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General discussion

Sony Discontinued its Video 8 Line

Mar 5, 2008 3:22AM PST

After all these years, Sony discontinued its entire line of Video8/ Hi8 and Digital 8 camcorders. As a loyal customer, I resent it. I can understand discontinuing Video 8 and Hi8 because they were analog but why was Digital 8 discontinued? The image quality of Digital8 is as good as the miniDV format and the tapes are cheaper,too. This reminds me of when Sony discontinued Betamax, but at least we were given plenty of warning so I had already switched-over to VHS. It seems that VCR's are being phased-out, too.

Discussion is locked

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It's like sales of B/W Television sets.
Mar 5, 2008 3:41AM PST

While there is a need, sales fell too low. Same here.

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Why Sony discontinued Video-8/hi8/Digital8
Sep 11, 2011 2:37PM PDT

Sony must discontinue video8 the 8 formatt dates from 1933 it was 75 years old and had to go nothinglives longer thanthe big 75 all standard products are either pulled down like a hospital thats reached that age video8/8mm formatt was the first known death by natural couses in thr audio video world it simply died of old age mini dv was bought in in 1995 way in advance of video8 retirement to secure tapes legend when video8 was anounced in the 1990s that it would sieze in 2007/2008 prople think that cini was discontinued the old super8 machines NO! 8mm became video8/8mm video in febuary 1984 when Kodak revised 8mm cini for video 8mm instead this was anounced in the 1960-s that cini8 would change into video8 in the early 80s thus beta and vhs four minutes of super8 with sound was to become four hours of self developing video cassette for the same price about £20 if you took all the 15 undeveloped super8 cartrages in to be developed at the same time ,This in its day was seen as rediculous and we had to have beta and vhs recorders to condition the inviroment to dring in the new change if four minutes of super8 with sound developed becomes the ultra advanced four hours of self developing video tape for the same price over night it would have exstended the 20th centuary into 2010/1015 witch means we could not peak video8 was far to advanced in its day the manufacturers had to take procoutions with this technology and introduce the video home system and the Beta video recorder formatts first legislation in the 1960/70s said that one in three/one in four video recorders sold on the demestic market up to the launch of the camcorders 1984-1985 must be not a consumer video recorder but a professional recorder betamax is a pro video recorder vhs is a demestic video recorderhence its name the video home system solely for the consumer market beta max offers no built in tape rewinder becouse the prosess of building a tape dethreader so the video head is not swiped twice witch wares down the video head to quick LETS FACE IT WE WILL ALL WAY SWIPE THE VIDEO HEAD TWICE WE MUST DVD IS NOT CASED BECOUSE THAT IS THE METHOD OF REFINERY ITS CALLED VOULENERY SELF DESTRUCTION OF PARTS rthis prosess of takeing the tape out of the video recorder and rewinding througfh a indipendent tape rewinder is surely a professional prosess like non auto focus b/w view finder no lcd screen and no live view on pro digital cameras betamax witch was only a limited edition up to the 31/12/1984 beta siezed mass production of video recorders at the end of 1984 new for 1985 to become compact betamax witch is video8 compact cassette is audio only one fith the standard of video so the vhs betamax cassettes had to be made five times the size video8 is about the same size as compact cassette ofering not only sound but vision as well with twice the long play so you can see why you never realy saw camcorders until 1993/1994 they was priced to deter you from buying it this prosess is called out of sight and out of mind video8 is no toy it has long play like a video recorder witch makes it pro in the fact you dont have to buy cheap tapes that decay from drop out before there time you can simperly exstend the tape into LP and heavy duty does not aplie in this case of larger video recorders out matchingsmaller ones in durebility and proformance video8 even though compact was built to last as long as bigger machines like full size vhs camcorders exsample mini dv works still today looking at older machines for sale on ebay even though it is smaller than the other tape formatts in its time becouse the manufacturers took out the long play system and haggled the licence to build jewry micro comonants for there machine they are only sold by licence becouse it is legislated as iligal to make smaller componants before ther time becouse it could run the risk of manufacturers under cutting ther competitor and makeing ther machines smaller and more popular and putting larger machinery out of fashin premiturly mini dv also has no built in tape dethreader the manufsacturers are becomeing a super dab hand at the video game in the mid 1990s and can haggle this they can not only put better proformance micro companants inside mini dv without breaking the law becouse it swipes the video head twice witch means yoy wi;ll get consesions on better parts like the 1998 Canon mv10 mini dv camcorder witch is a unusual heavy build for a mini dv and becouse it is heavyer than the average mini dv cam in its day will not last longer but is optioned for a better zoom and 2 times fast speed crystal clear witch is rare for mini dv the slow mo by remote is fine but the quick speed 2 times film play is usualy rubbish like a manufactured picture search instead of film fx you see everthing is manufactured we can even get a deal on heavy duty by not haveing the machine last longer we have a option on more advanced modes instead just for the inconvinience of haveing a heavyer camcorder compared to the average why did we have two camcorders original vhs-c as well as video8 ? it is becouse even though vhs-c cassettes only have one quater long p0lay of video 8 it was seen that the manufactures could market the machine becouse even one hour of self developing video cassette was still way in advance of technology in its dat compared to what we was use to with only four mintes of undeveloping film called cini even though these machines came out in the early 1980s you cant buy the realy to the earl 1990s 1993/1994 you will be insulted at the price they was sold at Kodavision 2400/2200/2000 series in 1984 the first edition of video8 camcorderwould have set you back £4000 they are still declineing in price until 1994 the cheapest camcorder in 1994 was still £600 and they are rare to find since its from £600 there is no £300 camcorders untill 2003 today you can pick up a flip for £125 the super economy camcorder was oficialy launched in 2004 by Samsung the first video8 priced below £200 at £199 thats nearly £250 by 2011 prices even though video8 had been sold since febuary 1984 when it was first introdused by Eastmans Kodak camcorders was highly priced for years becouse they was to advanced and only over time through experience of useibg them and getting fimillier with size change can the manufacturers warrent makeing cheaper machines if its cheap it means its official like part of nature camcorders was not official until the end of 2007 2008 only when video8/8mm was decomitioned after 75 years could we see that we had finaly developed the camcorder to a degree it will never be progressed on again we dont progress in camcorder technology any more we dont know how to its fully developed we are so fimilierised with tv and video and camcorders that its are seconed nature we simerly use them today and are allowed to buy them even you grandad herd of cini-8 and tv and film in the early part of the twenyeth centuary its not originmal anymore its been about for so long it does not suprice any one that is the best way it is a product from the 20th centuary copy right only to the 20th centary each centuary has its own personality a trade mark we live in the 21st i wonder what the trade mark of the 21st centuary will be we wont know that until 2099 it surly wont be the development of audio visial camcorders they are fully developed we use them to a degree of personal industrial tools we sussed it and move on to the next project its owned by nature today ran automaticaly we no longer manualy operate the system as of 20011 Betamax is still in production today since its introduction in early 1975 it will surely make 40 on april 16th 2015