Securitex Video Conversion Services

The following information is to enlighten you on the various video format that are available in the industries. Once you understand the various format available it will be easier for you to choose the type of conversion you need.

Video Formats

Video Recordings has become one of the most important aspect of our daily lives, both in home entertainment as well as security surveillance applications.  However, there are several video formats which may be a bit confusing for some of us to digest.

Formats

Formats refer to the technical standards in making video recordings. In early consumers VCR equipments, there were basically two formats in the commercial market namely BETAMAX and VHS. The former was introduced by Sony Corporation in 1976 while the latter by JVC. Although BETAMAX eventually lost out to VHS, it as the first consumers’ format to be widely accepted for home use.

Betamax

This format is seldom used currently except for commercial broadcast and industrial equipment.

VHS

VHS stands for Video Home System. It is the most successful of all video formats in use currently, both in homes as well as in the industrial applications (security surveillance). A standard 120 VHS tape has a recording of 120 minutes and a resolution is 250 lines.

What is Hi-8?

Following the success of the VHS comes the Hi-8 format. It incorporates  a significantly smaller cassette drive system and is in use in Handycams. A higher density tape is required which provides a wider luminance bandwidth, resulting in sharper picture quality (over 400 horizontal lines) and improved signal to noise ratio. Tapes from Hi-8 generally must be played using the Handycam as the source, which means Users must often connect cables to their TV (viewing) or VCR (recordings).

What does Mini DV stands for?

MiniDV stands for Mini Digital Video. It is the smallest of all the previous formats and has now becomes a standard consumers’ DV system backed by manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Sharp, Hitachi and others. MiniDV has great picture quality and is the selected choice of independent moviemakers and home video enthusiasts. It produces crystal clear images due to the nature of its digital format recordings. Editing and copying can be done without any loss in video quality.

Definition of Video Concepts

Video, in general, starts out as a series of analog signals (video & audio) which have been recorded by a video camera or played back from a video tape. There are several video standards, the common of which is NTSC (National Television Standard Committee) and PAL (Phase Alternating Line). The standard video signal defines color by two factors, Luminance and Chrominance. Luminance is the black and white values of color and serves to control the picture brightness and contrast, whereas Chrominance is the color of the video itself and control the hue and saturation of the picture. Both the Luminance and Chrominance are merge into a single signal along with any audio component and is known as a Composite Video. Component separates the luminance and chrominance values of a video signal thus offering better quality video through greater control over the various aspect of colors.

How analogue/digital video is displayed

The tube of a television is made up of a series of lines which display the picture that we see. These numbers of lines determine the resolution and quality of the video. NTSC have 525 lines whereas PAL has 625 lines. When the video signal is received, it moves across and down these lines with each pass referred as a scan and one completed pass as a field. Once it has reached the end of the scan, it repeats the process, updating the process each time. This all happens very quickly with the tube being scanned 60 times per second for NTSC and 50 times for PAL.

In the digital world, data is made up of zeros and ones. There are two most important components that go into the making of digital video namely Video Bit Rate and the Frame/Image Size.

What is Video Bit Rate?

It refers to the amount of information (bits/sec) one will allow Mpeg Movie to use. Generally, the higher the bit-rate, the better the quality of the movie however, the larger the file size generated. Higher bit-rates also require faster processing speed.

What is Frame/Image Size?

The frame size determines how big the video image will appear on the screen. By using a larger frame size, your image will be bigger and assuming your source is of sufficient quality.

What is a Video CD?

A VCD (Video CD) is basically a CD-ROM media (identical to a Music CD) upon which video signals (normally Movie clips) have been “burnt” on its surface. It can be played on ALL VCD / DVD players

What is the advantage of VCD verses VHS?

VCD combines the quality of a VHS Tape and CD quality sound into a compact disc. Unlike VHS which uses a magnetic tape, VCD is digital and will last indefinitely.

Why spent a little bit more for the conversion from tapes to VCD’s ?

Precious moments in lives are currently captured on tapes which will turn moldy as time goes by. In addition, the picture quality will also deteriorate over time due to tape friction between the VCR head and the tape. Unless kept in a controlled environment, humidity and dust will destroy your precious tapes altogether.

Any other economical ways in preserving those precious moments recorded on tapes?

Unfortunately, the answer is negative. Video CD is the only way to go. Once converted, Video CDs can be played on your Computers, VCD Player or DVD Player as many times as you like.