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Best VHS tape - media comparison
I thought you might find this interesting, it's a pretty thorough test. It matches my experience, there is no difference between tapes visually.
http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/VHS/vhs.html |
I just cannot agree with that assessment. I've seen enough bad tapes in the past 20+ years to completely dismiss that as the ramblings of somebody not very well versed in videotape. Aside from dropouts (something mentioned as NOT being a testing factor), color retention and grain are very much affected by the grade and quality of the tape. Poor tapes are grainy, prone to excessive chroma noise (sometimes color loss; not "tape fade", but lack of recording full saturation), and magnetic particle dropouts.
There's a huge difference in the bonding, quality of the polymer, and the magnetic particles. I will say, however, that most of the tapes tested are rather crappy. Maxell Bronze is horrible, for example. It's prone to chroma noise, color loss, grain and dropouts. The cheap TDK Revue and Panasonic tapes are pretty much the same grade of tape -- el yucko grande. Those are the junk tapes sold for less than $1 each at Best Buy, Big Lots, and even gas stations. It's cheap and crappy. Reading through the testing procedure, and list of equipment/methods used, I really think the entire process is flawed. It's just not very indicative of real-world performance. I didn't buy expensive tapes because I was foolish, gullible, lacking in knowledge, or rich enough to just piss away money. I'm still rather happy that I learned to switch to high grade tapes in the early 90s, instead of simply buying tapes from the grocery store racks, as we did in the 1980s. There is a very visible difference in quality; it's not imagined. |
which are the preferred VHS tapes? and which should be avoided?
is there a list somewhere? (the blank media guide seems to only cover optical disks) |
One existed years ago, and then was removed. It's being put back and expanded sometime this year. Because it's essentially archive material -- not much buying/selling of VHS tapes going on now -- it's lower on the priority list, compared to some of the guides and editorials planned for the spring.
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We agree but coming at this from different perspectives. The visual quality would be my first question. The archival quality would be your only question. I thought the test procedure was very good for what it was trying to test. He admitted it wasn't a test for longevity.
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http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...x175-2-111.jpg Attachment 2526 unfortunately, as can be accurately presumed, they are quite rare today. myself, i had the luck of the devil to had stumbled across ALMOST TWENTY (20) of these beauties, all sealed, for a song (around $25 shipped) off of the BAY about a year and 1/2 ago. 8mos./1 year later, i recall happening across someone who had four sealed copies of the same and was attempting to hock them for some outrageous sum like $80 before shipping, or so. "i've enjoyed every one of these fine blanks, (save for four copies, to kept forever sealed; 2 '84 GOLD, 2 '85 GOLD Hi-Fi) putting some of my top favorite Anime on DVD onto them" (-NO- MACROVISION WHATSOEVER on nearly every Anime DVD i own, and i own MANY) -using my PIONEER DV-09 DVDP as source, and my JVC HR-S8000U as deck. the results? Magnifico. couldn't imagine VHS looking any better, in fact. Final Verdict? MAXELL HGX GOLD/GOLD HI-FI (1984/1985 era); GET THEM, if you can happen to find any. even used copies would likely be fantastic performers, worth their weight in -Ahem- GOLD, i'd be willing to wager... now then, that all said, 1990's-era MAXELL PROFESSIONAL "ST-126BQ" S-VHS blanks are, at the very least, nearly as good, performance-wise, and are fairly common and inexpensive on the BAY, especially on the off-occasion that you happen across someone attemting to offload a large lot for relatively cheap; http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...6BQ4-14-12.jpg Attachment 2527 -these aren't half as pretty to look at as the aforementioned "HGX GOLD Hi-Fi" IMHO, but they perform GOOD. DAMNED GOOD, even used, and, of course, as just said, are relatively widely available, to boot. SOLID CHOICE on the whole, to my experience... |
(((- CORRECTION -)))
"i've enjoyed every one of these fine blanks, (save for four copies, to kept forever sealed; 2 '84 GOLD, 2 '85 GOLD Hi-Fi) putting some of my top favorite Anime on DVD onto them" (-NO- MACROVISION WHATSOEVER on nearly every Anime DVD i own, and i own MANY) |
Best VHS tape? Well, I'd say those TDK HS's that they used to sell (dunno if they're still being made) were pretty damn good. The worst blanks I've ever used are Fuji's. The quality on the first recording was pretty bad, worse than Maxell (although Maxell was always kinda crap), filled with specks, chroma bleed, and grain, even on "HG" tapes. TDK's were always incredible. I've got some old DiC Mario Bros. cartoons on some TDK's from 20 years ago made in EP with hifi audio that still look and sound great. Sony's were good, too.
I've noticed that a lot of Maxell's, TDK's, Kodak's, and Fuji's seem to come from the same stock of tape, just being rebadged. At least, the spokes on the reels look the same. Weird. |
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that is INCREDIBLY interesting. i have TWO early-90's FUJI T-120s, both full of that very same "SUPER MARIO BROS. SUPER SHOW" in EP, recorded for me by my mother back around '90 on her 1987 RCA VPT-640HF DIMENSIA S-VHS VCR;
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...VPT-640HF4.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...VPT-640HF8.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...VPT-640HF7.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...PT-640HF17.jpg Attachment 2528 Attachment 2529 Attachment 2530 Attachment 2531 very plain-jane, blase' homely-looking VCR, but the stupendous quality recordings it produced in the 5/7 years me and my family had used it spoke for itself, and that includes those MARIO BROS. tapes, which remain very playable and watchable to this day. alas, that RCA went fluky in the late 90's and, unfortunately, at the time, we were in no position at all to be able to get it serviced in any way shape or form, nor was there anyone in the family with any skill in self-service, myself included. my mother still has that VCR in storage, however, complete, right down to it's original box, and, first chance i get, i'm gonna take a solid college try at restoring the old girl to good health... Quote:
it has been abundantly clear, to my eye, that pretty much ANY VHS blank, of ANY make, MFD. at any time in the last decade, and likely at least half of the decade beforehand, were ALL sourced from the same 1/3 factories, and most likely, the one single factory that remained by the turn of the millennia. in my experience, this is ALL CRAP product, not worth owning in the least. as a VHS collector and enthusiast, one that. quite literally grew up with the format. and i have almost no interest in examples of equipment and media from the post-Japanese Bubble-Economy era of VHS' lifespan. regardless of whatever Digital crutches were developed for the format in that time. to me, products of that time just don't have the "Class and Style" of their 80's forefathers, so say nothing of the overall quality, fit and finish... -- merged (double post) -- Quote:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...VPT-640HF9.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...VPT-640HF4.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...VPT-640HF8.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...PT-640HF17.jpg very plain-jane, blase' homely-looking VCR, but the stupendous quality recordings it produced in the 5/7 years me and my family had used it spoke for itself, and that includes those MARIO BROS. tapes, which remain very playable and watchable to this day. (very watchable, on a strictly TECHNICAL level, that is. the MARIO SUPER SHOW, IMHO, is a disaster of a series, best forgotten) alas, that RCA went fluky in the late 90's and, unfortunately, at the time, we were in no position at all to be able to get it serviced in any way shape or form, nor was there anyone in the family with any skill in self-service, myself included. my mother still has that VCR in storage, however, complete, right down to it's original box, and, first chance i get, i'm gonna take a solid college try at restoring the old girl to good health... Quote:
it has been abundantly clear, to my eye, that pretty much ANY VHS blank, of ANY make, MFD. at any time in the last decade, and likely at least half of the decade beforehand, were ALL sourced from the same 1/3 factories, and most likely, the one single factory that remained by the turn of the millennia. in my experience, this is ALL CRAP product, not worth owning in the least. as a VHS collector and enthusiast, one that. quite literally grew up with the format. and i have almost no interest in examples of equipment and media from the post-Japanese Bubble-Economy era of VHS' lifespan. regardless of whatever Digital crutches were developed for the format in that time. to me, products of that time just don't have the "Class and Style" of their 80's forefathers, so say nothing of the overall quality, fit and finish... |
Thanks for sharing pics of your collection, Tasuke. :)
My assessment of tapes was as such... Excellent:
One of our projects right now is about 100 tapes from a customer. Every one of the problem tapes is an RCA, Memorex, Fuji or some other off-brand. Some RCA, Memorex, Fuji and no-names play fine, but it's less than 50% of them. All of the BASF, TDK, Scotch, Sony and Maxell are in excellent condition -- both in quality and playability. Lousy tapes are not just degraded image/audio quality, but there's playability issues. Generally speaking, the tape's internal transports wiggle and wobbly more than normal, so the signal isn't where it should be. You get meandering tracking and warbling audio. These tapes are problems more than 50% of the time-- EASILY! The Good/Decent tapes are fine about 75-80% of the time. The color/audio quality is always good, but it's the playback that's an issue. Again, tape mechanics. The Excellent tapes almost never pose problems. Only when the original recording VCR was out of alignment do the tapes have playback issues. While I constantly feel regret at having picked the VHS format for our home videos -- instead of Video8 or Hi8 -- at least we used good VHS tapes. I've seen some families that not only use cheap tapes, but have reused cheap tapes -- first used to record TV over and over, then reused to record junior playing T-ball or whatever. The quality is crunchy at best, and the tape playback is all over the place. The tapes themselves are a big reason why video restoration (of VHS/analog formats) is such an art, and so heavily reliant on stacks of expensive hardware. ---------- Side Note: I've increased the forum's upload ability for .jpg/.jpeg images to 500kb (half of 1MB), in order to allow easier uploading of images. Please try and attach all images to forum posts, instead of hotlinking to external image sites with the [img]http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/error.gif[/img] bbcode tags. In addition to longevity (we'll have the image long after Photobucket deletes them), the forum's software compresses the images to a size that lets pages load fast (about 1/10th the file size, but same quality). Photobucket tries to load the full-sized image, which can make forum page loads crawl. Thanks! |
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Not yet. It's one of those things that was massively delayed after my health problems began.
Right now, I'm working on other aspects of the site. And VHS tapes will be part of it. But this exact guide will be sometime next year. Delayed, not forgotten. :) |
my reference collection, of some of the finest high grade VHS blanks the 80's and early-90's had to offer;
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/imag...yiroesm6-1.jpg VHS-C CASSETTE ADAPTOR C-P2U; http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/imag...ow8lxiwx-1.jpg a complete case (10ct.) of MAXELL's first S-VHSC, and the equivalent full-size ST-120; http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/imag...psijpyy8-1.jpg http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/imag...3cf5oykf-1.jpg |
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Maxell S-VHS never held up, especially late 90s tapes.
They feathered easily (weak grade tape/plastic/film/mylar), and had some color loss. How are yours holding up? I refer specifically to the 3 at bottom next to those TDKs. |
i haven't given them more than a small handful of passes, they seem to be fine enough...
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