Recording compressed digital video pictures

The paper describes key aspects of design for recording compressed video signals to allow use of physically smaller media. Many of the points, although directed towards helical recorders, can also be applied to disc recorders, both magnetic and optical. It is clear that recording compressed signals will lead to some constraints in performance as compared to a full or near-full bit-rate recorders. However, not all applications demand the full performance given by systems with little or no compression and the problems of applying higher compression ratios can be matched against the benefits of lower recording bit rates, smaller areal storage requirements, simpler mechanisms and quicker spooling times.