This month's article is concerned with tape and value for money - I guess most video enthusiasts should be involved with these.

Do you buy pre-recorded films? I don't think anyone will deny these are quite expensive items, and after you have handed over your £30 or more you do at least expect to get what you paid for. Unfortunately this is not always the case, and several of the films on sale are 'mutilated'. For one reason or another they have been cut from the original length and various scenes are missing. If you compare the stated running time with the original length as quoted in the reference books you can rapidly assess whether you are getting the whole film or a shortened version. Sometimes the scenes have been taken out in order to make the action snappier, sometimes they have been 'censored' to make the film acceptable for screening on TV. Occasionally the original version is no longer available, so the curtailed version is the only one available.

Now, however, another complication emerges. Warner Home Video in the States had a problem in that films were just too long to fit onto the normal length tape cassette, which in the States is two hours. They were reluctant to issue films as twin-packs because this raised the cost price to an uneconomic level and the public would never pay the eventual retail price. Their first reaction was not to release films lasting longer than 120 minutes, but that was short-sighted. There were many excellent films which would sell well but lasted longer than the prescribed 120 minutes. With typical American ingenuity they have now come up with an answer. The problem was partially solved by producing longer blank tapes lasting 150 minutes - pretty obvious that, the clever bit is a new time compression technique which enables more viewing time to be put onto a tape. By speeding up the projection of the film during the film to video transfer they can now get almost 65 minutes' worth of action into 60 minutes playing time on tape. Speech and other sound is digitally processed to maintain normal pitch; voices sound normal, though in fact the performers are talking slightly faster.

In the past year Warner Brothers and VidAmerica have applied this technique to literally thousands of cassettes sold and presumably nobody has complained. It has to be used very carefully in musical programmes and has created a new dilemma for the marketing people: which running time do you put on the cassette? If you put the original running time of the film you are liable to offend the trading standards people for misrepresentation, and if you put the shortened time you could lead film buffs to think they are getting a cut version of their favourite film.

As you may well know, there are far more films available on sale in the USA than over here. Prices are lower and feature films are generally available on tape at the same time as they are released in the cinemas. In fact the American video public is getting quite accustomed to buying films for their entertainment - it may have something to do with the mediocre level of television programming in general. Over there considerable interest also exists in old films and even TV programmes from the vintage years of the fifties. This has led to a small boom in backstreet film to video transfer merchants, peddling dubious copies of ancient films. I am not sure what the copyright situation is there, but as far as the advertisements would lead you to believe, it is no problem. One outfit calls itself Public Domain Video, which of course leaves you in no doubt as to where they got their material but even then it is no guarantee of quality. In fact the old film business has got itself such a poor reputation, most collectors will only buy at shops where they can view the tape first. Prices are higher than the mail order merchants but at least you can avoid being ripped off.

If you wish to get a bit of this action, as we have said before, you will need a multistandard video recorder. This usually adds about £150 to £200 to the price, and many of the specialist dealers in London have these converted machines in stock. In addition you will also need a dual standard TV set, though if you are prepared to forego colour, you can get a black and white picture on most modern UK standard sets. Of course, you may only be interested in black and white films...!

In May I told you that head-cleaning tapes were not 100% effective and a dealer could probably do a better job of head-cleaning than you could. (This assumes he does not just run a head-cleaning tape through a couple of times...). Earlier than this, the leading manufacturers in the VHS camp had issued a very strong condemnation of head-cleaning tapes. The distributors of the Allsop head-cleaner - which uses fluids - made a complaint which, surprisingly, was sufficient to make the VHS manufacturers issue a revised statement. In the public interest it is set out here and says "The Allsop, if used correctly, will not cause damage to either the record/replay heads of VHS machines or to tape used in current models. If used incorrectly, the Allsop product and other head-cleaners currently available are, in our opinion, not only ineffective but may cause damage. We reiterate that we cannot endorse the use of head-cleaning products as a substitute for regular servicing by a qualified and VHS-approved engineer".

Those are the words of the oracle. I would just add that if you do use the Allsop, let the alcohol dry off completely before you run a tape through the machine. Otherwise the tape might stick to the wet head-drum, and that would not be nice.

Finally, here is a word of advice to anyone trying to track down the new E-240 four hour VHS tapes - and, I suppose, for National Panasonic who make them. In London's Tottenham Court Road, arguably the video capital of Europe, the going price for these is £18.95. Now I am prepared to concede this represents only the normal retail markup on the trade price, but it does seem excessive. Considering that you can get an E-180 by the same manufacturer just across the road for £8 it would appear that your money would be better spent on two E-180s, with more than enough change to buy your lunch at Macdonald's at the top of the road!