Magnetic:
EIAJ
Format used in some early portable and home VCRs and VTRs. Can be open reel or enclosed in a cartridge.
1"
Professional open reel format. Used for broadcast. The reel shown below is just under 300mm diameter.
This tape has a bit of mold growing on the edges. It needs to be kept in a controlled environment
VHS
Video Home Standard. This format was default domestic video standard.
SVHS
Records Y and C separate to provide a better picture in a similar way an S-Video connection does over composite. The tapes are backwards compatible with a VHS machine but the SVHS recording is not.
VHSC/SVHSC
A Compact version of VHS that can be used in a normal VHS deck by first inserting the VHSC tape into a VHS shaped adapter. This format is/was used in compact domestic video cameras.
Beta
Arguably a better format to VHS? This format lost to VHS in becoming the standard video recording system for consumers. There were quite a few of these machines and tapes around but far fewer than VHS. The tape size is slightly smaller than VHS.
Betacam SP
Professional format. Tape is the same shape and size as Beta.
M11
Panasonics answer to Betacam SP.
Video 2000 and VCC - Video Compact Cassette
This format by Philips was the third competing format in the consumer video
format war. It was not as popular as VHS and Beta as a result the tapes and VCRs are quite difficult to find.
The tapes appears to be based on the audio cassette tape and can have up to
four hours of video recorded per side in standard play. Some recorders offered
a "Long Play" feature allowing 8 hours per side.
U-Matic
A professional format that is mechanically quite similar to Beta but backwards. The reels move in opposite directions and the tape moves from the right to the left reel.
Smaller size 20min version shown
Umatic SP
8mm
Used in camcorders. Mechanically similar to VHS but not compatible
Mini DV
The modern standard for digital camcorders.
DV Cam
Professional version of mini DV.
Optical:
Laser Disc
The predecessor to DVD. 12" diameter disc with similar appearance to a CD through thicker and normally has video on both sides.
Available in 2 formats CAV and CLV allowing playback times of up to 30 and 60 minutes respectively.
The CAV format has 1 video frame per revolution of the disc.
This allows easy implementation of trick playback by stopping, reversing or changing speed of the laser pickup.
Production of discs stopped around the year 2000. Laser disc is still quite popular in Japan and readily available.
Silver and gold Laser Discs next to normal CD
Anime (Japanese Animation) Laser Discs
CD video
A combination of laser disc and audio CD.
You can playback the audio part with any audio CD player.
With a laser disc player you can playback a video portion around the outer edge of the disc. Video playback time is around 5 minutes.
These discs are quite rare and sort after by collectors.
VCD (Video CD)
Same size as a normal audio CD. Video can be played back with VCD players, most DVD players and computers.
The video is mpeg encoded.
DVD
Now the most popular domestic video recording and playback format. It has replaced VHS.
HD DVD
Contended for the next best thing since dvd, lost to Blu-ray.
Blu-ray
This format is replacing DVD for domestic video recording and playback.
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