How to tell whether analog->DV video was originally Hi8 or Video8?

[Colmino]

I've captured several dozen tapes worth of video to the pc, using a Digital8 camcorder. This was done years ago, and I am now in the process of remastering the video as best as can be done. One of the things I want to be able to explain to the potential audience is the effective resolution of each of the videos, since I will be throwing in some contemporary HDV as well.

The tapes I captured with the Digital8 camcorder came from two different analog camcorders, and the make/model of both are completely unknown to me. I also no longer have most of the tapes, but a few lingering specimens reveal their Hi8 pedigree on their casings. I strongly suspect that the other camcorder used was not Hi8, but I would really like to be sure.

I've already tried looking close at the scanlines, in an effort to determine the original resolution in some mathematical sense. It's hopeless. The 480-line nature of the digital capture obfuscates things too much. So here I am, wondering of there's a good method / app / etc. for determining this thing once and for all.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

[zoobie]

you could just go to a store and ask them to play a tape...output should display 8mm or hi8

[Colmino]

Well, again, I don't actually have the tapes. What I have is several dozen DV files.

But that would be very convenient, if a media player filter could tell me what sort of video it was playing (beyond the obvious "DV NTSC 480i").

Anyone else? ;p

[edDV]

Video8 and Hi8 both record Y (luminance) and C (chrominance). Video8 Y hard low pass filters any frequencies above 3MHz. (other than some chroma crosstalk leakage near 3.58MHz). Hi8 records Y out to 4.2 MHz and beyond so you should find Y frequencies above 3MHz.

[Colmino]

Ah, there we go. Seems a safe bet that this is how the tape player solution recommended above would be able to determine which type was playing, too.

So, while I busy myself figuring out how to analyze the video in the appropriate fashion, got any recommendations? Does PPro have such analysis? (VDub probably does, somewhere, but I'll be trying to keep this workflow to a minimum.)

[edDV]

You should observe a sharpness difference and reduced NTSC artifacts if Hi8 was captured S-Video. Tech analysis would be to look at the frequency spectrum of Y (e.g. spectrum analyzer).

[schematic2]

ops