Interesting trip down memory lane.
As someone who's worked in TV broadcasting for nearly 35 years, I well remember the evolution of all those tape formats!
No-one has yet mentioned MII, which was the one blip in the dominance of the Sony betamax-type cassette based tape formats in the analogue days.
This was JVC's answer, analogue component, like betacam and betacam SP, but based on a VHS type tape!
It never really caught on here. I believe that Thames Television were the only major users of the format, and it never evolved into a digital format for professional use.
Digital betacam is still pretty much the industry standard to this day for SD, and it now has HD variants HD-CAM and SR, all still based on that good old betamax tape cassette shell!
The only real competition was Panasonic's D3 (composite)and D5 (component SD/HD) digital formats.
Both are based on the same cassette type, completely different from any domestic format. D3 and D5 have three hour recording capability, unlike any of Sony's equivalents, but are now obsolescent.
Yeah - MII was Panasonic as well wasn't it? Channel 4 went for D3 when they started up, insisting that it must be better if it is digital! D3 was a pain in the 'arris...D5 lives on, though, in its HD variant!
Yeah - MII was Panasonic as well wasn't it? Channel 4 went for D3 when they started up, insisting that it must be better if it is digital! D3 was a pain in the 'arris...D5 lives on, though, in its HD variant!
You could well be right, perhaps MII was a Panasonic format.
It's all a long time ago!
JVC certainly were the original main developers of the VHS domestic format, so perhaps I'm getting confused by that.......
Yes, HD D5 still lives on. Most feature films still seem to be mastered onto it, mainly because of the 3 hour capability, and the better compression system than HD-CAM.
Most people seem to think that Sony's new HDCAM-SR format will wipe the floor with it soon though!
Yee ha Betamax and VHS all over again!!!!
Betamax was the better but markets took over and it was wiped out!
yes and the reason for this is that the porn industries chose vhs.
as the first hd-dvd to come out was pirates, this may be an indication to who will win.
is it true that you can play hd-dvd's on any computer running media player 9 and xp.
intresting .. as a HD-DVD owner the quality is excellent.
I hear that people are saying you cant compare a single layer BR disc over a Dual layer HD-DVD disc .. what difference would a dual layer BR disc make ? yes more space but a dual layer HD-DVD has enough space for a high quality film using VC-1 and not to mention they expect a triple layer to be out soon too.
I cant comment on blu-ray at the moment as i am not willing to pay £700 - £900 for one, i think i will wait for the PS3..
I think blu-ray is spoiled by all the protection crap ... but just wait LG are bringing a dual format player out
But all in all HD-DVD is superb picture is spot on and the sound is excellent way better than standard dvds.
aint got a clue , i use watever it lets be .. i have a 7.1 sound system which has support for eeax dts ad truhD sound watever most of it means but the sound is excellent you can hear everything from all speakers and at the right times .
TrueHD is effectively uncompressed audio the same as we (i work in film & tv) play out on the final mix from the mixing console - it's a direct copy, not compressed by Dolby Digital or DTS - i.e. should be better than the DVD equivalent soundtrack. The cinema soundtrack is compressed even more than DVD, usually! quite excited about it, when it's properly availabel here. I hope your listening room is up to the challenge!
ohh yes it is I was ooking all over for a reasonable price to get a HD-DVD imported to the UK managed to find a nice place.
You will be suprised at the quality and the sound from the HD-DVD player .. yes the player can be slow to boot up but it is in a sense a PC.
Regards to the upscale of standard DVDS it is not the BEST player out there to upscale ... i have a xbox that does this better and a samsung but then again i wouldnt use the HD-DVD player to watch standard DVDS.
DOOM is a excellent film to test for quality picture and sound
Serenity is good but i think the sound on that is not top notch i tthink the master must be the same .
well I might not be surprised at the quality, I listen to studio 5.1 all the time on big Genelecs in treated rooms :-) but it will be nice to get nearer to that at home! As for Doom/Serenity...I expect it might not be always TrueHD on HD-DVD discs, sometimes perhaps only the Dolby Digital will be available, not the uncompressed audio for TrueHD.
There is one thing about Betamax that hasn't been mentioned yet (I think) that is it's resale value.
I sold a twenty year old Hi-Fi sound Betamax on E-Bay for over £200 quid - not bad! I've had those years of service and nearly got my money back.
Try doing that with an old VHS!!
It was Hi-8 that I remember the local news gatherers starting to use and saw a story about it in Broadcast.
But the quality was awful compared to other formats.
When This Morning did a camcorder demo in their studio one day,the only one that approached acceptable broadcast standard was the SVHS recording.
Pity the SVHS format could not have the same quality with off air recordings
Comments
As someone who's worked in TV broadcasting for nearly 35 years, I well remember the evolution of all those tape formats!
No-one has yet mentioned MII, which was the one blip in the dominance of the Sony betamax-type cassette based tape formats in the analogue days.
This was JVC's answer, analogue component, like betacam and betacam SP, but based on a VHS type tape!
It never really caught on here. I believe that Thames Television were the only major users of the format, and it never evolved into a digital format for professional use.
Digital betacam is still pretty much the industry standard to this day for SD, and it now has HD variants HD-CAM and SR, all still based on that good old betamax tape cassette shell!
The only real competition was Panasonic's D3 (composite)and D5 (component SD/HD) digital formats.
Both are based on the same cassette type, completely different from any domestic format. D3 and D5 have three hour recording capability, unlike any of Sony's equivalents, but are now obsolescent.
It's all a long time ago!
JVC certainly were the original main developers of the VHS domestic format, so perhaps I'm getting confused by that.......
Yes, HD D5 still lives on. Most feature films still seem to be mastered onto it, mainly because of the 3 hour capability, and the better compression system than HD-CAM.
Most people seem to think that Sony's new HDCAM-SR format will wipe the floor with it soon though!
yes and the reason for this is that the porn industries chose vhs.
as the first hd-dvd to come out was pirates, this may be an indication to who will win.
is it true that you can play hd-dvd's on any computer running media player 9 and xp.
I hear that people are saying you cant compare a single layer BR disc over a Dual layer HD-DVD disc .. what difference would a dual layer BR disc make ? yes more space but a dual layer HD-DVD has enough space for a high quality film using VC-1 and not to mention they expect a triple layer to be out soon too.
I cant comment on blu-ray at the moment as i am not willing to pay £700 - £900 for one, i think i will wait for the PS3..
I think blu-ray is spoiled by all the protection crap ... but just wait LG are bringing a dual format player out
But all in all HD-DVD is superb picture is spot on and the sound is excellent way better than standard dvds.
You will be suprised at the quality and the sound from the HD-DVD player .. yes the player can be slow to boot up but it is in a sense a PC.
Regards to the upscale of standard DVDS it is not the BEST player out there to upscale ... i have a xbox that does this better and a samsung but then again i wouldnt use the HD-DVD player to watch standard DVDS.
DOOM is a excellent film to test for quality picture and sound
Serenity is good but i think the sound on that is not top notch i tthink the master must be the same .
I sold a twenty year old Hi-Fi sound Betamax on E-Bay for over £200 quid - not bad! I've had those years of service and nearly got my money back.
Try doing that with an old VHS!!
Tim
But the quality was awful compared to other formats.
When This Morning did a camcorder demo in their studio one day,the only one that approached acceptable broadcast standard was the SVHS recording.
Pity the SVHS format could not have the same quality with off air recordings