True. Even professional news reporters and gatherers use digital tape, albeit of different types. CNN uses Sony's Betacam SX (a slightly-compressed variant of Digital Betacam, itself a digital variant of analog Betacam, itself a professional version of 'ye olde' Betamax); Fox News uses D-9, a professional format based on (although not compatible with) Digital-VHS. The main difference between MiniDV (the "consumer-standard" digital video tape) and those professional formats is that video on the latter is recorded as uncompressed (or, at least, slightly-compressed), edit-friendly component video rather than heavily-compressed, non-edit-friendly MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Leroy Vargas @ Mar 1st 2008 5:24PM
True. Even professional news reporters and gatherers use digital tape, albeit of different types. CNN uses Sony's Betacam SX (a slightly-compressed variant of Digital Betacam, itself a digital variant of analog Betacam, itself a professional version of 'ye olde' Betamax); Fox News uses D-9, a professional format based on (although not compatible with) Digital-VHS. The main difference between MiniDV (the "consumer-standard" digital video tape) and those professional formats is that video on the latter is recorded as uncompressed (or, at least, slightly-compressed), edit-friendly component video rather than heavily-compressed, non-edit-friendly MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.