MicroMV was a proprietary videotape format introduced in 2001 by
Sony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
. This cassette is physically smaller than a
Digital8Digital8 is a consumer digital recording videocassette for camcorders based on the 8 mm video format developed by Sony, and introduced in 1999.The Digital8 format is a combination of the older Hi8 tape transport with the DV codec...
or
DVDV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders....
cassette. In fact, MicroMV is the smallest videotape format — 70% smaller than MiniDV or about the size of two US quarter coins. Each cassette can hold up to 60 minutes of video.
The MicroMV format does not use the highly popular DV format. Instead, it uses 12 Mbit/s
MPEG-2MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
compression, like that used for
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s and
HDVHDV is a format for recording of high-definition video on DV cassette tape. The format was originally developed by JVC and supported by Sony, Canon and Sharp...
. Footage recorded on MicroMV format initially could not be directly edited with mainstream DV editing software such as Adobe Premiere or Apple
Final Cut ProFinal Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and then Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X, runs on Mac personal computers powered by Mac OS X version 10.6.7 or later and using Intel processors...
; instead Sony supplied its own video editing software
MovieShakerMovieShaker is a video editing program for Microsoft Windows made by Sony. The newest version of MovieShaker, released in 2002, is 3.3.Compared to other video editing programs that are available, MovieShaker is strictly low-tech. However, MovieShaker is required for capturing video from Sony...
(for
WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
PCs only). Later versions of Ulead Video Studio and several freeware applications however could capture and edit from Sony MicroMV Camcorders.
MicroMV has not been a successful format. Sony was the only electronics manufacturer to sell MicroMV cameras. As of January 2006, Sony does not offer any new MicroMV camcorder models.
Software Supporting MicroMV
- MovieShaker
MovieShaker is a video editing program for Microsoft Windows made by Sony. The newest version of MovieShaker, released in 2002, is 3.3.Compared to other video editing programs that are available, MovieShaker is strictly low-tech. However, MovieShaker is required for capturing video from Sony...
-- Sony's own video editing software
- DVgate Plus -- Software by Sony for capturing clips, including MicroMV.
- Pinnacle Studio versions 9 -- Captures clips and allows editing, DVD creation etc. Dropped from version 11.
- GrabMV -- Captures MicroMV clips.
- FFMPEG -- support for MPEG-TS playback
- Blender -- Video Sequencer supports editing of the MPEG-TS directly thanks to ffmpeg.
- Apple iMovie 08 for Mac -- Natively supports importing from MicroMV video cameras.
- Ulead DVD Workshop 2 -- Includes MPEG MicroMV video capture plugin.
- Microsoft Movie Maker - included free with Windows Vista Home Premium