Is "Video" Truly Dead?
By Marie-Claire Ross
Mention the word 'video' to people and they often cringe. Thanks to the DVD revolution, video is believed to be an old-fashioned format that has had its day. In fact, I would hazard a guess that you would agree with me that 'video' is old hat.
Unfortunately, it is not quite true.
Video is alive and well. The problem is purely semantic. It is not video that is dead, it is actually VHS!
VHS tapes are those bulky cassettes that used to overfill our television cabinets. It is an analogue format that has one-quarter of the quality of DVD and almost half the quality of CD-ROM.
After film, the next format to shoot moving sound and vision is video. Video is used in a wide variety of cameras from the top of the line high definition video camera (and we're talking about a $200,000 camera here) to Digital Betacam, Betacam SP and DVCPro 50 and the domestic mini DV camera (to name just a few). It is now a digital format that is capable of doing some pretty amazing technical stuff.
Once vision has been captured and edited, it is then put onto a format that people can view. In consumer land, this is usually VHS or DVD. The reality is video content is put onto both of these formats. This is why you will see DVD referred to as DVD video.
So why the confusion? Unfortunately, the American movie industry has not helped. If you look at the Toy Story poster on the right, you will notice that it mentions "Now on DVD and Video". The correct way would actually be "Out now on DVD and VHS". Sadly, we see this problem a lot.
While it seems to be an outdated term, 'video', is actually far from being a redundant technology and it is well on its way to replacing film. The latest Star Wars movie was filmed using a high definition video camera, rather than a traditional film camera.
So the next time you feel the urge to cringe at the word 'video', just remember that DVD actually killed the VHS star!
(c) Marie-Claire Ross 2004. All rights reserved.
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