Mini-DV was the last videotape-based format for consumer camcorders. The cassettes are very small, about the size of an audio microcassette, facilitating smaller camcorders. The tape inside is just 1/4″ wide, holding up to 60 minutes of material (90 minutes at the slower tape speed). The signal recorded is natively digital and designed to be fed out directly via a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection to computers of the era, which simply captured the data stream rather than having to digitize an analog video signal.

Its professional brother was Sony’s DVCAM, which used an identical cassette and tape but ran it faster, holding only 40 minutes of material. The higher speed and larger tracks makes it somewhat more robust.

HDV was a late-in-the-game adaptation to record high definition signals onto the same MiniDV tape by compressing the video down further in order to fit the larger frame size. There were two kinds of HDV: JVC’s 720p version and Sony’s 1080i version. They are incompatible with each other, requiring a matching deck to play each one back.

WDLN.tv can transfer Mini-DV, Standard DV (a somewhat larger cassette), DVCAM, and JVC (720p) HDV.