What is the best video recording format?

Introduced in 1999, Digital8 is digital video recorded on Hi8 media using the industry standard DV codec. In engineering terms, Digital8 and miniDV are indistinguishable at the logical format level. Digital8 uses the same cassettes as Video8, but otherwise bears no resemblance to the Video8 analog video system. Some Digital8 equipment can play (not record) Hi8/Video8 recordings, but this is not a standard feature of Digital8 technology. To store the digitally-encoded audio/video on a standard Video8 cassette, the tape must be run through the recorder faster. This means that where the same tape will record 120 minutes of analog Hi8 NTSC video or 90 minutes of analog Hi8 PAL video, it will only record 60 minutes of Digital8 PAL/NTSC video. More recent Digital8 units offer an 'LP' mode, which increases recording time to 90 minutes.