Digital-S

D-9 Videotape

D-9 Videotape

D-9 Videotape
Media type Magnetic Tape
Encoding NTSC, PAL
Standard Interlaced video
Usage Video production

D-9 or Digital-S as it was originally known, is a professional digital video videocassette format created by JVC in 1995. It is a direct competitor to Sony's Digital Betacam. Its name was changed to D-9 in 1999 by the SMPTE.[1] It was used to a small extent in Europe and Asia and saw some use in the US, notably by the Fox news channel,[2] but was a commercial failure compared with Digital Betacam. It was superseded by high definition tapeless formats.

Technical details

D-9 uses a tape shell of the VHS form factor, but the tape itself uses a much higher quality metal particle formulation. The recording system is digital and for video uses DV compression at a 50 Mbit/s bitrate. Video is recorded in 4:2:2 component format at a variety of standard definition resolutions, in either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. Audio is recorded as 16bit/48 kHz pcm with up to four separate channels.[3] Video quality is generally very high; at standard definition, D-9's quality is comparable with Digital Betacam.[4]

HD recording

For high definition video recording, JVC developed an extension to D-9 called D-9 HD, using twice the number of recording heads to record a 100Mbit/s video bitstream at resolutions of 720p60, 1080i60 and 1080p24. This variant is also able to record 8 channels of PCM audio at 16bit/48 kHz. The higher data rate and increased tape speed means that the recording time of any given cassette would be halved.[5] D-9 HD, based on specifications, would have been higher quality than Sony HDCAM but lower than Sony HDCAM SR; unfortunately no objective tests were made comparing these formats. It is not clear whether this proposed format was ever manufactured or sold.[6]

Additional information

Although D-9 uses the same video codec (DV) as MiniDV, the video bitrate of D-9 is significantly higher than that of the "prosumer" format. DVCPRO achieves bitrate parity with D-9 and D-9 HD, but has a slower tape speed, making it less reliable. Some of the D-9 television studio gear is capable of recording with Sel-Sync or pre-read and is provided with four-channel audio like Digital Betacam. Serial digital interfaces (SDI) are also provided. A dockable recorder, the JVC BR-D40, attached to a variety of cameras, and there was a one-piece camcorder, the JVC DY-70U.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "D-9: Introduction to the format", Short introduction to the D-9 format. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  2. ↑ "D-9 in action worldwide", Shows areas where D-9 is in use. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  3. ↑ "D-9 technical specifications", Displays general D-9 technical specifications. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  4. ↑ "JVC Professional Japan", cites SMPTE/EBU taskforce results. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  5. ↑ "D-9 HD Technical Specifications", Displays general D9-HD specifications. Accessed October 13, 2007.
  6. ↑ "D-9 HD[VIEW]". pro.jvc.com. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  7. ↑ "JVC" (PDF). JVC.

External links

See also

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