8 mm video

Ever since the develop- ment of the first commer- cial video cassette recorder -VCR- manu- facturers have been trying to reduce the width of the video tape without sacrificing picture and sound quality. In the early days, video studios used 2 inch wide tape and, to achieve the required bandwidth of up to 5 MHz, a recording speed of 120 ft/s. Current domestic VCRs use half-inch wide tape and a recording/playback speed of 2.4 cm/s (15/16 i.p.s.). The three existing domestic video systems, VHS, Betamax, and V2000, suffer from the great dis- advantage of being totally incompatible with one another. Moreover, the video cassettes of all three systems are too large to construct a manageable camcorder (camera and recorder in a single hous- ing) around them. These disadvantages have always been considered serious enough by the various manufacturers to cause them to invest heavily in the develop- ment of a new system. Most development was centered around 8 mm wide tape, which would, inc...