[MacDV] Re: -Digital8 to MiniDV conversion

[Mark O'Brien]

On Friday, August 06, 2004, at 11:56AM, Ted Langdell <ted at tedlangdell.com> wrote:

>By "lifespan" do you mean the expected amount of time that 8mm, Hi8 and 
>D8 tapes may be physically playable before deterioration occurs?

No. I assume that would be equal for both D8 and MiniDV formats.

>
>One might argue that the larger tape width of 8mm/Hi8/D8 would make 
>that format more "robust" since the data is spread over a larger 
>surface area on each track, making the system more likely to be able to 
>play back a deteriorating tape.

A Sony tech told me he thought D8 tapes would last longer and receive less wear and tear than MiniDV because of the larger size and greater radius of any "bends" (changes in tape direction) when the tape was threaded in the camcorder. I'm not sure I believe that, but Sony supports both formats so I don't know why he'd be cheerleading one over the other.

>
>Mini-DV/DVCAM/DVCPro tape is roughly half the width of 8mm/Hi8/D8.
>
>I can understand your feelings that Mini-DV decks will be produced 
>after D8 decks may be off the market.

Yes, that's what I meant by lifespan. I was an early (~1983) Betamax adopter, with separate camera, tape deck, and tuner modules. The tape deck was a pain to haul around on its shoulder strap, but the huge camera rested on my shoulder making the footage from those days very steady. I digitized and archived all my old Beta tapes onto D8 about 3 years ago. D'oh!

Mark