Standards – what standards?

Citation

(2002), "Standards – what standards?", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951aaa.002

Standards – what standards?

Standards – what standards?

I have a DV (digital) camcorder. It is excellent and gives me pleasure, both in taking video and in subsequently editing it on my PC. I recently changed my PC and had problems setting up the editing software. After much investigation, talking to the Helplines for the hardware and software, and much swearing and cursing, it turned out that there was an incompatibility between my camcorder and the DV tapes of a rival manufacturer. DV is supposedly a standard – but only using tapes manufactured by the supplier of the camera gives acceptable results. Perhaps the technical constraints of DV are just too tight to allow it to be a rigid standard – yet I have not seen this publicised anywhere. Is it just me?