In the mid 1980's when VHS camcorders first became popular, parents who may have grown up with eight millimeter films and their three minute limits per reel were suddenly provided with two hours of uninterrupted filming on a single VHS tape. With such a large amount of time, they shot every move their kids made. Over and over and over - you get the idea.
A spin off of VHS was a format called VHS-C. This was a smaller version of a VHS tape in a smaller shell but using the same size tape as a full VHS cassette - just less of it. It was made to allow the camcorder to shrink in size. The mechanism used to play these small tapes in a full size VHS adapter proved to be fatal, as many of these small tapes jammed or mis-tracked. To complicate matters further, another spin off of VHS was made. These were S-VHS tapes. They were the same size as VHS, but offered more sharpness than VHS. They needed special players and would not play in a standard VHS player. S-VHS ended up as mostly a pro-sumer format.
A few Beta camcorders were made, but by then Sony was already losing the tape format wars to VHS. Beta camcorders were far and few between. VHS was king for several years.
As technology progressed, so did the camcorder. The tapes became smaller with the advent of eight millimeter video, so named for it's similar width to eight millimeter film. The tapes were better, the cameras were smaller and the color was better. The term eight millimeter turned out to add confusion with the old film reels by the same name.
Digital mini-DV tapes changed the game in the mid 1990's. For the first time, home video allowed the average user the ability to create videos that looked better than broadcast television. The tapes were even smaller than the eight millimeter and VHS-C tapes.
Fast forward to today. Camcorders half the size of a cigarette pack produce high definition video clips. Habits have changed, too. People don't shoot hours of video anymore, they shoot lot's of minute long clips. They fill up SD cards and hard drives with videos they may see only once, except for the few they upload to social video sites.
The bottom line is this. People have so much video. Many don't know what to do with all their old tapes and current video files. The best thing you can do is create a hard copy on a DVD disk. This allows not only a nice back-up copy, it lets you share your best moments with those you love. But only if you copy them before they are ruined in the heat of an attic, in the dampness of a basement or by the failure of a hard drive.
Most of the devices on the market that do convert tapes to disk involve more technical expertise than simply making a tape copy. While manufacturers have concentrated on making it easier to shoot video, they have made it harder to viewvideo. No wonder many people stash their videos into never-never land.
If you're a techie, you already know what to do. If you're not, then perhaps sending your tapes and files to someone who can convert them for you onto a DVD is the easiest solution for you. One good choice on the internet is http://www.tapestodisk.com
Rick Bennette
Rick Bennette is a 27 year veteran independent film maker. He has owned and operated a video production facility since 1985 in Connecticut and south Florida. Currently, Rick provides video services for the independent film industry, actors auditions and demo reels as well as legal video services. In addition, Rick is a published author and screen winter. His web sites include http://www.tapestodisk.com/
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