Sony HDVS

Sony HDVS (High-Definition Video System) is a range of high-definition video equipment developed in the 1980s to support the Japanese Hi-Vision standard which was an early analog high-definition television system (used in multiple sub-Nyquist sampling encoding (MUSE) broadcasts)^[1] thought to be the broadcast television systems that would be in use today. The line included professional video cameras, video monitors and linear video editing systems.

HDVS logo

Sony camcorder with HDVS logo on it

Sony first demonstrated a wideband analog video HDTV capable video camera, monitor and video tape recorder (VTR) in April 1981 at an international meeting of television engineers in Algiers, Algeria.

The HDVS range was launched in April 1984, with the HDC-100 camera, which was the world's first commercially available HDTV camera and HDV-1000 video recorder, with its companion HDT-1000 processor/TBC, and HDS-1000 video switcher all working in the 1125-line component video format with interlaced video and a 5:3 aspect ratio. The first system consisting of a monitor, camera and VTR was sold by Sony in 1985 for $1.5 million, and the first HDTV production studio, Captain Video, was opened in Paris.^[2]

The helical scan VTR (the HDV-100) used magnetic tape similar to 1" type C videotape for analog recording. Sony in 1988^[3][4] unveiled a new HDVS digital line, including a reel-to-reel digital recording VTR (the HDD-1000) that used digital signals between the machines for dubbing but the primary I/O remained analog signals. The Sony HDVS HDC-300 camera was also introduced. The large HDD-1000 unit was housed in a 1-inch reel-to-reel transport, and because of the high tape speed needed, had a limit of 1-hour per reel. By this time, the aspect ratio of the system had been changed to 16:9.^[5] Sony, owner of Columbia Pictures/Tri-Star, would start to archive feature films on this format, requiring an average of two reels per movie. There was also a portable videocassette recorder (the HDV-10) for the HDVS system, using the "UniHi" format of videocassette using 1/2" wide tape.^[6] The tape housing is similar in appearance to Sony's D1/D2 Standard Definition Digital VTRs, but recorded analog HD. The small cassette size limited recording time to about 63 min.

The price of the HDD-1000 and its required companion HDDP-1000 video processor in 1988 was US$600,000. The metal evaporate tape (tape whose magnetic material was evaporated and deposited onto the tape in a vacuum chamber using physical vapor deposition) cost US$2500.00 per hour of tape and each reel weighed nearly 10 pounds.^[7] The high price of the system limited its adoption severely, selling just several dozen systems and making its adoption largely limited to medical, aerospace engineering, and animation applications. In 1986, HDVS systems cost $1.5 million, and 30-40 were sold until then. Sony HDVS systems made video with a total of 1125 (horizontal) lines, and 1035 active lines of resolution.^[8][9][10]

The Sony HDL-5800 had a price of over 56,000 US dollars^[11][12]

The Sony HDVS system was used in the production of a 5-min feature film about Halley's Comet in 1986, titled "Arrival", and shown in US theatres later that year after being transferred to 35mm film.^[13][14]

The first drama film shot using the HDVS professional video camera was RAI's Julia and Julia (Italian: Giulia e Giulia) in 1987, and the first HDTV television show was CBC's Chasing Rainbows, shot using the HDVS system in 1988. For the Genesis Invisible Touch Tour shows at Wembley Stadium in July 1987, the Sony HDVS system was used to film these shows, which were later released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1988 and DVD in 2003.

Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991 was recorded using the Sony HDVS video system. Four HDC-300 cameras in 1125-line format (1035i visible, close to 1080i today), 60 fps, and one Sony HDC-500 3 CCD prototype HDVS camera were used. The five cameras were connected to a 7-input HDS-1000T switcher and the live mix was recorded to an HDD-1000 Digital 1" VTR.^[15]

World War II: When Lions Roared (also known as Then There Were Giants) is a 1994 TV movie, directed by Joseph Sargent, that stars John Lithgow, Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins as the three major Allied leaders. It was the first video production to be produced in the 1125-line high-definition television (HDTV) format.^[16] It was converted to NTSC for broadcast in the United States.

The HDVS brand and logo was still used by Sony since 1997 as "Digital HDVS" on their digital high-definition HDCAM-format cameras such as the HDW-750, HDW-F900, HDC-1550, "Power HAD" camera Sony HSC-300 Series,^[17] and XDCAM camera PDW-850,^[18] PXW-X500.^[19] By 2022, HDVS branded cameras have been discontinued and new camera models released don't have the HDVS logo.