What Are The Different Types Of Tape Throughout The Years?

3/4″ U-Matic (1971)

This was one of the very first professional tapes created by Sony. This was one of the very first tapes with the film inside the cassette as opposed to outside the way you have seen in old time movies.

Betamax (1975)

Betamax is remembered as its own brand but was actually a part of Sony and while it was viewed as a superior product would eventually lose out to the VHS in the 1980’s in the entertainment wars.

VHS (1976)

The VHS was developed by the company JVC and was the most popular way to view movies in your home as well as the winner of the home video recording wars over Betamax.

Video 2000 (1979)

With its futuristic for the time sounding name and branding, Video 2000 had several innovative features but failed to properly become a part of the VHS wars as a consumer VCR.

VHS-C (1982)

These are the compact version of VHS that you would likely see in home recording devices and home movies. These could be played with an adapter on your standard VHS.

Betacam (1982)

Betacam were developed by Sony and were used as a replacement for the original 3/4 U-Matic developed in 1971.

Video8, Hi8, Digital8 (80’s and 90’s)

This series of advancements were made throughout the 80’s and 90’s and quickly became the most popular recording tools as they were much more advanced than the standard VHS.

MiniDV (1998)

MiniDVs allowed for videos to record one hour of SP and 90 minutes of EP.

MicroMV (2001)

The MicroMV was the smallest of all the video tape formats ever designed by Sony.

MiniDVD

These are 8cm discs used in camcorders to record home movies or other materials. These discs can hold up to 5.2 GB of material. Far more than their predecessors.