Digital8 (or Di8) is a consumer digital recording videocassette for camcorders based on the 8 mm video format developed by Sony, and introduced in 1999. o facilitate digital recording on existing Hi8 video cassettes the helical scan video head drum spins 2.5× faster. For both NTSC and PAL Digital8 equipment, a standard-length 120-minute NTSC/90-minute PAL Hi8 magnetic tape cassette will store 60 minutes of Digital8 video (Standard Play) or 90 minutes (Long Play). There are 90-minute versions marketed specifically for Digital8, but these use thinner tape than the 60-minute ones. LP is model specific, such as the TRV-30, TRV-40, and others. Digital8 recordings can be made on standard-grade Video8 cassettes, but this practice is discouraged in the Sony user manuals, and Hi8 metal-particle cassettes are the recommended type for Digital8 recording. Most Hi8 tapes sold after the introduction of D8 are marked for both Hi8 and Digital8 usage.Higher-end Digital8 equipment may minimize analog generation loss by offering the ability to playback and digitize legacy analog 8 mm Video8/Hi8 format recordings, but none will record in analog. There are limitations, audio playback is limited to the Video8/Hi8 analog FM soundtrack, not any PCM digital audio track. Some models will play both NTSC and PAL recordings, others will only play their own native television standard. Analog recordings also lack timecode, so batch captures will not work.^[2] The digitized video signal can be transferred in the same way as native digital recordings, through the camcorder’s FireWire cable port, thus simplifying video file creation on computers equipped with a FireWire port and video capturing software, or FireWire equipped DVD recorders. The advantage of creating digital files using the camera’s digital stream conversion is that the resulting files on the computer can be burned to DVDs as well as facilitating computerized digital editing and storage as video files. Lossless digital editing can be achieved when utilizing the FireWire port between two similar Digital8 cameras. Digitizing legacy signals does not improve image quality, but the resulting files have highly accurate sampling of the source audio and video quality of the Video8/Hi8 original.