Preferred preservation formats

The preferred formats to transfer to are SVHS, Betacam SP, Digital Betacam and D1.

? S-VHS - A composite analog format that is cheap, easy to find and provides reasonable quality. A valid choice for a budget transfer.

? Betacam SP - A component analog format that has become the standard in broadcast production. The video signal is actually 3 discrete signals, and these signals are even recorded separately on the tape. While Betacam SP offers the best recording quality in an analog format, it has the reputation of having more dropout than U-matic and one inch. Also, the less expensive UVW Betacam SP tape machines are much less robust than the broadcast models, and have more problems.

? Digital Betacam - The preferred recording format at BAVC is a controversial choice. Digital Betacam offers 4:2:2 component recording and is a clear market leader in the video production community. But Digital Betacam is also digital recording and has 2:1 DCT compression. While there are many arguments to "stay analog" in remastering, the reality is video production has not been all-analog in twenty years, since digital time base correctors began to be widely used. The TBC, an essential tool for recording a viewable image from 1/2" open reel, is a digital box that converts analog signals to digital and digital signals to analog.. If you use a TBC to transfer, you've already moved from analog to digital. The issue of compression is much stickier; the question really is whether DCT compression, as it is implemented on Digital Betacam, is transparent enough for the purposes of video remastering. Given the market dominance of Digital Betacam, the viewable quality of the image and its cost-efficiency, the DCT compression of Digital Betacam seems acceptable, especially considering the relative low technical quality of the original formats being transferred.

? D1 - An uncompressed digital component format. BAVC was not able to justify the expense.