Worse than Betamax? (The Video 8 Thread)

[Tripredacus]

Video 8 was the format most commonly seen in mid to late 80s camcorders, but some movies were actually released on the format. I have this one that I got at a flea market for 50 cents, I have never watched it. Interestingly enough, it has a release date of 1988!

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I can see on Ebay that there are Video 8 decks for consumer playback, but I would guess the only other way to watch these would be a camcorder with a video out. Has anyone ever watched a movie in this format?

 

[K_K]

Only stuff my parents filmed on their old camcorder. Home movies, baseball games, riding bikes, that kinda shit. Never watched anything professional on that format.

 

[famicommander]

Fuck all movie formats except Laserdisc and (Ultra HD preferable) Blu Ray.

 

[smokehouse]

Funny enough, Beta was better than VHS...

Moving on, I wonder what the PQ of the format was...

 

[ki_atsushi]

Funny enough, Beta was better than VHS...

Moving on, I wonder what the PQ of the format was...

If it's 8mm it can't be good, that's less than 1/4 of the resolution of 35mm film.

 

[madman]

He's right on the Beta quality. Growing up that's what we had up until the point we could no longer rent anything on Beta, we got a VHS. Even as a kid I remember thinking how shit the picture was compared to Beta. Beta > VHS, X > 2. Facts.

 

[madmanjock]

Is it not the case that Beta has shorter tape running times which is why vhs won the war?

 

[Syn]

Laserdisc > Beta > VHS, X > 2. Facts.

 

[Ip Man]

Is it not the case that Beta has shorter tape running times which is why vhs won the war?

i thought vhs won the war because it was the preferred format for porn distributors.

 

[GregN]

*Paging Merc*

 

[aha2940]

i thought vhs won the war because it was the preferred format for porn distributors.

Funny how the preferred format for porn is the one that usually wins: http://www.macworld.com/article/1050627/storage/pornhd.html

 

[cdamm]

RCA's CED > All formats.

 

[Ip Man]

Funny how the preferred format for porn is the one that usually wins: http://www.macworld.com/article/1050627/storage/pornhd.html

yeah, and probably why google is the leading search engine today. yahoo was shit for searching for porn.

 

[madman]

Is it not the case that Beta has shorter tape running times which is why vhs won the war?

Indeed, Sony dropped the ball there initially. I think the higher cost was also a factor. Sony thought people wanted quality, but the fact is most people seemingly didn't care. I remember so many friends who would tape 3 movies onto a single VHS tape in EP or whatever that shittiest, lowest quality was.

 

[NeoSneth]

i think you all have timelines a little mixed. First video8 cameras were not until mid 80's. Same resolution as VHS in a smaller form factor.

This is also the same format that spawned Digital8 that lasted well into the 2000's.

 

[madman]

i think you all have timelines a little mixed. First video8 cameras were not until mid 80's. Same resolution as VHS in a smaller form factor.

How can all of us have timelines a little mixed? The only person who mentioned a timeline was the OP and he said mid to late 80's.

 

[cdamm]

we can kill the timeline thing here- video8 debuted in '85 on a sony handicam.

 

[Mr Bakaboy]

RCA's CED > All formats.

Beat me to it. Was wondering how soon someone would bring it up on a worse then Betamax thread. Honestly I thought it was better then Laserdisc in quality. Probably because it was scratched up way less with a protective case around it at all times.

 

[famicommander]

Beat me to it. Was wondering how soon someone would bring it up on a worse then Betamax thread. Honestly I thought it was better then Laserdisc in quality. Probably because it was scratched up way less with a protective case around it at all times.

CEDs are worse than SP VHS in video quality. They're not even in the same league as LaserDisc.

 

[smokehouse]

Indeed, Sony dropped the ball there initially. I think the higher cost was also a factor. Sony thought people wanted quality, but the fact is most people seemingly didn't care. I remember so many friends who would tape 3 movies onto a single VHS tape in EP or whatever that shittiest, lowest quality was.

By what I understand, it all boiled down to licensing fees. You had Sony/Beta on one side, JVC/VHS on the other. JVC was far more liberal with their fees for making tapes/players than Sony and in the end, it led to it's winning out.

The best thing about Beta was that you could direct rip movies from VHS as it would override the copyright protection. My buddy's mother had a MASSIVE movie collection on Beta, she would have us record every film we rented.

 

[norton9478]

I've got two blank 14" reels of 1" wide Type C video tape.
Any idea of what to do with it?

 

[Mr Bakaboy]

CEDs are worse than SP VHS in video quality. They're not even in the same league as LaserDisc.

It's been 23 years since I last watched one. Maybe I remember it with rose colored glasses.

 

[Tripredacus]

I don't have a player for CEDs yet.

The Video 8 players in the US seem fairly uncommon on Ebay and the ones that do show up are prices in huge ranges. There seem to be more EU/PAL models on Intl Ebay and the prices are a tad more reasonably close.

I will put it off into my "future" list.

So this is NOT the same as those small tapes used in camcorders you could buy an adapter for and put into a VCR. What is that type of tape and were there adapters for other tapes that could be used in a VCR?

 

[madman]

So this is NOT the same as those small tapes used in camcorders you could buy an adapter for and put into a VCR. What is that type of tape and were there adapters for other tapes that could be used in a VCR?

VHS-C.

 

[NeoSneth]

It's been 23 years since I last watched one. Maybe I remember it with rose colored glasses.

yeah i thought you were being sarcastic. CED is just above watching TV on a game gear.
It's amazing what it was able to do, but yeeeesh. Watch Techmoan's coverage of CED on youtube for a refresher. Great channel. https://youtu.be/0LrPe0rwXOU