Magnetic tape is a medium for

magnetic storage Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is acc ...

made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of

plastic film Plastic film is a thin continuous polymeric material. Thicker plastic material is often called a "sheet". These thin plastic membranes are used to separate areas or volumes, to hold items, to act as barriers, or as printable surfaces. Plast ...

. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier

magnetic wire recording Wire recording, also known as magnetic wire recording, was the first magnetic recording technology, an analog type of audio storage. It recorded sound signals on a thin steel wire using varying levels of magnetization. The first crude magne ...

from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic tape can with relative ease record and play back audio, visual, and binary computer data. Magnetic tape revolutionized

sound recording and reproduction Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...

and broadcasting. It allowed radio, which had always been broadcast live, to be recorded for later or repeated airing. Since the early 1950s, magnetic tape has been used with computers to store large quantities of data and is still used for backup purposes. Magnetic tape begins to degrade after 10–20 years and therefore is not an ideal medium for long-term archival storage. The exception is data tape formats like LTO which are specifically designed for long-term archiving. Information in magnetic tapes is often recorded in tracks which are narrow and long areas of information recorded magnetically onto the tape, which are separate from each other and often spaced apart from adjacent tracks. Tracks are often parallel to the length of the tape, in which case they are known as longitudinal tracks, or diagonal relative to the length of the tape in

helical scan Helical scan is a method of recording high-frequency signals on magnetic tape, used in open-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drives. With this technique, magnetic tape he ...

. There are also transverse scan and arcuate scanning, used in

Quadruplex videotape 2-inch quadruplex videotape (also called 2" quad video tape or quadraplex) was the first practical and commercially successful analog recording video tape format. The format uses magnetic tape and was developed and released for the broadcast t ...

. Azimuth recording is used to reduce or eliminate the spacing that exists between adjacent tracks.

Durability

While good for short-term use, magnetic tape is highly prone to disintegration. Depending on the environment, this process may begin after 10–20 years. Over time, magnetic tape made in the 1970s and 1980s can suffer from a type of deterioration called sticky-shed syndrome. It is caused by

hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution reaction, substitution, elimination reaction, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water ...

of the binder in the tape and can render the tape unusable.

Successors

Since the introduction of magnetic tape, other technologies have been developed that can perform the same functions, and therefore, replace it. Such as for example, hard disk drives in computers replacing cassette tape readers such as the Atari Program Recorder and the

Commodore Datasette file:Commodore-Datasette-C2N-Mk1-Front.jpg, The third, most common version of the 1530 C2N Datassette The Commodore 1530 (C2N) Datasette, later also Datassette (a portmanteau of ''data'' and ''cassette''), is Commodore International, Commodore's d ...

for software, CDs and MiniDiscs replacing cassette tapes for audio, and DVDs replacing VHS tapes. Despite this, technological innovation continues.

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

continue to advance tape capacity.

Uses

Audio

Magnetic tape was invented for recording sound by Fritz Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany. Because of escalating political tensions and the outbreak of World War II, these developments in Germany were largely kept secret. Although the Allies knew from their monitoring of Nazi radio broadcasts that the Germans had some new form of recording technology, its nature was not discovered until the Allies acquired German recording equipment as they invaded Europe at the end of the war. It was only after the war that Americans, particularly

Jack Mullin John Thomas Mullin (October 5, 1913 – June 24, 1999) was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death ...

, John Herbert Orr, and Richard H. Ranger, were able to bring this technology out of Germany and develop it into commercially viable formats.

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

, an early adopter of the technology, made a large investment in the tape hardware manufacturer

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

. A wide variety of audiotape recorders and formats have been developed since. Some magnetic tape-based formats include: *

Reel-to-reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

Fidelipac The Fidelipac, commonly known as a "NAB cartridge" or simply "cart", is a magnetic tape sound recording format, used for radio broadcasting for playback of material over the air such as radio commercials, jingles, station identifications, and m ...

Stereo-Pak The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4- track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology. The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the Fidelipac 2-track monaural (audio & cue tracks, later 3-track for stereo) ...

(Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4-track cartridge) * Perforated (sprocketed) film audio magnetic tape (sepmag, perfotape, sound follower tape, magnetic film) *

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, ...

Compact Cassette The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company ...

* Elcaset *

RCA tape cartridge The RCA tape cartridge (labeled the RCA Sound Tape Cartridge) is a magnetic tape audio format that was designed to offer stereo quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape recording quality in a convenient format for the consumer market. It was introduced i ...

* Mini-Cassette * Microcassette * Picocassette * NT (cassette) * ProDigi * Digital Audio Stationary Head *

Digital Audio Tape Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a Compact Cassette, using 3.81 mm / 0.15" (commonly referred to as 4 mm) magnetic t ...

Digital Compact Cassette Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) is a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita Electric in late 1992 and marketed as the successor to the standard analog Compact Cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Son ...

Video

Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or

digital signal A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; ...

. Videotape is used in both

video tape recorder A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio signal, audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. ...

s (VTRs) and, more commonly,

videocassette recorder A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other AV sources and can play back the recording after rewinding. The use of a VCR to reco ...

s (VCRs) and

camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-sw ...

s. Videotapes have also been used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram. Some magnetic tape-based formats include: *

* Ampex 2-inch helical VTR * Type A videotape * IVC videotape format * Type B videotape *

Type C videotape 1-inch Type C Helical Scan or SMPTE C is a professional reel-to-reel analog recording helical scan videotape format co-developed by Ampex and Sony in 1976. The format uses tape and became the replacement in the professional video and broadcast t ...

EIAJ-1 EIAJ-1 was a standard for video tape recorders (VTRs) developed by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan with the cooperation and assistance of several Japanese electronics manufacturers in 1969. It was the first standardized format fo ...

U-matic U-matic, also known as -inch Type E Helical Scan or SMPTE E, is an analog recording videocassette format developed by Sony. First shown as a prototype in October 1969 and introduced commercially in September 1971, it was among the earliest vi ...

* Video Cassette Recording *

Cartrivision Cartrivision is an analog video tape cartridge format introduced in 1972, and the first format to offer feature films for consumer rental.VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

VHS-C VHS-C is a compact version of the VHS videocassette format, introduced by Victor Company of Japan ( JVC) in 1982, and used primarily in consumer-grade analog recording camcorders. VHS-C uses the same magnetic tape as full-size VHS cassettes a ...

S-VHS S-VHS, the common initialism for Super VHS, is an analog video cassette format introduced by JVC in 1987 as an improved version of the VHS (Video Home System) format. S-VHS improved image quality by increasing the bandwidth of the luminance ...

*** Digital S *** W-VHS *** D-VHS * Video 2000 * V-Cord * VX (videocassette format) *

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...

* Compact Video Cassette *

Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, ''Betacam'' singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. ...

** Betacam SP **

Digital Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, ''Betacam'' singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. ...

Betacam SX Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, ''Betacam'' singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. ...

*** MPEG IMX ** HDCAM *** HDCAM SR * M (videocassette format) * MII (videocassette format) ** UniHi *

D-1 (Sony) D-1 or 4:2:2 Component Digital is an SMPTE digital recording video standard, introduced in 1986 through efforts by SMPTE engineering committees. It started as a Sony and Bosch – BTS product and was the first major professional digital v ...

* DCT (videocassette format) *

D-2 (video) D-2 is a professional digital videocassette format created by Ampex and introduced in 1988 at the NAB Show as a composite video alternative to the component video D-1 format. It garnered Ampex a technical Emmy in 1989. Like D-1, D-2 stores ...

D-3 (video) D-3 is an uncompressed composite digital video format invented at NHK and introduced commercially by Panasonic. It was launched in 1991 to compete with Ampex's D-2. Overview D-3 uses half-inch metal particle tape at 83.88 mm/s (compar ...

D5 HD D-5 is a professional digital video format introduced by Panasonic at 18th International Television Symposium in Montreux in 1993 and released a year later in 1994. Overview Like Sony's D-1 (8-bit), it is an uncompressed digital component sys ...

* D6 HDTV VTR *

Video8 The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats. These are the original Video8 format (analog video and analog audio but with provision for digital audio), its improved variant Hi8, as well as a more recent digita ...

Hi8 The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats. These are the original Video8 format (analog video and analog audio but with provision for digital audio), its improved variant Hi8, as well as a more recent digit ...

Digital8 Digital8 (or D8) is a consumer digital recording videocassette for camcorders developed by Sony, and introduced in 1999. The Digital8 format is a combination of the earlier analog Hi8 tape transport with the digital DV codec. Digital8 equipm ...

* DV **

MiniDV DV (from ''Digital Video'') is a family of codecs and Videotape, tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of camcorder, video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. It includes the recording or casse ...

** DVCAM ***

DVCPRO DV (from ''Digital Video'') is a family of codecs and tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. It includes the recording or cassette formats DV, Mini ...

*** DVCPRO50 *** DVCPRO Progressive ***

DVCPRO HD DV (from ''Digital Video'') is a family of codecs and tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. It includes the recording or cassette formats DV, Mini ...

** HDV * MicroMV

Computer data

References

External links

History of Tape Recording Technology

The Museum of Obsolete Media
{{Authority control Audiovisual introductions in 1928 Audio storage Computer storage tape media Magnetic devices Sound recording Tape recording German inventions 1928 in Germany 1928 in science