MontrealHomeMovies

Video 8 Tape:

We understand how precious your tapes are, and will work tirelessly for you to turn old Video8 camcorder tapes into impressive DVD home movies. Whether in person or over the phone, our team of editors and digital specialists are here to answer any and all of your questions. We challenge you to find a better quality transfer than ours. We use broadcast quality transfer equipment and record to only professional grade DVDs

In 1983 Sony Betamax had released the first camcorder called Betamovie. In response JVC released the compact VHS-C format, which enabled the first handheld camcorders. Sony’s answer to these small cameras came in 1985 when they used Betamax-style U-load technology, but reduced the tape width from 12mm to Video8, and the Video8 format was born.

Video8 had one major advantage over the full-sized competition. Thanks to their compact-form factor, Video8 camcorders were small enough to hold in the palm of the user’s hand. Such a feat was impossible with Betamax and VHS camcorders, which operated best on sturdy tripods or strong shoulders. Video8 had another advantage; although VHS-C offered the same “palmcorder” size as Video8, the VHS-C tapes only held 40 minutes of time. Thus Video8‘s 120-minute capacity served well for most users. Both machines included longer playing modes at 120 and 240 minutes respectively, but at the cost of reduced quality images of only 220 lines resolution. Longer sessions generally required additional infrastructure (AC power or more batteries), and hence longer recording-times offered little advantage in a traveling environment. In terms of video quality, Video8, VHS/VHS-C, and Beta-II offered similar performance in their “standard play” modes. In terms of audio, Video8 generally outperformed its older rivals. Coupled with the slow horizontal tape speed, the sound was comparable with that of a low-quality audio cassette. By contrast, all Video8 machines used “audio frequency modulation” (AFM) to record sound along the same helical tape-path as that of the video signal. Therefore, standard audio was of a far higher quality than that of its rivals, although linear audio did have the advantage that it could be re-recorded without disturbing the underlying video. In general though, Video8 comfortably outperformed non-HiFi VHS and Beta.

With new optical disk technology, we at Montreal Home Movies can improve the quality of your video8 recordings by converting your old 8mm tapes to DVD. This ensures that your memories do not further degrade because they are stuck on your old Video8 tape. We guarantee your Video8 tape to DVD transfers are of the highest quality. Please see our Remastering section to learn how we transfer your Video8 tape to DVD. However, Video8 tape to DVD is not all we can do with your old Video8 technology.

Options:

At Montreal Home Movies, we can provide them for you in MPEG-2, .dv or .avi formats directly uploaded to your hard drive ready for you to edit on your own computer. Video8 tape to DVD remains the most basic request for Video8 services, however you will find that we offer far more options. Make sure to check out our export section for all our additional services.

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