MiniDV

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What Does MiniDV Mean?

MiniDV is a type of digital format that was used for recording, storing, playing and manipulating media recorded through a camcorder. Introduced in 1995, MiniDV was a convenient solution to storing large amounts of video data digitally in one cassette. A MiniDV cassette can hold up to 11 GB of digitally recorded data on a 65-meter-long tape.

Techopedia Explains MiniDV

MiniDV is a format which was used for recording and storing of digital media (mostly videos) in bulk. The word “mini” refers to the smaller-sized tape that is used inside the storage devices, as the MiniDV format was physically smaller than other commonly used storage tape formats.

MiniDV uses a lossy compression method for videos, whereas the audio is uncompressed. A discrete cosine transform (DCT) is employed where each frame of video is processed frame by frame. It is a high-quality digital storage format where sound and picture are very sharp and clear with excellent color reproduction.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.