How do you choose which brand of tape to use? Do you buy one particular brand or do you take whatever's going cheap this week?

In fact you cannot go far wrong whichever brand you buy, as long as you stay away from totally unknown names. There are some apparent bargains in really nasty tape made in back rooms somewhere in the Taiwan or Hong Kong area, though not all of the "pirate" brands are bad. However, you can be fairly certain that a tape with a well-known name like Scotch, TDK, Maxwell or Fuji will be alright, as is a tape bearing the name of a VCR manufacturer.

From time to time there are shortages of blank tape and wholesalers are then forced to import tapes originally destined for the USA or domestic Japanese market. Imported VHS tapes are prefixed "T" instead of "E" (e.g. T-120) and play for almost a third longer (so the T-120 plays for approximately two hours forty minutes). These tapes are alright to use despite what you may have read elsewhere — if you check out some of the pre-recorded film tapes you'll find that a number are on T-127 blanks and the professional duplicators would not use them if they might harm your (or their) machines.

One little known fact is that you often get more tape than you pay for! A nominal three hour tape usually has a little extra which is useful if the programme you are recording overruns. Experience shows that Scotch tapes give one minute to spare while JVC and Thorn give up to five minutes extra. The RCA VK-250 tapes are the most generous, with about 10 minutes to spare.

This is not to say that everyone uses the whole length of the tape. A recent survey revealed that 55 per cent of users did not use all the time available for recording on a cassette. A large number wasted 15 or even 30 minutes recording time per cassette. This is probably true; I know I do this myself and usually you can't help it. The programmes do not always run to schedule and also, if a programme lasts 100 minutes you have little option but to use a two hour tape.

The same survey, which was directed at VHS users, showed that 65 per cent of them purchased only the E-180 length, just 20 per cent bought the E-120 size and the remaining 15 per cent purchased selectively according to their specific requirements. It's a safe bet that most E-30's are sold to businesses for demonstrating and advertising films.

If you believe surveys you'll be interested to know that the majority of video users are within the age group 30 to 45 years and their main use of video is to record movies on the television they are unable to watch when transmitted. The fact that you are reading this article probably indicates you don't fit this mould — among younger people there is a growing interest in the new dimension which video gives to music. Currently they are not worried by the lack of stereo or hi-fi sound but there will come a time when consumers will demand better sound, which will generate the need for a new breed of video.

Of course, you may be more concerned with the price of video cassettes. I must admit I am an addict with some 70 tapes — in fact I have resorted to buying secondhand films from duplicating houses to re-use in order to satisfy my voracious appetite. But if you're forced to buy new and feel like being patriotic you might pause to think there is only one brand of video tape manufactured in Great Britain, and that's Scotch. The manufacturing plant is located near Swansea in south Wales and produces video cassettes in all the popular formats (VHS, Beta and VCR). VCC will be added this autumn and for Philips 1500 and 1700 users the news is that the VCR tape production line will be maintained for at least a year. Longer lengths of VHS are promised (probably E-240) and not before time, the cardboard sleeve (which let the product down) will be replaced by a plastic one.

The Welsh factory currently exports to 41 countries in Europe and the Middle East and plans to quadruple production during the next two years, such is the demand. Scotch recently celebrated their silver anniversary in video tape manufacturing, though until recently this was all for the professional and broadcast market. Still, if it's good enough for the broadcasters it's probably good enough for you and me.

Changing the subject; do you remember all that fuss last autumn about the mini video recorder announced by Technicolor? The news is that a European (PAL system) version will be available in time for Christmas this year. Using quarter inch tape, the unit is smaller than other VCRs and is a portable machine, weighing just over 3 kilograms. A matching colour camera is also available.

Because of the machine's small size the length of tape in the cassette is limited to a maximum of 45 minutes. To record TV programmes you will be able to buy a combined portable colour TV set and VCR weighing 9 kg. Somehow I cannot see any real advantage in this unique system — the tapes aren't long enough to record films or most TV programmes and the size/weight advantage is not sufficiently great over a Beta or VHS portable. But I'll probably be proved wrong — I still say video discs will not catch on with the British public though I grudgingly concede they might be better than tape for commercial and business training and instructional purposes.

By the way, have you noticed how film industry companies are getting into video? I have just mentioned Technicolor, and Eumig, the movie camera people, are about to market a VHS portable system here. Pentax are doing the same thing in Japan. Watch this space for further developments!