Video cassette
A video cassette consists of a plastic cassette made of polystyrene , acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and other plastics, in which there is a rolled up magnetizable coated plastic tape ( magnetic tape or video tape ). The video cassette is used as a data carrier for films.
There are various standards, data formats and cassette sizes for use in various devices for recording and playing back films ( video recorders ), for example: VHS , Betamax and Video 2000 video cassettes for analog video and audio signals and digital video cassettes such as DV and miniDV for recordings using a camcorder .
With the emergence of subsequent technologies at the beginning of the 21st century, such as recordable DVDs , hard disk recorders and recordable BD-Rs , the importance of the video cassette has decreased significantly.
Tape formats
The video tape format describes the way in which video is stored on a video cassette. Video tape formats can be divided into analog and digital tape formats.
Lifespan of videotapes
Like all data carriers, video tapes have a finite lifespan , which depends to a large extent on correct storage, but also on the type of tape . If stored in a dry place at normal, constant room temperature, up to 35 years are possible in rare cases. 20 years are almost always reached. A distinction must be made between two effects on aging:
- external magnetization due to geomagnetism , magnetic influences at the storage location or through magnetization through layers of tape lying above and below on the reel. These effects lead to the "fading" of the picture and a deterioration in image quality.
- the physical dissolution of the magnetic coating of the tape after a certain time, which leads to smearing of the tape. Such a tape smears the parts of the tape guide of the recorder and the video heads during operation and is no longer playable. The machine can be damaged, and all tape guide parts must be cleaned in any case.
See also
Web links
- History of the cassette at kassette.info
