Pushing the VHS limit: S-VHS vs. D-VHS blank tapes?
 

I'm on a hobby-driven quest to squeeze the best recording possible out of a stack of the remaining ((Eight VCR's will enter, but only three will stay)) that I pulled from Goodwill, and I figure the first and best link in the chain is obviously the tape.

My research has led me to S-VHS tape, and D-VHS. I've seen a lot of posts on other websites contrasting and comparing these two types of tape, and many users seem to think that D-VHS is just S-VHS tape with a hole in it's shell.

One user declared that Fuji's H471S tape is superior to JVC's "DF" tape...I'm going to call BS on that, going on from personal experience that proved it to be the WORST tape I've ever used. So there's one thing that I think I know, at least.

Thanks, guys!

Keep in mind that performance of a given tape is also related to an individual VCR's internal adjustments and heads. VCR "X" may do best with tape "A" while VCR "Y" may prefer tape "B."

In some cases tape differences may be more labeling for marketing purposes, as was the case with some MiniDV/HDV tape, or there could actually be formulation differences. For marketing to Joe and Jane Sixpack purposes it is good to label the tape to match their intended use.

Good luck with you tests.

I have used an average quality MiniDV tapes on a HDV camcorders and got pixelisation from time to time, I believe a good quality MiniDV tape would probably work because they are both digital formats, the same goes to VHS vs S-VHS they are both analogue formats so there isn't a big difference, However when it comes to analogue vs digital it is completely a different game, There is a video on youtube by a French guy who actually used metal tape to record DCC digital signal and it didn't work, I wouldn't be surprised if the S-VHS tape didn't work on a D-VHS deck recording 1080i MPEG2 stream.

Is D-VHS just S-VHS tape with another hole? Possibly. I've heard from several users before that S-VHS tape looked just as good as D-VHS tape.

The bigger issues, however, was in recording digital data on a lossy analog VHS-type tape. The same owner were never overly fond of that. They mostly used those decks for the ability to separate NR from stablization, which was only possible on the D-VHS line. With S-VHS, you had to pick one, as both could not not be engaged at the same time.

Fuji tape has always been inferior, yet marketed itself as best ever. Fuji is crap. I agree.

As stated, difference VCRs both play and record tapes differently per model, or even per unit/copy of the same model.

Last time I saw brand-specifics ("I have Sony VCR, so I need Sony tapes") was in the 70s. Maybe the 80s. By the 90s, it was the typical "cheapest is best" attitude among the consumer Sixpack crowd. By the mid 2000s, tape was mostly a dead format. In the 2010s, all you find is TDK new-old-stock.

MiniDV tape construction is actually more flimsy than VHS, closer to VHS-C.

Oh come on! Why is it every time I'm proud of a purchase I come on digitalfaq and my hopes and dreams are shattered? Just bought 5 of the Fuji H471S tapes still in the wrapper and was so proud. Is there any particular reason they're "the worst" you've ever used?
Sorry for bumping an old thread btw

Oh wow, this is a blast from the past.

The tapes suffered from an immense amount of dropouts on all the machines I used them on. YMMV, I may have just had bad NOS tapes. Give them a shot, you may have better results.

Different tape formulations have somewhat different magnetic properties and physical properties, which can become significant with analog signals - less so with digital recordings. Gear generally was aligned to a specific tape type, use of different tape type could result in less than optimum results, Again more of an issue with analog recordings. A separate issue was quality control standards used in manufacturing.

In the later years of magnetic tape there were fewer factories producing tape. As with current DVDs, several different brands may have come from the same factory/production line, though there could be variations in quality control and the finer aspects of the formulation.

If the tape works for you - great.

A nice blast from the past. JVC, TDK, and Sony all had superior S-VHS tape stocks. Maxell and Fuji were not despite their marketing claims. I seem to remember up until the bitter end of Circuit City they had JVC S-VHS blanks in stock.

Going back over a decade to my college days in video production shooting MiniDV and HDV we were told to stick with one brand of tape, as Maxell used one formulation, Sony another, Fuji another, and so on. Mixing brands of tape was bad for the camera according to our professors. Whether or not that's complete poppycock I don't know. By senior year we were shooting on solid state media. I can speak from personal experience the MiniDV tapes marketed toward HDV users did have less dropouts than standard MiniDV tapes with a Canon HV20 camera.

IMO the main issue with switching tapes stocks was the result of the physical/mechanical properties of tape. As tape runs it leaves deposits on the heads and guides. After a steady diet of one tape type it forms characteristic deposits of that tape. Changing to a different tape may mean a slightly different physical contact pattern and can cause deposits to break free and may clog heads, etc, This was more likely on the smaller tapes formats such as MiniDV. Thus the recommendations to stick with one tape stock, or clean heads/pats when changing tape stock.

VHS, being physically much larger did not suffer to the same extent.

Back in the 1990s one of the trade magazines ran an article on lab test of about a dozen brands of tape. Interesting reading, but I did not keep a copy. Best results will generally be using the same tape as was used during the camcorder/VCR alignment.

I have DVHS tapes here, they have the detect hole for both DVHS and SVHS decks, so they are backward compatible. The best SVHS tapes were likely TDK XP Super Pros, long out of production. They did make DVHS tapes, but I've yet to come across them. The DVHS tape stock I have here is JVC, Mitsubishi (JVC made), and Maxell. Panasonic also sold tapes that have nice write protect slide tabs.

I have 10 Fujifilm still sealed S-VHS T-160, I will try them and let you know.
I have a captured recording that I did few years ago on TDK SuperPRO S-VHS tape and that was the best tape I've ever recorded on, Here.