Panasonic D-5 HD VTR AJ-HD3700HA cassette tape for D-3 and D-5 (Medium)
Magnetic tape-based videocassette format
D-5 is a professional digital video format introduced by Panasonic at 18th International Television Symposium in Montreux in 1993 and released a year later in 1994.[1][2][3] Like Sony's D-1 (8-bit), it is an uncompressed digital component system (10-bit), but uses the same half-inch tapes as Panasonic's digital composite D-3 format. A 120 min. D-3 tape will record 60 min. in D-5/D-5 HD mode. D-5 standard definition (SD) decks can be retrofitted to record high definition with the use of an external HD input/output box/decoder.[4][5][6] There were native D5 HD decks as well that didn't need an external processor and could record in both SD and HD.[7] High definition conversion on D5 HD decks does not allow for any error correction that exists on standard definition recordings, as the full bandwidth of the tape is required for high definition recording.