VHS Tape
The VW sedan of video: clunky and old-fashioned but totally reliable. VHS has poor sound and low resolution and it's expensive to mail, but darn, everybody can play one. It's your basic sure thing.

Beta Tape
The current professional standard, especially for broadcast. It is an analog format, the good-looking big brother of the failed Betamax consumer product, and looks like a VHS, only a little bulkier. The reason people like us use Beta in the field and for mastering is that it records very high-quality video and two channels of pretty good audio. All over the world there are talented people with Beta cameras and decks. In short, Beta is what the pros use.

Digi-Beta
Sony digital format, really super good-looking, expensive, and much in use for very high-end production, like commercials, where it competes with film. It's the video equivalent of black tie.

DVCam
Comes in two flavors: consumer, which is for vacation videos, and professional, which is marginally competitive with professional formats like Beta. Many experienced shooters carry a DVCam as a second camera or backup, but few of the big kids use DVCam for principal photography.

DVD
A lovely way to distribute good-looking video. (It's MPEG-2, if you really want to know.) The downside is that there are still format conflicts so we use very experienced professionals to do the encoding and, well, it's not cheap.

CD-ROM
Makes Beta-quality video look like VHS in a window on a computer screen. It's inexpensive, can be interactive, and most people can play a CD without leaving their desk.

We work comfortably in all these formats. If you need more detail or have other questions, feel free to contact us.

Hi-Definition TV
Really pretty, letter-boxed format, pricey, for when we all have plasma displays. There are several solid Hi-Def production teams in the Bay Area.