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GROUP TEST
HEAD
MAKING THE GRADE
INTRO
BOX COPY 1
Contrary to what you will see printed on
blank tape sleeves there is only one officially sanctioned grade of VHS tape,
and that’s the one defined by the VHS format specifications drawn up by JVC in
the early 1970’s. Manufacturers are free to improve on the basic formulation
and over the years a grading structure of sorts has emerged, though it’s
important to point out that there are no precisely defined standards, and
manufacturers are free to create their own -- often meaningless -- grading
systems.
In ascending order or quality and price they
are: Standard grade or SG tape, this is the type most of us use for everyday
watch-and-wipe recording. Most leading manufacturers reckon their SG tapes can
withstand 1,000 record/replay cycles without any significant deterioration in
picture quality. High grade (HG) tape usually has improved magnetic
characteristics, for better picture quality on LP speed recordings, though the
difference between the better SG tapes and many HG tapes can sometimes be
difficult to spot.
Hi-Fi grade tape often has additional
coatings or lubricants, to reduce friction, and more precisely cut edges, to
improve runnability; that’s important because any variation in speed, no matter
how slight, will impair the sound quality on stereo machines. Lastly there are
Super/Ultra High Grade (SHG) , ‘Master’ and ‘Pro’ quality tapes, which combine
the most advanced magnetic formulations with highly consistent coatings that
resist flaking or shedding, that causes ‘dropout’, or momentary flashes on the
picture. These tapes are used where performance is critical, in movie-making,
editing or mastering. (There are also specialist Super-VHS tapes, but we
needn’t worry about those...)
The bottom line on tape is that whilst every
little helps, if your VCR is an old dog you’re not going to see much of an
improvement in picture quality with HG tapes from the brand leaders. The best
tape in the world isn’t going to do a thing for picture or sound quality. On
the other hand if you’ve got a half-decent machine -- mid-range LP and stereo
models upwards -- it’s well worth spending that little extra, and you should
see a difference.
BOX COPY 2
PERFORMANCE AND PRICE
Blank tape is produced in batches and there
can be considerable variations, which makes it difficult to assess performance,
based on a single sample. Fortunately we have test data going back several
years to draw upon, so we can make meaningful comparisons, and comment on
factors such as consistency. There are other points to bear in mind, blank tape
is a commodity item and there’s no guarantee that the tape inside a particular
cassette will have been made by the company who’s name appears on the sleeve,
or even that successive batches will have originated from the same factory, or
indeed the same country.
Manufacturers buy and sell enormous
quantities of raw tape -- sometimes with each other -- on an international spot
market. The tape takes the form of ‘jumbos’ (huge uncut rolls) or ‘pancakes’
(reels of cut tape). It’s a surprisingly incestuous business as well, BASF own
the Agfa and Memorex brands, Matsushita own JVC and Panasonic, Scotch buy in
some of their camcorder tapes from Japan, and so it goes on. The safest thing
to do is stick with the major household brands and avoid buying tape from
street markets and car-boot sales, which may have been stored in damp or dusty
conditions.
You will notice that we’ve not given any
recommended or suggested retail prices for the tapes we’ve looked at. That’s
because the blank video tape market is awash with deals and discounts, special
offers and promos, especially in the run-up to Christmas, and major sporting
events, so it is almost impossible to quote the price of a single tape. The best advice we can give is shop around,
and in general you’re usually better off buying multi-packs.
VHS HIGH GRADE AND HI-FI TAPES
BASF VISION PREMIUM HIGH GRADE
Last year BASF introduced their Vision range
of tapes, though the changes are largely cosmetic as the tape inside is a tried
and tested chrome formulation. They’ve
stuck a ‘NICAM Digital Stereo’ label on the sleeve, which is a bit of a crafty
marketing ploy as the hi-fi stereo signals recorded on the tape are essentially
the same, whether they originate from the VCRs NICAM decoder, or an external
source. No matter, it’s still a high quality tape, samples we’ve tried show
very little dropout or noise and we’d be happy to use it in any hi-fi VCR, or
LP machine for that matter.
HC Rating 8
DEFINITION SEG
We brought this
one from a South London electrical shop for the princely sum of £1.25. It
claims to be an SEG or Super Extra
Grade tape, whatever that might be. The alarm bells started ringing when we
looked at the cardboard sleeve; on the back there’s two impressive-looking
graphs marked playback demagnetisation and head-wear, the only trouble is they
haven’t been filled in. The blurb goes on to say ‘ developed in UK for the
system VHS, is produced of selected materials and carefully manufactured.’
Needless to say the tape is about as good as the sleeve-writer’s rather dubious
command of the English language. Tapes such as these should be avoided, not
just because they’re poor quality but they may also contribute to head-wear.
HC Rating 2
FUJI SUPER HG
Although the packaging has had a recent
facelift Fuji’s Super HG has been around for a quite a while now, with good
reason, it’s a damn fine tape. Fuji invented the double-layer process; this
works on the principle that the lower-frequency signals used for stereo hi-fi
information is buried deep in the tape’s magnetic coating, whilst
higher-frequency video signals end up on top, closer to the tape’s top surface.
The two layers are optimised for the different types of signals, so in theory
it works better than single layer tape. Make of that what you will, the fact is
this is, and has always been an excellent tape, and over the years we have
noticed hardly any variation in quality, it is always sensibly priced and you
can buy with confidence.
HC Rating 9
JVC EHG
If JVC can’t make a decent quality VHS tape,
who can? EHG has been around for a couple of years and it has always been a
very reliable performer. Plenty of teccy stuff on the sleeve, with the
inevitable diagrams, this time showing their high-energy magnetite particle and
multi-liner orientation, handy if you’ve got a degree in chemistry. The power
index is up by 15%, compared with conventional JVC tape, so it must be good...
Although our sample was fresh from stock it had an official 1994 World Cup sponsor logo on the sleeve. As
expected there are no problems with the tape, it has near-zero dropout and very
low noise levels, it’s an excellent tape that we have found works well on any
machine but it definitely gives its best on LP recordings and older, and
sometimes fussy hi-fi decks.
HC Rating 9
JVC PRO AV MASTER
This is the same tape as they use in their
top grade camcorder cassettes. It’s branded as a ‘master’ tape, and the zero
dropout and exceptionally low noise levels bear this out. It even comes in its
own hard library case, for added
protection. This tape is quite expensive, so it’s not the sort of thing you’d
use for time-shifting Coronation Street, but if you’re in the video biz,
serious about quality or use a VHS camcorder then its well worth the extra, for
the peace of mind, that an original recording made on this tape will be as good
as it can possibly be.
HC Rating 10
MAXELL GX BLACK
In 1992 Maxell were the first company to
market video tapes using a highly efficient ‘magnetite’ particle formulation,
GX Black appeared in 1993. The theory goes something like this. Magnetite
particles are smaller and more uniform in shape than conventional magnetic
particles, so you get more of them to the square centimetre. That means more
information ends up on the tape, which results in a better signal to noise
ratio, i.e. more signal and less noise. In practice GX Black is a good solid
performer, it doesn’t break any performance records but noise levels and
dropout are both below average, which makes it good choice for LP recordings
and hi-fi machines.
HC Rating 8
PANASONIC HI-FI
You can’t go far wrong with Panasonic tape.
Their Hi-Fi formulation uses a ‘newly developed high-power magnetic particle’;
well, it probably was new when this tape first appeared back in 1992, it’s
about time they changed their packaging. There’s a ‘conceptual’ drawing of the
particle on the back of the sleeve, it looks a bit like a hairy caterpillar,
but that’s technology for you... Joking aside this is a consistently good tape,
with negligible dropout and minimal noise, the only trouble is their regular HG
tape is pretty good as well, and quite frankly we can see little point in
paying any extra for the Hi-Fi formulation.
HC Rating 8
SCOTCH EXG+
Another very safe bet. EXG+ has been on the
market for at least five years, though Scotch occasionally change the
packaging. Maybe not the top performer -- in fact there’s not a lot of
difference between this and their excellent SG tape -- but it is very
dependable, noise levels are always low, and dropout has never been a problem,
even after protracted use. Scotch dreamt up the lifetime guarantee, and we’ve
certainly never had cause to complain. It’s usually very reasonably priced, and
widely distributed why look any further?
HC Rating 8
SONY V
Sony were comparative latecomers to the VHS
tape market but their considerable experience with other cassette formats and
professional magnetic media have stood them in very good stead. Sony V is their
HG/Hi-Fi grade cassette, this particular sample was assembled in Thailand,
using Japanese made tape. Sony are not above a
bit of technical bamboozlement and the sleeve says this ‘new V tape
achieves a 33% and 12% improvement in picture and sound quality, compared to
the conventional V tape’ What on earth does that mean, and what are we supposed
to make of the fact that the magnetic energy of this tape is Br. 160mT? Ignore
the guff, this is a good tape, very little dropout and lower than average noise
levels.
HC Rating 8
TDK E-HG Hi-Fi
TDK used to have a separate hi-fi grade tape
but now they’ve consolidated their range with the EHG Hi-Fi. TDK have been
quite busy in the past year or so, refining their video tape products, with
uprated magnetic formulations and coatings, improving on what was already one
of the best tape ranges on the market. Their current hi-fi grade offering is
about as good as it gets, with negligible noise levels, bright, natural-looking
colours and near zero dropout. Another top rated tape that’s well worth seeking
out, if you’ve got a VCR that can make use of it.
HC Rating 9
---end---
Ó R. Maybury 1995 2002
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