VHS Brand Quality?

[goden99]

Hello,

I have looked all over the place but I can't find any place that reviews or talks about VHS tape quality.
Like for CDs and DVDs how Tayoden is da bomb and what to avoid and such. Anything like that for VHS?

Reason is I am asking is I have lost of people giving me OLD VHS tapes that want to make a back up of them for long keeping and storage but do not want DVDs.
So its from VHS to VHS.

Which Brand has good quality and long lasting ?
Which is the worst (try to avoid) ?
Which is best value ?
What to look for in tapes to know if there good quality or bad.


Thanks in advance.

[davideck]

My favorite was TDK EHG. Excellent picture quality, low dropout rate, and long lasting. I have tapes that are 15 years old that still play fine.
I am not sure if it is still available.

The quality of TDK HS was not as good.

[steve2713]

people giving me OLD VHS tapes that want to make a back up of them for long keeping and storage but do not want DVDs.

That's kind of an oxymoron right there Maybe you could change their minds about not wanting them on DVDs? :P

[goden99]

They mostly want to keep them on VHS because they like to give them to family or make copies and send to families which have VHS.

[lordsmurf]

TDK EHG
JVC EX
BASF PRO

These are really getting hard to find in stores.

You should buy broadcast VHS tapes online.
At least if stores fail.

Last I saw in stores, TDK has only one line (low end), Fuji has the same decent (not great) stuff, and RCA/Memorex are still peddling junk. Sony are okay in SP, if you want. Maxell suck now, since they changed formulas in 1999.

Fuji PRO tapes, by the way, suck too. Avoid those. Lots of sucker deals for "high grade" here, and they're grain magnets.

[goden99]

Thanks lordsmurf. I am in Canada any idea where I can buy quantity at good price?

[lordsmurf]

You can probably find BASF/JVC/TDK fairly easy.
http://ca.dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Entertainment_and_Me...quipment/Tape/

Here:
http://totalmedia.com/Catalog/catalog_home.asp?CatID=1477&OID=-1&CID=&bustype=01
>> V0-032D TDK T-120VIVID T-120 VHS High Grade in Sleeve
>> V0-029D JVC T-120EHG T-120 VHS High Grade in Sleeve

These are alright too:
http://totalmedia.com/Catalog/catalog_home.asp?CatID=1488&OID=-1&CID=&bustype=01
>> V0-009D JVC T-120SX T-120 VHS in Sleeve

There's probably a lot more. I just started looking at stores on the YAHOO listing.

Those prices are very reasonable ($USD, I think, not $CAD). But they take CANADIAN CUSTOMERS.

[goden99]

So just to be sure
These are good. TDK EHG ,JVC EX ,BASF PRO
These are BAD,TDK all grades except EhG, All Fuji, RCA/Memorex, Sony, Maxell

I was wondering if there was a good place to get them like for DVDs there are known stores for amazing prices.

[lordsmurf]

TDK "Revue" has issues (dropouts, grain, color loss). Vivid is the next step up (aka EHG). Anything above that is fine.

Maxell is all bad these days.

Sony is alright in SP MODE ONLY. Nice clean video, color maintained well.

RCA/Memorsux, etc... issue with grain/dropout. I use some RCA for once-off stuff, but the tape starts to deteriorate super-fast.

Fuji is grainy. Color is great. But grainy. All of them are like this. Their S-VHS is decent, but that's about it. The Fuji in SP has random issues too, especially the cheap stuff.

VHS never really had stores like meritline or rima, etc. You bought them from more traditional wholesalers/warehouses. It's not the same.

My favorite tapes:
JVC EHG or JVC EX, to a lesser degree JVC SX
TDK EHG aka TDK VIVID
BASF ... now only really available as BASF PRO

You can easily find these.

[housepig]

Another vote for TDK EHG - it's been my brand of choice for a decade or so...

[cinemaware]

If you have the money(about $7 a tape) the BEST quality tape you can get are Fuji H471S ST-120 SVHS.

It works great on VHS and DVHS (Digital-VHS).


Here are some of the better online tape retailers:

http://www.tapewarehouse.com/
http://www.tapestockonline.com/index.html

[Marvingj]

JVC & Basf are decent!!

[the * dude]

notice the 120 min trend yet?????????

stay clear of anything above 120 mins, i know its tempting to use 180 mins, and theyre usally cheaper too but the tape is deff of a lesser quality (tape becomes too heavy otherwise), stick to 120 if you wana keep em for a while.

as far as brand goes, all tapes are made by TDK, safe to assume theyre the best.

tip keep master copies, best to convert to dvd for this!!!!!!
& make sure you got good vcr's

[MpegEncoder]

They mostly want to keep them on VHS because they like to give them to family or make copies and send to families which have VHS.

They should give them a $30 DVD player for Christmas.

They could save the cost difference between blank VHS tapes and blank DVD media and come out ahead on the long run.

[ozymango]

Reason is I am asking is I have lost of people giving me OLD VHS tapes that want to make a back up of them for long keeping and storage but do not want DVDs.
So its from VHS to VHS.

I'll go along with all the tape recommendations here but also want to strongly encourage you to consider additional, alternate media for long-term storage.

Are these one-of-a-kind tapes of things like weddings, birthdays, the dear departed, that sorta thing? If so, at the very least I'd recommend -- if you're doing this service as anything more than an occasional favor to a friend -- that you dupe these to S-VHS tape, in S-VHS mode, not just a straight VHS-VHS dupe. VHS analog copies of VHS analog masters are, in the very best of circumstances, noticeably inferior in quality to the originals -- you get color shifting, loss of detail, all that stuff.

So at a minimum we're talking a good VHS deck outputted into an S-VHS deck in S-VHS record mode, for the dupe -- and then you'll need an S-VHS deck to play back the copy anyway so why not get a DVD player instead? In any case, as a conscientious (sp?) duplicator, I'd very much lean towards making them a DVD copy of the tape anyway (with a VHS/DVD recorder stand-alone deck for simple duplication) and give them that *and* the tape. Just to cover all the bases.

Again, this is assuming that you are making a backup of a irreplaceable tape, and are looking for the best VHS quality on playback. If it's just the person wants a playable (if not very high quality) copy of a tape to watch on occasion, while keeping the original stored safely someplace else, then I suppose a plain VHS-VHS copy would suffice.

I used to work as a telecine operator and have made zillions of dupes in my time (back in the stone ages when all we had was VHS and Beta!), so I tend to think in terms of "archiving" precious tapes, thus the caveat.

[goden99]

Sorry to be a little dumb but S-VHS Deck ??? you mean like the sony little tapes?

They are things like weddings and birthdays and such. What I am doing is recording on tape and then give them the copy and I use my Plextor PX-M402U ConvertX to get it onto my pc and burning a DVD copy and giving them that as well.

[lordsmurf]

S-VHS as in Super VHS ... as in NOT regular VHS

[solidsnake]

I use High grade maxell tapes all the time for my JVC S-VHS recorder with no problems, I get a 10 pack at sams for 10 bucks, or at least used to, I havent been there in a few months. I'd say stay away from JVC tapes, in my experiences I've had more problems with them than anything, not to mention s-vhs-et doesnt look that great on their best vhs tape. I also like RCA, they're really cheap, maybe not best for archiving, but I like them for tv shows etc.etc.

[lordsmurf]

Maxell S-VHS are the poorest quality S-VHS tapes ever known to man. They are LARGELY SUSCEPTIBLE to being "eaten". The "new formula" VHS (as of 1999) made by Maxell also suffers dropouts (glitches) due to poor magnetic particles being used.

You must have has some bad tapes, because JVC VHS tapes even advertise S-VHS-ET on some of them.

I've been using S-VHS for about 7-8 years now.

SAM's often sells crap and other imperfect blank media. That's the source of your problems. You're not getting top-shelf stock.

[Brent G.]

Costco in Canada used to sell TDK-HG VHS tapes. Beware of the TDK-QS tapes which aren't very good. Radio Shack also sells TDK-HG put at a ridiculous price. Like someone else said, give them a $50 DVD player for a present and they'll thank you for it. DVD's are a breeze to copy, whereas copying a VHS tape is a PIA. Unless you're a proctologist, switch to DVD.

[cyflyer]

VHS is a dead duck. Like the others have said, persuade 'em to convert to dvd. I am giving away all my vhs tapes to anyone that will have them !
If you still insist, same recommendations as above, my fav was JVC EHG.
Good VHS tapes are easier to identify than dvd. All brands had their 'general use' or 'Extra High Grade-Archival use' grades clearly labelled.
There won't be any VHS players around in so many years time, even if the tapes last forever ! Think 8 track players vs digital Cd.

[solidsnake]

Maxell S-VHS are the poorest quality S-VHS tapes ever known to man. They are LARGELY SUSCEPTIBLE to being "eaten". The "new formula" VHS (as of 1999) made by Maxell also suffers dropouts (glitches) due to poor magnetic particles being used.

You must have has some bad tapes, because JVC VHS tapes even advertise S-VHS-ET on some of them.

I've been using S-VHS for about 7-8 years now.

SAM's often sells crap and other imperfect blank media. That's the source of your problems. You're not getting top-shelf stock.

What would you recommend for SVHS-ET recording? Something that can be bought in stores such as walmart,target,kmart,circuitcity,bestbuy,etc.etc.

[lordsmurf]

The ONLY .. ONLY.. two tapes I would recommend for S-VHS-ET would be TDK EHG/Vivid or the JVC EHG/EX tapes. I prefer TDK EHG the most. It has almost zero grain/res loss, keeps the color, and the tape is not at all ruined from the "abusive" recording method.

As far as all the "VHS is dead talk" ... phooey. I still use VHS and S-VHS almost as much as I use DVD. Especially if I'm recording old shows off tv for my personal collection, and it's something on late night. I trust VCR timers far more than DVD recorder timers.

[goden99]

thx a lot guys.
Igot one of the vivid tdk and jvc ehg and wow almost like the dvd.
I need to buy like 500-1000 every two weeks. switching what we use (compaired the Maxell Gold with the two tapes and its a MAJOR difference can't belive we were using the old crap) But I need to find a place where I can find almost the same price. We are getting 500-1000 every two weeks of maxell for around 0.75CND. Any idea where I can get those prices for TDK or JVC?

[samijubal]

Scotch used to make good tapes, I don't know if they still do. Some VCRs, older Mitsubishis and maybe some others, will test the tape and tell you the quality.

[lordsmurf]

Scotch was always lowest of the low, as far back as I can remember (even into early 80s tapes). Always suffered from dropout, poor magnetic particle construction. They came and went several times, most of what you seen for past 5-10 years is most likely backstock being shuffled around. Polaroid was the same way. Lots of the mostly "film" and "chemicals" companies were like that, pretty subpar. BASF (a chem company) was probably the only exception to that rule. Kodak was alright, but nowhere near the best. Fuji tapes were always super grainy.

Your "electronics" companies tended to make the best tapes. TDK, JVC, Sony, etc.

[samijubal]

Scotch is the inventor of videotape, I've never had any problems with their tapes, and their mechanism is one of the best. Put one of their tapes in and see the speed and smoothness on rewind compared to others.

[lordsmurf]

Unless I missed something, Scotch is a division of 3M (largely a chemicals corp), and while they may have created the idea of tape, it was Sony and JVC that, by all rights, created modern videotape as we know it.

Rewind speed? The VCR controls that. Tape spools and plastics used in the contructions of the final VHS is often made from a different distributor and bought in bulk. Only the actual tape (the magnetic "film") is created by the company in question.

That's what I worry about ... the magnetic material and the quality of the image it makes when it hits the recording heads.

The general rule of thumb is to buy "electronics" company media. And to avoid "chemicals" or "photo" company media. This is a very old and very common rule. That was the predecessor to the "Japan" and "Taiwan" rules we largely observe with optical media in the modern day.

[samijubal]

JVC and SONY invented the modern VCR. 3M is the one that invented videotape. RCA had the first video image from tape long before Sony and JVC invented VHS and Beta.

[lordsmurf]

JVC and Sony also invented the modern version of the tapes being used in those VCRs.