Quite simply, Video8 was not convincing in the home-VCR application. The rental-market for Video8 never materialized, though Sony maintained a line of Video8 home-VCRs well into the 1990s.

Among home and amateur videographers, Video8 was quite popular, popular enough for Sony to Video8 equipment for video-editing and production.

As of 2005, analog video recording is being supplanted by digital video recording. In the consumer market, analog camcorders have given way to portable digital recorders (such as Digital8 and miniDV camcorders.)

Enhancements to Video8

The format-wars in the home-VCR market led to a rapid pace of development in the camcorder market. VHS, Betamax, and Video8 all launched with a single recording-speed (2 hours for VHS and Video8, 100 minutes for Betamax.) By the time Video8 was launched, Betamax and VHS had doubled their original recording-times through the addition of a 'Long-Play' (LP) mode. Video8 later offered its own LP-mode, which also doubled its recording-time. (VHS and Betamax went one step further with a triple-duration recording-mode, which Video8 never matched.)

All three formats were introduced with monoaural (single-track) audio. Several years after launch, high-end VHS and Betamax VCRs offered Hi-Fi stereo-audio. Video8 followed suit, adding stereo-capability to high-end camcorders. When stereo-recordings are played on mono Video8 equipment, both left and right channels are summed together.

In response to Super-VHS (SVHS), Video Hi8 (short for high-band Video8) was developed. Like SVHS, Hi8 uses improved recorder electronics and media-formulation to increase picture detail. In both systems, the luminance-carrier is higher in frequency, permitting the recording of wider luminance bandwidth. Like SVHS, Hi8 is officially rated at a resolution of "400 horizontal lines." Hi8 is not backward-compatible with Video8. While Hi8 equipment can use older Video8 media (without Hi8's quality enhancements), Video8 equipment cannot play Hi8 recordings.

In the late 1980s, select models of Hi8 editing decks added digital (PCM) audio. Hi8 PCM-audio used 12-bit samples with a sampling-rate of roughly 32KHz, which is comparable to "FM-radio" -- which is to say, grossly inferior to true CD-quality. PCM-capable recorders could simultaneously record PCM-stereo in addition to the standard (analog) stereo tracks.

The last upgrade to the Video8 format came in 1998, when Sony introduced XR-capability (extended resolution) on select Video8 and Hi8 camcorders. Video8-XR and Hi8-XR used the same videocassettes, but improved luminance detail up to 10%. More importantly, XR-recordings could be played on older non-XR equipment.

Digital8

Introduced in the late 1990s, Digital8 is a digital-video (miniDV) codec using Hi8 media. In engineering terms, Digital8 and miniDV are indistinguishable at the logical-format level. Digital8 uses the same cassette-media as Video8, but otherwise bears no resemblance to the Video8 analog-video system. Some Digital8 equipment can play (not record) Hi8/Video8 recordings, but this is not a standard feature of Digital8 technology. To store the digital-encoded audio/video on a standard Video8 cassette, the tape must be pulled faster through the recorder. This means that where the same tape will record 120 minutes of analog Hi8 NTSC video or 90 minutes of analog Hi8 PAL video, it will only record 60 minutes of Digital8 PAL/NTSC video. More recent Digital8 units offer an 'LP' mode, which increases recording time to 90 minutes.

Digital8 uses Sony has licensed Digital8 technology to at least 1 other firm (Hitachi), but thus far, only Sony has released Digital8 consumer equipment.

8mm Video Tape

Compared to Digital8, the consumer miniDV format uses smaller tape-media and a correspondingly smaller cassette shell. Since both technologies share the same logical audio/video format, Digital8 can theoretically equal miniDV in A/V performance. But as of 2005, Digital8 has been relegated to the entry-level camcorder market, where price and not performance is the driving factor. Meanwhile, miniDV is the de facto standard of the digital camcorder market. miniDV equipment spans all aspects the consumer market, from the price-conscious to the technically-inclined.

Numerous manufacturers have now released camcorders that incorporate writable DVD-R as their storage medium. The DVD-R camcorder has the advantage of direct-compatibility with a large installed-base of DVD-players. As DVD-players continue to saturate consumer households, DVD-R camcorders will likely increase in popularity.

Transferring 8mm footage to a Computer for editing

Because Video8 and Hi8 are Analog-video formats, transferring either to computer requires digitization.

Some Digital8 cameras offer legacy playback of Video8 and Hi8. Those which also have a firewire socket will produce a digitized signal for capture to computer. This approach will provide noticeably sharper results than the method described in the next paragraph. It will also have the benefit if allowing you to work in the industry standard DV format on your computer.

If you don't have access to a Digital8 deck with which to digitize your Video8 or Hi8 tapes, you'll need an analog capture card or converter. Once on the computer, the footage can be edited, processed and transferred to DVD, the internet or back to tape.

Some consumer miniDV and DVD cameras feature a built in analogue to digital converter that will convert an analog video source into digital form. This is usually called 'pass through' because as the footage pass through the camcorder, it is digitized and output through its firewire connection which is then (for example) connected to your computer.

Lifespan of 8mm Tapes

It is also worth noting that 8mm tapes (like all videotape) will eventually deteriorate and lose their recorded contents over time, resulting in image noise and drop-outs building up as time goes by. Tapes older than 10 years may start to show signs of degradation. Amongst other problems, they can become sticky and jam playback units or become brittle and snap.

Ofcourse, the 8 mm format is no more prone to this than any other format. In fact, the metal particle technology used with the 8 mm formats is more durable than the metal evaporated type used with MiniDV.

Damaged videotapes can be repaired by specialist companies and usually restored to their former glory. Professional transfer centers also correct dropouts resulting in a cleaner restoration.

Like all videotape, 8mm tapes should be stored vertically out of direct sunlight, in a dry, cool dust free environment. Because 8mm tapes use a metal formulation, they are harder to erase than the oxide tapes used with VHS, SVHS and Betamax tapes. As such, carefully stored, they are at least less susceptible to magnetic fields than the older formats.