Released several years after VHS camcorders hit the market, Video8 and the later Hi8 and Digital 8 formats record to 8mm wide tape, hence the name. This made for smaller, thinner cassettes capable of recording for 120 minutes (240 in LP mode); a major advantage over the rival VHS-C format's maximum of 45 minutes (90 in LP mode).
Video8 recordings are also arguably slightly better quality than those on VHS but the difference is not actually that obvious in practice. Videos recorded in the later Hi8 format however show noticably improved picture quality and Digital8 is even better - it's basically the same recording standard as Mini DV but using different tape.
The cassettes for all three recording formats look physically identical, although tapes specifically designed for the later formats have the "Hi8" and "Digital8" logos on them. If your tape has the "Video8" logo then it's highly likely that you have a Video8 recording. However, since you could use Hi8/Digital8 tapes to record on the any of the three formats, you can't tell the exact format of the recording just from looking at those cassettes.
Hi8 camcorders will play Video8 tapes and most (although not all) Digital8 camcorders will play all three formats.
Note: Don't confuse 8mm video with 8mm or Super8 film. Same width of recording media but entirely different formats. To transfer film to digital you need a teleconverter and you're getting into a really specialised service I don't offer. I'm more than happy to point you in the right direction though if you do have film stock you need preserving.
Recording Time
Video8 and Hi8 tapes generally run to a maximum recording time of 120 minutes in normal (SP) mode. Although it was possible to record for 240 minutes if you dropped the quality and used the LP mode, in practice this doesn't appear to have been a particularly common choice.
Digital8 runs the tape 1.5 times more quickly, so the maximum recording time is reduced to 90 minutes (160 in LP mode).
