A structured overview of the 2-inch Video Floppy ecosystem: disk mechanics, field and frame recording, PAL and NTSC timing, Hi-Band systems, audio in the guard band and what modern preservation requires.
Still Video is not a computer file format. It is an analog electronic still-image system where a CCD sensor output is recorded as frequency-modulated magnetic video on a 2-inch rotating disk.
A recorded image behaves more like one or two frozen television fields than like a modern bitmap file.
Still Video solved a real 1980s workflow problem: fast image review and electronic transmission before practical consumer digital photography existed.
There are no folders or JPEG files on the disk. Recovery depends on working players, accurate PAL or NTSC hardware, stable heads and careful analog-to-digital conversion.
Analog magnetic disk inside a protective jacket.
Or 25 full frames depending on recording mode.
FM luminance and color-under chroma, not file storage.
Standard families such as EIAJ CP-3901 and IEC 61122.
Track geometry, head alignment and rotational speed matter at the micrometre scale. This is part of why correct playback hardware is so important.
| Jacket size | Approximately 54.5 x 50.2 x 2.0 mm. |
|---|---|
| Disk diameter | About 47 mm flexible magnetic medium. |
| Track layout | 52 concentric tracks with roughly 50 user image tracks. |
| NTSC rotation | 3600 RPM synchronized to 60 fields/s. |
| PAL / SECAM rotation | 3000 RPM synchronized to 50 fields/s. |
| Capacity | Up to 50 field images or 25 frame images. |
Still Video cameras are essentially compact television cameras tied to precision single-frame magnetic recorders.
Light is converted into an analog electrical video signal.
Luminance and chroma information are prepared for recording.
FM luminance plus color-under chroma is written to the disk.
Playback, TBC, high-quality conversion and archival file creation happen much later.
One field per track. Playback repeats the same field for a stable image but with less vertical information.
Two adjacent tracks store the two interlaced fields that make up one full frame, improving vertical detail but halving capacity.
60 fields/s means 3600 RPM. The higher surface speed makes high-frequency recording slightly easier.
50 fields/s means 3000 RPM. Lower linear velocity makes playback condition especially important for PAL preservation.
Hi-Band moves the luminance recording upward in frequency to preserve more detail, but it also demands better heads, cleaner electronics and better capture practice.
Some systems stored a short audio note with each still image by writing a time-compressed audio burst into the narrow magnetic interval between video tracks.
Still Video became a broad ecosystem spanning consumer cameras, press systems, playback decks and computer capture workflows. That same ecosystem complexity explains why preservation is difficult today.
Read more about Canon RC-250 / RC-251 and see the equipment chain.
PAL disks need PAL-capable playback, NTSC disks need NTSC playback, and the deck condition matters.
Composite works, but S-Video or RGB+Sync can preserve cleaner separation and more detail.
Time-base correction, sync stability, good cabling and careful capture produce materially better preservation results.