T-105 VHS playback

[msar24]

I have a VHS tape that produces audio but no video when trying to play it back in my VCR. The tape doesn't appear to be damaged, but I noticed that it is marked as a T-105 as opposed to a T-120 like the rest of my tapes. The manual of my VCR does not list T-105 as a "usable cassette" and all the T-XXX tapes that it does list are those that are divisible by a factor of 30. Does a 105 minute tape not properly align with the heads? I cannot find any information online about T-105. Do I need a special VCR to play this tape? Thanks.

[themaster1]

Your tape could be a T10 that wouldn't change a thing imo, the vcr should be able to play no matter the time of the tape or should i say the length of the reel

[msar24]

Hmm, I know this tape was recorded by someone else and copy was given to my parents. I suppose an explanation could be that they just messed up making the copy.

[lingyi]

T-105 = 1hr 45min is duplicator stock which is generally lower quality than consumer products. Overstock or really poor quality cassettes were sold as cheap no-brand to consumers.

Any custom length cassette* could be ordered by duplicators seeking to save a few pennies with T-105 being a common and therefore cheap length since most movies could easily fit, with epic 3 hour movies being split on two tapes.

*The shortest VHS cassette I've seen was T-20, but I've seen [edit: L-65 (fifteen minute)] Beta tapes used for [Beta Hi-Fi] video singles. I used to have L-125 (30 minute) Fuji Beta tapes in full retail packaging. I got it from a store that used to sell consumer and professional equipment.

This may be largely apocryphal, but I've read stories that in the early days of home video, when movies cost $50-$70, people were upset at the "extra" unused tape on the reel of T-120/L-500 cassettes. Back when blank tapes were $15-$20, I used to record something, anything! on the extra 5-15 minutes of blank space on my pre-recorded tapes.

Edit: If you peel the label off prerecorded tapes, you'll usually see the length stamped on the spine.

[dpalomaki]

Quote:

*The shortest VHS cassette I've seen was T-20,...

I've got some T-15 bulk load generics that I used for duplicating a 12 minute program a while ago. SHorter were available for things like give-aways containing ads.

Do you know the provenance of the tape? What gear are you using to play it? That you get audio could well be the linear (normal) track. Does the audio sound OK?

The lack of video could be blanking/squelch of the video output by the VCR if it cannot understand the tape clearly. Any chance it is a PAL tape in an NTSC machine?

[msar24]

It appears that whatever the problem was must've just been a VCR malfunction because I just tried playing the tape again and there were no issues with the video. Thanks all for your inputs.