In 1988, the video floppy standard was updated to include a higher res standard called "Hi-VF" or "Hi-Band." There is almost no information regarding the details of this update to the spec online. This seems to have resulted in some large misconception that the Hi-VF video floppy is a totally separate format. As large as a misconception about video floppy can be, at least.

Seriously, almost every mention of Hi-VF online treats it as if it's a separate format. Even the Museum of Obsolete Media mentions it as a separate version of the format, and many other sources listing "Hi-VF video floppy" as the physical media associated with a camera. Despite this, I cannot find a single piece of evidence to support the existence of a separate Hi-VF format. Hi-VF achieves higher quality without relying on a separate physical format.

The scarcity of information online makes this difficult to prove, with the Wikipedia article on video floppy being the only English source I can find online mentioning how the quality increase was achieved. Seemingly, some of the video data was written to a different frequency to allow for a better signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately the source of this information is in a highly technical Japanese article, but what I can gleam seems to confirm what Wikipedia describes. The Japanese paper references a meeting of the committee on still video ("The Electronic Still Camera Standardization Committee : 'Agreement Reached on Still Video Hi-Band Format' (1988)"), but I have absolutely no idea how to find this source material.

In every image of a still video camera or playback device supporting the Hi-VF standard that includes a video floppy will have a standard video floppy disk. In the image above, though low-res, it is obvious the camera and playback controller prominent feature the Hi-VF logo, but the disk itself has the standard VF logo. For confirmation, the case shows the disk is a standard Mavipak VFD-50, the same product Sony used since the launch of their VF product line.

The manual for the Sony MVC-5000 seems to confirm that Hi-Band is a recording format, not a separate physical format:
From the MVC-5000 manual: "If you play back the pictures on a unit with is not compatible with the Hi-band format, select the NORMAL position."

I'm guessing the misconception comes from the comparison of Hi-VF to standards like S-VHS and Hi8, which to my understanding actually have slight physical differences to incorporate the higher bandwidth. Regardless, there's really no reason for me to be this mad online about video floppy. I just want there to be some source somewhere online clearing this up. I'll do so myself if I can get my hands on some more VF equipment that supports Hi-VF, but until then, this will have to do.


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