Tape manufacturers: Difference between revisions
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===Customers===
* Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment
* Fotomat Video
* Magnetic Video Corporation
* MCA Videocassette, Inc.
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Revision as of 02:36, 29 August 2022
This list is dedicated to the tape stock companies and their customers.
3M
Customers
- Buena Vista Home Video
- Walt Disney Home Video
- Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment/RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video/Columbia TriStar Home Video
- Fotomat Video
- Magnetic Video Corporation/20th Century Fox Video/CBS/Fox Video
- MCA Videocassette, Inc./MCA Home Video
- MGM/CBS Home Video/MGM/UA Home Video
- Paramount Home Video
- Thorn EMI Video/Thorn EMI/HBO Video
- Time-Life Video
- WCI Home Video/Warner Home Video
How to tell
- On some tapes, especially early ones, the Scotch logo is engraved in white on the tape guard.
- Mid 1980s-Early 1990s tapes may have the Scotch logo engraved as part of the tape nominal information above the record tab.
- Some tapes have "3M" printed as part of the print code information on the bottom side, mainly on those duplicated by Technicolor Videocassette and West Coast Video Duplicating/MediaCopy.
Agfa-Gevaert
Customers
- MGM/UA Home Video
- United Home Video
How to tell
Ampex
Customers
- Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment
- Fotomat Video
- Magnetic Video Corporation
- MCA Videocassette, Inc.
- MGM/CBS Home Video
- Paramount Home Video
- Time-Life Video
- WCI Home Video
How to tell
BASF
Customers
- Lionsgate Home Entertainment
- Artisan Entertainment (1987-2004)
- Vestron Video (1987-1992)
- Artisan Entertainment (1987-2004)
- Anchor Bay Entertainment (1995-2007)
- Video Treasures (1986-1998)
- Burbank Video (1987-1995)
- Jenal Entertainment (1987-1991)
- Troy Gold (1987-1989)
- MNTex Entertainment (1987-1998)
- Strand Home Video (1989-1998)
- Burbank Video (1987-1995)
- Starmaker Entertainment
- Video Treasures (1986-1998)
- Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (1987-2007)
- Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (1994-2007)
- Sterling Entertainment Group
- UAV Corporation (1985-1998)
- VidAmerica, Inc. (1987-1992)
- Paramount Home Entertainment (1994-2007)
- Warner Home Video (1987-2007)
- MGM Home Entertainment (1987-2007)
How to tell
- Many 1985-2007 tapes duplicated on BASF cassettes have dark or silver ink prototype codes. Usually, these codes included the tape nominal length, the shift digits, the print date and/or the print time.
- Only on tapes duplicated at either CBS/Fox or Technicolor.
- Some Memorex-manufactured tapes also had BASF codes. It is possible that somewhere down the line, Memorex licensed the tapes to BASF months after the first manufacture date. Once again, only on tapes duplicated at CBS/Fox or Technicolor.
- For example, if the dark ink code reads "T-82 M3" on top and "012393 S 1223", or "012393 S", that means the cassette is a T-82 length and that the tape was manufactured on January 23, 1993. The time code would mean 12:23 PM, and S and M3 would be two of the shift digits.
Fuji
Customers
- Astral Video (Canadian)
- Magnetic Video Corporation
- Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment/RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (Canadian)
- Thorn EMI Video
- Time-Life Video
- Buena Vista Home Video (Canadian)
- Walt Disney Home Video
How to tell
- Tapes manufactured prior to 1990 may have the Fuji name on the tape guard.
JVC
Customers
- Allied Artists Video
- Magnetic Video Corporation
- Media Home Entertainment
How to tell
Maxell
Customers
- 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment
- CBS/Fox Video
- 20th Century-Fox Video
- CBS/Fox Video
- MGM/UA Home Video
- Paramount Home Video
- Columbia/TriStar Home Video
- RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
- PBS Video
- Thorn EMI Video
- Time-Life Video
- VCI Home Video
- Buena Vista Home Video
- Walt Disney Home Video
- Touchstone Home Video
- Warner Home Video
- Anchor Bay Entertainment (1995-2007)
- Video Treasures (1988-1998)
- Burbank Video (1988-1995)
- Troy Gold (1987-1989)
- Burbank Video (1988-1995)
- Starmaker Entertainment
- Video Treasures (1988-1998)
How to tell
- Tapes manufactured after the early 1990s would have a safety notice written in a Helvetica-like font on the tape guard that says, "Insert this side into recorder -- Do not touch the tape inside," while tapes manufactured before would have the up arrow below the tape guard instead of into the tape guard, and no safety notice anywhere.
Memorex
Customers
- Anchor Bay Entertainment (1995-1996)
- Video Treasures (1990-1996)
- Burbank Video (1988-1995)
- Troy Gold (1987-1989)
- Burbank Video (1988-1995)
- Starmaker Entertainment (1990-1996)
- Video Treasures (1990-1996)
- Buena Vista Home Video (1988-1994)
- Walt Disney Home Video
- Warner Home Video
- HBO Home Video
- Allied Artists Video
How to tell
- Some 1987-1998 tapes have “Made in U.S.A.” or "MADE IN U.S.A." moulded on the back right of the cassette.
- Some 1987-1998 tapes have dark ink code information, including the day-year code.
- For example, if the code reads "8 322 90 2211", then that means that the side of the tape is labeled 8 and that the tape was manufactured on the 322nd day of 1990, or November 18, 1990, at 10:11 PM.
Panasonic
Customers
- CBS/Fox Video
- Family Home Entertainment
- RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
How to tell
RCA
Customers
- Magnetic Video Corporation
- MGM/UA Home Video
- VCI Home Video
- WCI Home Video
- Buena Vista Home Video
- Walt Disney Home Video
- Touchstone Home Video
How to tell
Sony
Customers
- HBO/Cannon Video
- MGM/UA Home Video
- RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
- Buena Vista Home Video
- Walt Disney Home Video
- Warner Home Video
How to tell
For VHS, either small round depressions in the frontal shell of the cassette, or a large grid of squares along the entire frontal area thereof.
TDK
Customers
- Magnetic Video Corporation/20th Century-Fox Video/CBS/Fox Video
- MGM/CBS Home Video/MGM/UA Home Video
- Paramount Home Video
- Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment/RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
- Fotomat Video
- MCA Videocassette, Inc.
- Time-Life Video/Vestron Video
- Thorn EMI Video/Thorn EMI/HBO Video
- U.S.A. Home Video
- Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company
- Walt Disney Home Video
- WCI Home Video/Warner Home Video
How to tell
- The TDK logo can be found above the record tab.
Notes
- The first companies to provide tape stocks for the official home entertainment and media industry are the larger manufacturing companies, including those that invented the media formats and accessories.
- 1930 - 3M invented the Scotch Tape under their then-formed sub-label, Scotch.
- 1935 - TDK invented iron-based magnetic material during their establishment.
- 1961 - Memorex invented the computer tape.
- 1975 - Sony invented the Beta format.
- 1977 - JVC invented the VHS format.
- 1987 - An improved version of the VHS format was developed by JVC, called S-VHS. In the meantime, the VHS format has won the war that it once had with the Beta format. As a result, VHS gained more popularity than Beta did.
- 1988 - Sony began making VHS players/recorders.
- The last companies to provide tape stocks for the industry were a soda and chemical manufacturing company named BASF, doing business as Baden Aniline and Soda Factory, and a battery company named Maxell.