Citing video recordings (DVD, VHS, etc.) as well as audio recordings (CD, audio cassettes) is not difficult in any way, because citation styles commonly provide relevant models for a bibliographic reference. Sometimes however it may be difficult to choose that part of the documents from which the details for the bibliographic reference should be drawn. In general, for media such as a video cassette, DVD, CD, etc. the following applies:
Use the information from the label/printing on the medium,
if the required detail is not there, look at the cover/booklet,
if the detail is not there either, insert the medium into a player and try to find the details among the information shown there (e.g. in the opening/closing credits of the video).
Regan JJ. Techniques in endoscopic spine surgery [videoca- ssette]. St. Louis (MO): Quality Medical Publishing; c1995. 1 videocassette: 68 min., sound, color, 1/2 in.
You can clearly see above that most of the details were taken from the label glued onto the cassette; the cover only served for obtaining the place of publication. Regarding the technical description of the cited video cassette at the end of the bibliographic reference, we had to play the cassette in order to find out whether the recording is black-and-white or colour and whether it is with or without sound. To find out the length of the video recording, we reset the counter after inserting the video cassette and forwarded it to the end of the video recording. The last detail is the width of the videotape, which we measured and determined that it corresponds to 1/2 in – the unit expression preferred by the NLM citation style.
Perrin DH. Sport taping basics DVD: Step-by-step demonstrations of 22 tapping procedures [DVD]. Champaign (IL): Human Kinetics; c2005. 1 DVD: 76 min., sound, color.
When citing a DVD, CD, etc., information should be taken primarily from the disc itself. If the required details are not available there, you should look at the cover, booklet and lastly at the content of the DVD. In this case, all information was copied from the disc, except for the publisher which was specified only on the cover. Information about whether the recording contains sound or is in colour could only be determined by playing the recording.