Just when you thought things couldn't shrink any further, along comes the king of small, Sony, with something even more petite than MiniDV. MICROMV uses a tape about 30 per cent smaller than a MiniDV tape. Rather than recording in DV format, MICROMV machines use MPEG-2, the same format used by DVDs. Sony claims the quality is equal to that of MiniDV, and although that isn't strictly true it is unlikely the ordinary consumer would notice a difference.
But size isn't all you should think about when considering MICROMV because there are several drawbacks. At the moment the format is used by Sony alone, meaning tapes may be difficult to find in places less techno-savvy than Hong Kong. Smaller tapes are less durable than their larger cousins, and MPEG-2 was not designed to handle tape damage like MiniDV was. Sony also claims MICROMV was designed with PC connectivity in mind, but a perusal of a few online forums suggests editing MICROMV videos on your computer is not yet possible. Sony's concept is sound: you can go from tape to DVD via a DVD recording deck without having to translate from DV to MPEG-2, a process that reduces picture quality. But who has a DVD recorder?
A one-hour MICROMV tape, available from branches of Broadway and Fortress, costs $80, compared to $24 for a Sony MiniDV tape.