Video Home System (VHS) cassettes are the most common form of the home video tape systems.

Developed by JVC in the 1970s, VHS was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. VHS and Betamax (Beta) had a "war" between the two standards, due to longer playing times, faster rewind/fast-forward, and a less complex tape transportation mechanism. In addition, the open standard for the technology allowed for mass production without licensing costs.

All types of video cassettes are vunerable to the same types of damage. Heat, mold, and mildew from improper storage can damage the tape material. Machine malfunction can "eat" the tape and cause physical damage. Also, over time the magnetic material on the tape will break down and can cause distortion to full loss of the contents.

VHS-C is a smaller version of standard VHS cassettes

VHS-C was introduced by JVC in 1982. Designed for use in home camcorders, VHS-C could be played in standard VHS players with the use of a special adapter.

All types of video cassettes are vunerable to the same types of damage. Heat, mold, and mildew from improper storage can damage the tape material. Machine malfunction can "eat" the tape and cause physical damage. Also, over time the magnetic material on the tape will break down and can cause distortion to full loss of the contents.

MiniDV Cassettes are a magnetic media like other video cassettes, but designed for recording digital video. MiniDV were designed initially for amateur use, but have taken off in professional productions also.

DV (Digital Video) format for storing video was launched in 1995. It was created with joint efforts of the leading producers of video cameras at the time. MiniDV cassettes hold about 13GB of data for 1 hour of video.

All types of video cassettes are vunerable to the same types of damage. Heat, mold, and mildew from improper storage can damage the tape material. Machine malfunction can "eat" the tape and cause physical damage. Also, over time the magnetic material on the tape will break down and can cause distortion to full loss of the contents.

Hi8 cassettes are smaller cassettes designed for camcorders.

In the 1980's, Sony introduced Hi8 to counter the introduction of Super-VHS. Hi8 offered a vast improvement compared to standard VHS, with a quality roughly equal to Laserdisc.

All types of video cassettes are vunerable to the same types of damage. Heat, mold, and mildew from improper storage can damage the tape material. Machine malfunction can "eat" the tape and cause physical damage. Also, over time the magnetic material on the tape will break down and can cause distortion to full loss of the contents.

Digital8 cassettes are smaller cassettes designed for camcorders that record video in the digital format.

Digital8 was introduced in 1999, and is the digital form of Hi8. Digital8 uses the same base cassettes as Hi8, but it has to be recorded at 2x the speed, so it cuts the time available on a cassette to half of the same tape in Hi8 format.

All types of video cassettes are vunerable to the same types of damage. Heat, mold, and mildew from improper storage can damage the tape material. Machine malfunction can "eat" the tape and cause physical damage. Also, over time the magnetic material on the tape will break down and can cause distortion to full loss of the contents.

Betamax (Beta) was Sony's design for the home video cassette market.

Beta was released in the United States by Sony in November 1975. Although it was released prior to JVC's VHS standard, it lost the videotape format war.

All types of video cassettes are vunerable to the same types of damage. Heat, mold, and mildew from improper storage can damage the tape material. Machine malfunction can "eat" the tape and cause physical damage. Also, over time the magnetic material on the tape will break down and can cause distortion to full loss of the contents.