DV (video format)

DV

DV cassettes: DVCAM-L, DVCPRO-M, MiniDV
Media type	Magnetic cassette tape
Encoding	DV
Read mechanism	Helical scan
Write mechanism	Helical scan
Developed by	Sony Panasonic
Usage	Camcorders, Home movies
Released	1995; 29 years ago (1995)

DV (Digital Video) is a family of codecs and tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. It includes the recording or cassette formats DV, MiniDV, DVCAM, Digital8, HDV, DVCPro, DVCPro50 and DVCProHD. DV has been used primarily for video recording with camcorders in the amateur and professional sectors.

DV was designed to be a standard for home video using digital data instead of analog.^[1] Compared to the analog Video8/Hi8, VHS-C and VHS formats, DV features a higher video resolution (on par with professional-grade Digital Betacam) and also records audio digitally at 16-bit like CD.^[2] The most popular tape format using a DV codec was MiniDV; these cassettes measured just 6.35 mm/¼ inch, making it ideal for video cameras and rendering older analog formats obsolete.^[2] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DV was strongly associated with the transition from analog to digital desktop video production, and also with several enduring "prosumer" camera designs such as the Sony VX-1000.^[3]

In 2003, DV was joined by a successor format called HDV, which used the same tapes but with an updated video codec with high-definition video; HDV cameras could typically switch between DV and HDV recording modes.^[4] In the 2010s, DV rapidly grew obsolete as cameras using memory cards and solid-state drives became the norm, recording at higher bitrates and resolutions that were impractical for mechanical tape formats. Additionally, as manufacturers switched from interlaced to superior progressive recording methods, they broke the interoperability that had previously been maintained across multiple generations of DV and HDV equipment.