Media Sciences tested helical scan 4 mm and 8 mm DAT tapes for several years. We noticed that repeated passes over the tape resulted in debris pileup and dropouts at the beginning and end of each pass. Heads attached to the rotating drum not only contact the tape but locally deform the tape in order to avoid high frequency gap losses. This would not be an issue for write-once archiving but is important if such tapes are rewritten.
Barbara UofC Language Labs
Jerry Media Sciences, Inc.
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