From: wwilliam@dvorak.amd.com (Wade Williams)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: DAT versus VHS
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:53:27 GMT
Organization: Austin, Texas

In article <1992Sep1.141901.8482@vicorp.com> mc@vicorp.com (Mark Charalambous) w
rites:


Mind if I field this one DAT-heads ;-)
>
>I'm a VHS user, and so far (2+ years) am very satisfied with what I've got.
>
No comment.


>I'm not a DAT taper. I don't own a machine. However there are in my mind
>definite drawbacks that I have identified.
>   1) Cost.
>      Tapes are 2 hours long and cost $7 or $8. Two hours is usually an
>      inconvenient time duration for Dead shows, which often take up 3
>      hours, and thus match well with analog cassette times of 90 minutes
>      each.


You can buy 90min versions, and 3 hour tapes are available for computers
so audio shouldn't be far behind.  Computers are much less forgiving than
audio equipment so blank computer tape is more money than the audio stuff.


>      The decks are very expensive. They start at $600-$700, and serious
>      tapers are forced to purchase "Pro" decks due to that insane scms
>      scam that the industry was able to foist on consumers. It's a %!#$@*%
>      outrage as everyone agrees.


Good VCR's are not cheap either.  SCMS does suck.  You can buy an SCMS
stripper for about 200 now and avoid buying a 1000 dollar pro deck.  You
could rent your pro-deck out for 75 bucks a day here in Austin and make
your money back.  I was never that desperate and couldn't bear letting
unknown people mangle my machines.


>
>   2) DAT technology may not last. But rest assured video technology,
>      particularly VHS, will be around for a long time for obvious
>      reasons. I would guess that audio capabilities will only improve
>      (they are already phenomenal IMO) as we get more and more of this
>      push toward home theatre systems.


DAT is pretty entrenched in the professional studio arena and will stay
that way for a while IMHO.  VCR's, like DAT, offer the only cheap way
to store large amounts of information.  Both use rotary head
technology and can suffer very similar mechanical failures.  If something
is developed to replace VCR's, it will probably be able to replace DAT
as well.


DAT is also pretty common in computer back-up so tapes should be around for
a while.


>      And when and if it does in fact lose out to DCC or mini-CD, the


These machines will initially cost more that DAT and be inferior.   Who's
going to buy them?  Prerecorded tapes will cost as much as CD's and be
vulnerable to the pitfalls of magnetic media...drop-outs and munching.
Why not just buy the CD?  People wanting to record digitally have already
forked out the $$$ for DAT and should have little interest in the inferior
DCC or mini-CD which uses a *lossy* data compression/expanision on
the signal.  It, and probably any future digital medium, will have SCMS
so your investment in an SCMS stripper could last quite a while.


>
>   3) (and this one to me is really important) Hardware reliability.
>      I've been on a DAT-tape-heads mailing list for some time now
>      (roughly a year), and by far the preponderous posts are those
>      relating to problems with the decks (and also the tapes! Apparently
>      some tape brands don't play properly on certain decks).
>      The impression I get from the traffic on this mailing list is that
>      DAT technology has a phenomenally high percentage of bad units,
>      that is, decks that are purchased and start having serious problems
>      very soon after they are purchased!


DAT's are built like mini-VCR machines.  All mechanical problems which
might happen on one can occur on the other.  Due to the rotary head
technology, the units are inherently more complex than an analog deck.
I have not had any problems with my decks....knock on wood.  All you
get to hear on DAT-heads are the complaints and problems.  This tends
to make thinks look worse.  I'm not saying the machines are perfect, but
they work at least as well as my video disk player which has been in the
shop for the past 1.5 years.  Bleeding edge technology ;-)
>


Wade
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead