Digital Recording Formats

Betacam SX format released by Sony Corporation in 1996. It’s a component digital format that has a sampling ratio of 4:2:2 and a 10 :1 MPEG 2 compression ratio. The recording is done on a 1/2-inch metal-particle videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format supports up to four digital audio tracks plus a time code. The maximum recording time for Betacam SX is 184 minutes, and the tape moves through the transport at a play speed of 59.6 millimeters/sec, or 2.3 inches/sec.

D-1 {4:2:2} component digital format was introduced in 1986 and has since become the industry standard for uncompressed digital video recording. The recording is made on a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The maximum recording time for the format is 90 minutes. The format supports up to four digital audio channels plus a cue track. For color correction of standard definition material, the D-1 format is by far the best format to use because it represents the highest quality available and has no video compression.

D-2 format is a composite digital format that records information onto a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette and runs at a speed of 5.185 inches/sec, or 131.7 millimeters/sec. The D-2 format has four digital audio channels and supports a maximum recording time of 126 minutes.

D-3 format is a composite digital format developed by the NHK in 1991. It records the information onto a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette at a speed of 3.28 inches/sec, or 83.88 millimeters/sec. It has a maximum recording time of 246 minutes. It supports up to four channels of digital audio and has one channel allocated for the time code. It’s a format that is widely used throughout the broadcast industry.

D-5 (4:2:2) component digital format was released in 1994 by the Panasonic corporation. The format uses the same type of cassette as the D-3 format, which uses a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format also has four digital audio channels and a dedicated time-code channel. The maximum playing time for D-5 is 124 minutes. There is a high-definition television (HDTV) adapter, which can be added in order to permit HDTV recordings with a four-to-one compression ratio.

D-6 is a compression-free, component digital HDTV recording format developed by Philips and Toshiba. The recording is made onto a 3/4-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette, providing a maximum recording time of 64 minutes. It also has twelve channels of audio along with a time-code channel.

D-7 (DVCPRO) format was developed by the Panasonic Corporation. The format was developed for use within industrial and broadcast applications, generally intended for ENG applications. It records the information using a special MP or metal-particle 6-mm videotape with a maximum recording time of 184 minutes. The format uses a digital sampling ratio of 4:1:1, which means that the luminance information is at full resolution; however, the chrominance resolution is half of what it is in 4:2:2. This is a component digital format that has a compression ratio of five to one and also has two digital audio tracks.

DCT (Digital Component Technology) format is a 4:2:2 component digital format developed by the Ampex Corporation. The format records onto a 3/4-inch- or 19-mm-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format has a compression ratio of two to one and supports up to four channels of audio and a time-code channel. The DCT format has a maximum recording time of 208 minutes.

Digital Betacam format released by Sony Corporation in 1995. As with Betacam SP, Digital Betacam uses a 1/2-inch (12.7-mm) videotape enclosed within a cassette that is specially marked for use within a Digital Betacam machine. It is a 4:2:2 component digital format with a two-to-one compression ratio, along with four digital audio tracks and a time-code track. The maximum playing time is 124 minutes. This format is widely used throughout the industry and provides excellent results for color correction.

D-9 or Digital S format was developed by the JVC Corporation and is a component digital format. It has a sampling ratio of 4:2:2 and the recording is made on a 1/2-inch metal-particle videotape enclosed within a cassette. It actually uses the same cassette shell that is used for the VHS format. The format supports up to four digital audio tracks and the tape moves through the transport at a speed of 2.1 inches/sec. It has a compression ratio of 3.3 :1 and a maximum recording time of 104 minutes.

DV/DVC format is a component digital recording format that has a five-to-one compression ratio. It also supports up to two channels of digital audio. The information is recorded on a special 6-mm metal-evaporated videotape enclosed within a cassette. The format has a maximum recording time of 6.9 hours, using the long play mode with a DVCAM 184-minute videocassette. It has a sampling ratio of 4:1:1 in NTSC and 4:2:0 in PAL. It is widely used for consumer and professional applications.

DVCAM format from Sony is a component digital recording format. It supports up to two channels of digital audio and has a maximum recording time of 184 minutes, recording on a special 6-mm metal-evaporated cassetteenclosed videotape. The format is generally intended for professional or industrial applications. In NTSC, it records with a sampling ratio of 4:1:1, which means that the luminance information is at full resolution; however, the chrominance resolution is half of what it is in 4:2:2. When used in PAL, the sampling ratio is 4:2:0, which means that there is full luminance resolution as in 4:2:2; however, the chrominance only has half resolution on every other scanning line.

DVCPRO 50 format is a component digital format that uses a sampling ratio of 4:2:2 and has a compression ratio of 3.3 : 1. It has a maximum recording time of 90 minutes and supports up to four channels of digital audio. The information is recorded on a cassette-enclosed 6.35-mm-wide videotape.

Digital 8 format from Sony is a component digital format that has a sampling ratio of 4:1:1 in NTSC and 4:2:0 in PAL. It uses a compression ratio of five to one. The format records the information onto an 8-mm-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette running at a speed of 28.666 millimeters/sec, or 1.12 inches/sec. The maximum recording time is 90 minutes on either a metal-evaporated or metal-particle videotape, and it supports up to two channels of digital audio.

HDCAM is an HDTV format that records a digital HDTV signal plus four channels of audio onto a 1/2-inch-wide videotape enclosed within a cassette, with a compression ratio of 4.4 to 1. The HDCAM format was introduced in 1997 and is basically to HDTV what Digital Betacam is to standard-definition television (SDTV). The maximum recording time for HDCAM is 124 minutes.

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