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What is the difference between these digital camera formats?

Difference between MiniDV and Hi8?

  • Question- what is exactly the difference between digital MiniDV and analog Hi8 recording formats? I realize I may be rather ignorant of the technologies, yet my layman mind says “digital vs. analog”, and I don’t think of a “tape”, per se, when I think of a digital camcorder. (I know, e.g., the latest generation hard drive models don’t use tape) My question, then, is what’s the functional difference between MiniDV and Hi8 and how can a digital recording be captured on a tape medium? (like w/ my digital camera, I think of a card or a memory stick…)

  • Answer:

    Hi8 is beset with typical analog media problems- 1. Analog noise in the media, gets worse with each copy. 2. Timing sync signals have jitter, which also gets worse with each copy. 3. Very poor color resolution, Hi 8 has no better color resolution than regular 8 or VHS for that matter. Colors appear as kind of a smear on a high res monitor. miniDV cures these recording problems, plus handles the audio digitally as well. functionally, miniDV is superior for picture resolution, ability to generate perfect copies, and does not lose quality when captured for computer editing. Requires only one cable to transfer Video, Audio and Timecode, bi-directionally with computer or another deck, and gives machine control over playback, pause, fast wind etc. Hi 8 requires a jungle of wires to perform the same functions.

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MiniDV's signal is encoded into a digital representation of the material, which is recorded onto the tape (in something very much like a series of 1's and 0's). Multiple copies can be made of this exact code with no difference in quality. To transmit the signal to a computer, the process requires nothing more than a single FireWire cable (and a jack for it on a the computer). Furthermore, MiniDV also employs the use of "timecode," which is used in many recording formats (analog and digital) to give each frame an "address" to make editing very easy. Other digital tape formats do exist, such as DVCPro. Hi8, as an analog format, works a bit differently. It's not recorded as a code of 1's and 0's on the tape; it's recorded the same way signals have always been recorded onto other tape formats, such as VHS. Hard to explain exactly how that works, but suffice it to say it's not a digital representation of the signal. Each copy of the recorded material will be of lesser quality than the original, and this can be seen as early as maybe the first or second copy. To transmit it to a computer, one needs a converter device to make it a digital signal before it can be processed. Hi8 also does not use timecode. Again, timecode/no timecode is not necessarily drawn across analog/digital lines, but this is one difference between these two specific formats. The analog format Betacam SP, for example, is a timecoded analog format.

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