fred@mot.UUCP (Fred Christiansen) (12/17/84)
[] while staring somewhat vacantly at a large array of video tapes on sale at a local discount house (LaBelles), with prices ranging from $5 (special sale) to $15 apiece, and trying to make a choice of what to buy, the thought came to me: are any of these really better than the others? what is your experience, netland? Sony, Maxell, TDK, Polaroid? i have seen both wet and dry head cleaner tapes. what are the pros and cons here? another customer in the store told me he was told to bring unit in to the dealer (not LaBelles) for "professional cleaning". if Beta or VHS influences the answer, i'd appreciate knowing as we have both.
dwhitney@uok.UUCP (12/22/84)
Yes, there is a distinct difference in quality of video tapes currently available, but ask 10 different people which is best and you'll likely get 10 different answers. My personal favorite is Memorex Pro Series; I have had outstanding results with this brand. I have tried Ampex, and their quality is significantly lower (however, I'm not sure that Ampex even makes video tapes anymore.) Polaroid recently started making tapes, and my opinion is that they are, at best, marginal. Somewhere between Memorex and Ampex. The big difference in picture quality I notice is in two parts: a) the picture itself is often "fuzzy" or "grainy" in appearance, b) the colors do not always ring true/the picture is hard to maintin on screen even while attempting to adjust the "tracking." I have noticed that cheaper tapes tend to give some type of color "flutter" at the very top of the screen at times, with spikes at times across the screen. I have had virtually none of these troubles with the Memorex, and, surprisingly enough, Sears has shown to have fairly decent quality tapes too. Consumer reports recently ran a test of their own and ranked Scotch #1, so I guess you pretty much have to go by trial and error. On head cleaners, if I understand correctly, the main difference between the two is that the "dry" kind uses some type of abrasive material to clean the tapes. People who are more familiar with the workings of VCRs has urged me to steer clear of these as, while they clean very well, they tend to erode the video heads rather rapidly. Another kind is a sort of "magnetic" cleaner, just put the tape in, play it, and a message comes on when its clean. Anyone who has more expertise on the finer points of the cleaning devices please correct any errors I might have made....but I think I'm at least on the right track... David Whitney ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitney
techpub@mhuxt.UUCP (mcgrew) (12/27/84)
> [] > me: are any of these really better than the others? what is your experience, > netland? Sony, Maxell, TDK, Polaroid? > We've used nothing but TDK and have had no problems. > i have seen both wet and dry head cleaner tapes. what are the pros and cons > here? another customer in the store told me he was told to bring unit in to > the dealer (not LaBelles) for "professional cleaning". > Discwasher (the company who makes the record cleaner) has a head cleaning tape out (VHS only I believe). Since their other products are excellent I bought the tape cleaner and it works fine. Melanie Accomando mhuxt!techpub