best place to buy tapes?
- Thread starter Celulloyd
- Start date
dory_breaux
Todd Wannabe
B&H, and sometimes you can find good tapes in bulk on eBay.
jcoxshooter
Well-known member
Beat Takeshi
Two-Hip Shakur
Locally I use Media Distributors. They will match any price you bring to them. The only pain is that they are on the West side hwy and if you don't have a car in a long ass walk to them. They are in the old Tunnel club building.
EDIT: I didn't see that you were upstate.
I use tapestockonline.com when I'm not buying a bag-o-tapes from the other guys.
EDIT: I didn't see that you were upstate.
I use tapestockonline.com when I'm not buying a bag-o-tapes from the other guys.
mischiefman05
Member
Can you guys tell me what the best kind of tapes are for the DVX? I got a bunch of TDK tapes from Costco that were really cheap. I have heard bad things about TDK's, should I be worried? How much of a difference can difference brands and types of tape really make? I don't want to spend 10 bucks on a single tape, I got 10 of these babies at costco for 25 bucks! Whats the deal? Bad idea? Thanks...
Celulloyd
Member
mischiefman,
From what I've been reading (I'm fairlly new to the DVX but I have years of video/film experience), cheaper tapes produce lower-quality images and can be harmful to the camera. I'm not sure about TDKs specifically, but I just bought a 5-pack of Panasonic AY-DVM63AMQ tapes from B&H Photo that cost around $35. I tried a cheaper tape when I first bought the camera (only for a few minutes of recording time) and I can definitely see a difference in the image. Plus the dry lubricant is better.
Hope it helps.
From what I've been reading (I'm fairlly new to the DVX but I have years of video/film experience), cheaper tapes produce lower-quality images and can be harmful to the camera. I'm not sure about TDKs specifically, but I just bought a 5-pack of Panasonic AY-DVM63AMQ tapes from B&H Photo that cost around $35. I tried a cheaper tape when I first bought the camera (only for a few minutes of recording time) and I can definitely see a difference in the image. Plus the dry lubricant is better.
Hope it helps.
I have to confess to using cheapo JVC tapes.
The reason is, there is not many places where to get the panasonic tapes locally. One shop and they are $8.00 each.
Every shop has either sony or JVC all over Australia. I always used sony's with the sony cameras. The guy who had my DVX before me used exclusively JVC and when I had it serviced after about 250 hours the service techs said the heads were in good condition (after they removed the sand from the tape mechanism ... arggh!) He said he had not had any problems with them and continues to use them in his new XL2.
Also, the price, JVC's are just $3.00.
lets say they destroy the heads after 500 hours ... thats $3 X 500 = $1500.00 on tapes and another $1000.00 for new heads total= $2500.00 and you have new heads.
Using Panasonic $8 X 500 = $4000 and no new heads. (and the risk of being caught without panasonic tapes and having to change brands ... not good)
In digital, I don't think the image quality changes depending on what tapes you use, it's all 1's and 0's. like downloading a computer file.
Supposedly, better quality tapes have less dropouts and are kinder to the heads. I've not had a lot of trouble with dropouts before, but I've only just started shooting with the DVX and JVC, no problems so far ... fingers crossed.
With the sonys I used to prestripe them but Im not doing this on the DVX.
Something that is supposed to be good is forwarding and rewinding the tape before you use it, So I use my cheapo panasonic cam to do that before I use the tape.
The reason is, there is not many places where to get the panasonic tapes locally. One shop and they are $8.00 each.
Every shop has either sony or JVC all over Australia. I always used sony's with the sony cameras. The guy who had my DVX before me used exclusively JVC and when I had it serviced after about 250 hours the service techs said the heads were in good condition (after they removed the sand from the tape mechanism ... arggh!) He said he had not had any problems with them and continues to use them in his new XL2.
Also, the price, JVC's are just $3.00.
lets say they destroy the heads after 500 hours ... thats $3 X 500 = $1500.00 on tapes and another $1000.00 for new heads total= $2500.00 and you have new heads.
Using Panasonic $8 X 500 = $4000 and no new heads. (and the risk of being caught without panasonic tapes and having to change brands ... not good)
In digital, I don't think the image quality changes depending on what tapes you use, it's all 1's and 0's. like downloading a computer file.
Supposedly, better quality tapes have less dropouts and are kinder to the heads. I've not had a lot of trouble with dropouts before, but I've only just started shooting with the DVX and JVC, no problems so far ... fingers crossed.
With the sonys I used to prestripe them but Im not doing this on the DVX.
Something that is supposed to be good is forwarding and rewinding the tape before you use it, So I use my cheapo panasonic cam to do that before I use the tape.
Last edited:
dory_breaux
Todd Wannabe
Um, dont use cheep tapes. But if you do, keep using them.
I've done a bit of research and what I found was that there is no difference in image quality regardless of the tapes you use.
The reason is, the tapes are not storing a video signal, they are simply a means to store a file of numbers, those numbers dont change regardless of which type of tape you use.
An analogy would be storing a photoshop image on your harddrive. Does it matter if it's an expensive hardrive or a cheap one? or if you store it on a USB key or on a floppy drive or even an old commodore tape drive? The answer is no. The image quality won't change because it's just storing binary numbers that represent the colours etc.
Having said that, more expensive tapes might be better at retaining the integrity of the image by more reliable encoding of those numbers so less chance of dropouts or miss reads.
The bottom line is, if your tape transport system is in good nick even this is debatable since DV recording has proven to be a pretty reliable means of transferring data from the camera to the tape, regardless of which tapes you use, even if they are DVCAM or simple DV.
There is evidence to suggest that using different brands in one camera can be dangerous since they may use different lubes that do not mix well on the heads. This stems from earlier incarnations of DV Tape lubricants. It's supposed to have been fixed but people still complain of having problems.
So best to stick with one tape brand.
There is also evidence that using tapes without first full forwarding and rewinding the tape might increase the chance of dropouts.
The reason is, the tapes are not storing a video signal, they are simply a means to store a file of numbers, those numbers dont change regardless of which type of tape you use.
An analogy would be storing a photoshop image on your harddrive. Does it matter if it's an expensive hardrive or a cheap one? or if you store it on a USB key or on a floppy drive or even an old commodore tape drive? The answer is no. The image quality won't change because it's just storing binary numbers that represent the colours etc.
Having said that, more expensive tapes might be better at retaining the integrity of the image by more reliable encoding of those numbers so less chance of dropouts or miss reads.
The bottom line is, if your tape transport system is in good nick even this is debatable since DV recording has proven to be a pretty reliable means of transferring data from the camera to the tape, regardless of which tapes you use, even if they are DVCAM or simple DV.
There is evidence to suggest that using different brands in one camera can be dangerous since they may use different lubes that do not mix well on the heads. This stems from earlier incarnations of DV Tape lubricants. It's supposed to have been fixed but people still complain of having problems.
So best to stick with one tape brand.
There is also evidence that using tapes without first full forwarding and rewinding the tape might increase the chance of dropouts.