Blank Tape Buyer's Guide

What could be so complicated about buying blank videotape that we devote an entire buyer's guide to the subject, you ask? Different types of tape can make a difference in the image and sound quality that you record and play back. In addition, the quality of the videotape you purchase can have a negative effect on the internal components of your camcorder and record decks. Furthermore, the quality of tape you buy affects how the recorded image holds up over time and in storage as well as the longevity of the edited master.
So, we've compiled these seven tips and the accompanying buyer's guides to help you find your way through the videotape jungle.

There are many marketing terms applied to tapes to signify their quality. One might think that a label of "professional," "high grade" or "pro" automatically indicates superior quality. This is not always the case. There are no industry standards when it comes to what a manufacturer uses to qualify one tape as being standard and another as professional. The only way to know what you are getting is to compare the values of coercivity, retentivity and signal-to-noise ratio yourself. Learn more about these features in the following tips.

Tapes come in an assortment of lengths. Longer tapes (120, 160 and 180 minute), marketed toward consumers, generally cost less than shorter length, better quality (60 or 30 minute) tapes which professionals tend to use.
The two main advantages of longer running tapes are getting more for the money and the ability to record longer on a single tape. You would not want to record a one-hour event on two 30-minute tapes if you didn't have to. The main disadvantage is that long tapes tend to be a little thinner, allowing more tape to fit onto the reel. This can cause stretching and sagging.
Shorter tapes cost more per foot, but are generally higher quality. Short tapes are nice for distributing short videos. No need to waste an entire two-hour tape for a two-minute video. Shorter tapes are also lighter, making them cheaper to mail in the post.

Coercivity measures a tape's ability to record the magnetic pattern as it is transmitted from the camcorder's record heads. Tapes with higher coercivity ratings can record higher frequencies, and therefore, greater detail. If you have a high-quality camcorder, this rating will be important to you. Using this rating is easy: the higher the coercivity rating the better the tape's ability to record audio/visual information.
As you might expect, VHS generally rates the lowest, close to 8mm. Hi8 and Super VHS require an even stronger magnetic strength and, as you might expect, digital tapes rate the highest. When looking for tapes in the format of your choice, look for a high rating in this field to indicate superior acquisition quality. (Note: Hi8 has an important differentiation between its Metal Particle and Metal Evaporated tapes to learn more about MP and ME tapes, see the Hi8 Sidebar on page 75).