Mini DV: Sony, Panasonic, TDK, JVC

[fiona200703]

Dear friends,

Is there any different between mini DV cassette Sony, Panasonic, JVC and TDK? Somebody told me that there is no different for picture but only Sony and Panasonic that are safe for head because of material that they are used. Is that correct?

thanks
Fiona & dhany

[Skyman]

not really, most of them are the same. a lot of it comes down to how they are stored for example if they are layed flat the tape edge can bend which is why vhs (back in the day) in video stores were stood up. i have had good and bad experiences with most of them. and most tape manufacturers have a "pro" version that is supposed to be better than the regular version. my personal favourite is the fuji pro one but currently i use tdk because i get them through work and that is the brand they buy. back when i was at uni i had a problem with a tdk and swore off them for a while but now in the last 2 years i haven't had a problem.

[MJS]

I go through about 600 MiniDV tapes per school year and we've pretty much standardized on the Sony Premium 60. They seem to have the least amount of dropouts on the mini-cams, along with the JVC S30U decks that we use for our edit feeders. We have access and good pricing on all brands, but went on the suggestion of the engineers in our area that clean and service our equipment. Like Skyman, I've had excellent results when we've needed to use TDK in a pinch. I can't comment on the Panasonic since we don't use them much.

[fiona200703]

Thank you for the information Mr. Skyman and Mr. MJS. I have tried Panasonic and JVC and I cannot tell the different.

dhany & fiona