Filming on Panasonic NV-MS5, which blank tapes to use?
 

Hi. What kind of (S)VHS tapes are the best to use? Where can I buy high quality super-vhs tapes in new condition?
Does shorter playtime of a tape mean higher quality? Cannot I just buy a lot of VHS movies and record over them? Do all VHS movies have some kind of copyright protection?

VHS or S-VHS?
What recording mode?
What recording camera or VCR?
What brands are even available to you?

In 2021 ... good luck. These are no longer made.

What you'll find, at best, is NOS (new old stock). But be careful -- you want NOS that was temperature controlled, not a tape that sat in an outdoor storage unit for a decade or more. Buying from random eBay sellers is never a good idea here, as most of those will definitely come from storage units/lockers.

No.

No.

No.

If you mean by shorter time higher speed then yes, SP recording is better than LP.

I think he meant shorter length of physical tape. In some random video I watched, 12voltvids mentioned that the bulk VHS stock he used to buy had thicker & therefore better tape than typical. I think he was talking about 10-minute blanks.

Not sure why you're wanting to record VHS in 2021, but I digress. Still lots of VHS blanks on eBay of varying quality, but tape stock quality really went downhill around the turn of the century. Ideally you don't want to use anything longer than T-130. In theory you could re-record store bought tapes and movies by covering the record tab slot with Scotch tape.

I think there's a thread or two on here about the quality of different VHS and S-VHS blanks, but from my experience TDK and JVC were solid choices for S-VHS. Avoid Maxell for S-VHS.

For baseband VHS: higher grade TDK, JVC and BASF were the best brands, but be aware of shedding oxide on BASF blanks since they got out of the blank media business in the early 90s, meaning the newest tapes are pushing 30 years old. TDK changed the names of their tapes over the years, but anything HS or higher are good (Vivid, EHG). JVC and TDK were the only brands still making good blanks until the bitter end of VHS. Maxell and Sony changed their tape stock around 2000 and got crappy.

Avoid Fuji at all costs. Sony tapes were rather dubious. Some were okay, some weren't. Back in the day I had good luck Scotch/3M, but looking back some tapes have excessive chroma, but that could have been the record VCR.

My camera is capable of recording s-vhs as well as regular VHS. I attached some available tapes for me to buy here from holland. Is it any good?. My camera is a functioning Panasonic NV-MS5.
Right now I have been recording on TDK TVR 4 hours 240 tapes. I wonder how much of a difference higher quality tapes would make. I might buy tapes from attic sales on online marketplace, so I know the tapes have been stored temperature controlled. I still don't get one thing. Shorter VHS recording time on the same sized cassette means the video information stored magnetically has more "room" thus better quality? Or is the tape just shorter on a 2 hour tape instead of a 4 hour tape?

You must be crazy to be buying tapes at those prices, Yes back in the day that was the only way of taking video but it doesn't make sense now, Your phone's 4K or HD camera takes better videos for zero dollars. Don't let your nostalgic feelings get into your wallet.

I'm making a mini documentary/art project which explores the contrast between digital and analog lifestyles. The 4 tapes I've used were secondhand 4x4hour tape for 15 euro. But I agree I don't want to overpay, yet I do want great video quality. Should I go for those expensive SVHS ones? To cut costs I thought I could digitize on the go, recording over previous recordings. That way I won't really need more than a couple of tapes. Is that a good idea? Thank you 😊