Digitizing / Capture / Logging / Ingest

The Betacam family is the most important format in studio surroundings. Amongst the small cassette shells, which are mechanically identical to the consumer format Betamax, there are also large cassettes with higher capacity. Recording is done in high quality YUV components, analogue on Betacam and Betacam SP, slightly compressed on Betacam SX and MPEG-IMX and with a lossless DCT codec on Digital Betacam, or short DigiBeta.

The 1-Inch Type C (also called 1-Inch C-Type, short 1"C) is the third version of 1-Inch tapes on open reels after Ampex' Type A and Boschs Type B. It was used in production and broadcast since mid 70s until the 90s. The format recorded in Composite with full resolution bandwidth, no additional technologies like color under have been used. Due to a small gap in the Omega-wrap around the rotating head drum with only one video head, the head is floating without tape contact for a short time and so a dedicated TBC is needed for this format.
In Germany, the publich broadcast stations mainly used the B-Type format, while the private broadcast station Tele5 used the C-Type format until they cancelled transmission in 1992.

M is a format developed by Panasonic and based on JVCs VHS competing with Betacam. The Name of the M-Format is derived from the M-Load mechanism also used by VHS. M/M-II uses same size tape shells, but this is the only thing similar to VHS. But this is the common thing to the competing Betacam system. If you look at a M cassette, you may feel reminded of VHS, while looking at a small form factor Betacam cassette, you remind of Betamax. For sure, the professional line uses higher quality tapes and different recording formats. Like Betacam, M also uses YUV with separate heads for Y (Luminance) and C (Chrominance), recording the colour components U and V in CTDM (Compressed Time Division Multiplex). M-II is the successor of M and competes with the Betacam-successor Betacam SP.
Although the name M and the M-Load from it's consumer brother VHS let's expect M-Load, M-II machines use the more reliable and gentle to the tape U-Load mechanism, also known from U-Matic, Betamax and Betacam.
M-II by standard records longitudinal and FM audio, both in Stereo, writing the FM stereo channel as a further carrier on the Chrominance heads. I can import all four channels separately, but if I should play out edited materials to M-II, I can only record one stereo pair which is recorded to the FM and to the longitudinal channel simultaneously.

D5 is an improved version of the D3 format, which has been developed by the Japanese public broadcasting station NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) and built and sold by Panasonic.
D5 records in lossless DCT-codec with high quality 10 bit digital component recording.
The tapeshell and tape path is based on M-II, but as the tape running speed is much higher, a bigger tape shell was introduced aditionally to provide proper runtimes. An additional D3-Playback-Board enables the D5-machines in D3-playback. Unfortunately, no such board is in use here, so actually I can only offer services on D5.
Up to 4 PCM audio channels with 48kHz and 16 bit are provided.

Digital-S, later named D9 by the SMPTE, is a professional use format from JVC. The tape shell is, comperable to Panasonics M-II, a slightly modified VHS-style filled with high quality Metal-type tape.
D9 uses a DVCPro50 type Codec, but recording to a VHS-style tape, not to a DV/DVCAM cassette.
The system can handle up to 4 PCM 48kHz 16bit Stereo channels, but my VTR is only able to handle two channels.

With U-Matic, Sony, in cooperation with Victor (JVC) and Matsushita (Panasonic) pioneered the cassette-based video formats. A 3/4" tape, instead of 1/2" in other formats, was, due to it's robustness and ease of use, often used in ENG (Electronic News Gathering) cars in the late 70s and early 80s as well as for training and schooling videos and as a picture source for dubbing studios.
U-Matic always uses longitudinal audio. The high tape transport speed makes a high audio quality possible also on longitudinal audio. FM audio was never developed for this format.

CRV is the abbreviation for Component Recording Video and describes a video disc standard which is in basics based Laserdisc, to which it is neither mechanically compatible, nor in recording standard. The CRV-Disc was developed by Sony and uses a fixed caddy from which it can't be removed. The recording standard is YUV component, not like the composite-based Laserdisc. Like the ROM (Read Only Memory) medium Laserdisc, also the WORM (Write Once Read Many) medium CRV, which is often used for archival use, is double-sided.

A cassette format for camcorders with 1/4" tape. Primary for the consumer range, sometimes also used in semiprofessional or professional surroundings, specially in 3-chip camcorders with shoulder mount. Professional versions are DV, DVCAM and DVCPro which cannot yet be processed here.

A format developed for camcorders with 8mm tape. The high quality made this format very popular in "ProSumer" camcorders which often had a shoulder mount and partially even complied professional expectations. As Sony created Video8 with high claims to quality, it was built with FM audio from the scratch. This audio track was put to a further FM carrier on the video heads, instead of audio heads like VHS HiFi did. Longitudinal audio was never an option.
Hi8 is an improved version with higher luminance and chrominance bandwidth.

The format uses a 30cm diameter disc which is recorded to photo film and read transmissive. The basics have been developed in the early 80s by ARDEV (Atlantic Richfield). Aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas bought ARDEV and included them to McDonnell Douglas Electronics. 1986 they released the devices named McDonnell Douglas LFS-4400, also known as Sansui LFS-4400, which were built by Sansui in Japan. The maximum capacity was 18 minutes video with audio or much more audio without video. The format was not successful in the commercial market and was used internally to store technical documentation or to build an array of Laserfilm players for the usage in a flight simulator. The format was used in USA and Japan and is NTSC only.

The most common home video format which was developed by the Japanese company Victor, also known as JVC.
S-VHS, also known as Super-VHS, is an improved version with higher luminance and chrominance bandwidth.
S-VHS ET is a mothod to record S-VHS on VHS-tapes, which uses the fact that most modern VHS tapes are nearly as good as S-VHS tapes. Mainly the recognition hole for S-VHS is simulated by this function.
Surely, also the compact camcorder versions, VHS-C und S-VHS-C, can be processed.
D-VHS, commonly known as Digital-VHS, but the correct name is Data-VHS, is an improvement which uses digital recording with MPEG2 compression and up to 14Mbit/s bitrate (SD) to achieve astonishing picture quality. The very expensive recorders and tapes were the reason, why the format was not commonly used as a homve video format. For professional use, the picture quality was too much affected by colour subsampling (4:2:0),  the robustness of the drive and the connectivity (only analogue outputs).

Video 2000 is a consumer format with two special attributes: First there is the dynamic tracking which offers a very high playback compatibility, second the cassettes simply can be turned around and used on both sides. This means the 1/2" tape is used as 2x 1/4" tape in two directions.
The format which was developed by Grundig and Philips was released too late to compete with VHS and Betamax.

Betamax was Sonys answer to VHS. Although the cassettes were smaller, the runtime only was slightly lower. High quality components for the signal processing, robust drives with dedicated reel motors and strict criteria for licensees who wanted to build their own Betamax recorders were the reasons for the high reputation of the format. Betamax uses, as VHS also does, Colour Under recording with modulated luminance.
The cassette format lives on in Betacam and HDCAM which are mechanically compatible to Betamax. Nevertheless the recording format is so different that you can't play Betamax in a Betacam VTR or vice versa.
I can transfer Betamax in PAL and Secam-East. This includes the Betamax evolutions BetaHifi and SuperBeta / SuperBetaPro

Developed as Laservision by Philips and improved by Pioneer, who named it Laserdisc, the format uses 30cm diameter reflexive discs, which most times have been recorded double-sided. Video is recorded analogue and audio was recorded analogue, later on digital.

The TED picture disc (TED=Television Disc) was the beginning of the home cinema era in the year 1974, developed by Telefunken. The flexible discs rotate with 1500rpm and are read mechanically with a diamond stylus and had a capacity of 10 minutes video.
I am actually upgrading my TED player from RF to composite. This has the advantage for you that you get exceptional quality without modulator/tuner in between and the advantage from me, that I don't need a tuner. I can accept TED once the upgrade is done, as I don't have devices with tuner in my business facility (if I had one, I would get charged fees for the German public TV stations).

DVDs are the most common format in the home cinemas around the world. Surely they are accepted as source material. You are a publisher ant the old menu does no longer satisfy your needs? Or you only have a DVD as master? No matter if data or video DVDI can use it as a source, from simple "re-authoring" up to a complete restoration.