DV is a digital format of magnetic video recording and a type of video compression developed by the major video equipment manufacturers in 1995. The DV format uses an 8-bit digital component video signal with a resolution of 720×576 pixels. Data transfer is made in the form of a DIF-sequence that contains video, audio and subcode data. Date and time are recorded in the service area.

This format was originally created as an alternative to mp3. The idea was to achieve a small file size with better sound quality. The first versions weren’t quite successful, but with the development of AAC, it became possible to store sound with less loss of quality, and with the same file sizes as that of mp3.