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Formats

VHS Formats 8MM Formats Mini DV Beta Formats 3/4" Formats

Which video tape format do you have?

Here are the ones Video Kitchen supports.

(not to scale)

VHS ~ S-VHS	VHS Tape is the regular tape you put in your VCR at home. We recommend you always use SP mode when recording on VHS to get the best possible quality. It has a higher quality version known as Super VHS that will only play in machines designed to play Super VHS.
VHS-C ~ S-VHS-C	VHS-C is a compact version of VHS, that you can easily use in your regular VCR with a special adapter available in most stores. Again we recommend using SP mode for the best quality. S-VHS-C is a high quality version that will only play in S-VHS/S-VHS-C cameras and VCR's.
8mm ~ Hi8 ~ Digital8	This one is most common in 3 formats each one is higher quality than the next - 8mm, Hi-8 & Digital 8. There are no adapters that allow you to use these in a regular VCR and VCR's that play them are often expensive. Here at Video Kitchen we can convert them to regular VHS tapes. We recommend as always using SP mode for your recordings.
MiniDV ~ DVCam	Mini-DV is becoming very popular because of it's size and quality. There are no adapters to play it in a regular VCR, but we can convert it to a regular VHS tape. We always recommend SP mode for this one, because after a while pixelization becomes common in LP mode. DVCAM is a more professional format that we also support. DVCAM records only about 40 minutes of video on a 60 MiniDV tape. A new use of the MiniDV tape is to record MPEG HDV video on it. We do not yet support this use.
DVCAM ~ DVCpro ~ MiniDV	The three tapes to the left are similar except for size. The MiniDV tape shows up everywhere from consumer to professional. The yellow-top DVCpro is a Panasonic-only family of tapes used by professionals. The DVCAM tape in the back is a Sony family of tapes used by professionals. Lengths of up to three hours are available on DVCAM tapes. We do not have equipment to support the DVCpro tape family, but we do support the other two.
MicroMV	MicroMV tapes are used in some very small Sony camcorders. The tape is smaller than the popular MiniDV tape and is generally recorded with MPEG2 video. We can make copies from these tapes.
8mm ~ Super 8mm Film	Commonly known as "the old home movie films". They typically came in two types 8mm and Super 8. They come in different sizes depending on whether they were edited or not, anywhere from 50ft reels to 400ft reels. Transfer them to video tape now before they disintegrate and are gone for ever.
Baby BetaSP ~ Betamax	The consumer version known as Betamax went head to head with VHS many years ago but lost. Betamax VCR's are almost impossible to find, but we can convert them to VHS. BetaSP is a professional format commonly used today at TV stations and for cable broadcast. We can convert to and from this format.
Big BetaSP (Full Size)	Big BetaSP is just a larger version of Baby BetaSP that comes in longer tape lengths. It is frequently referred to as BetaCamSP. The SP tape is a metal particle tape (MP). Older BetaCam tapes may be on metal oxide. We do not support that format. Also the tape is used for a DigiBeta format where digital data is recorded on the tape -- also not supported at Video Kitchen.
3/4"	3/4" is an older professional tape format still used in some production houses.