On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 02:48:27 +1000, "John" <knight_js.nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I am wondering about whether it's worth paying the extra money to buy the

>Sony Excellence MiniDV tapes (instead of the Sony Premium MiniDV tapes).

>The Excellence tapes cost twice as much as the Premium tapes.

Actually, not that much more at discounters like

taperesources.com...

>I checked the Sony website and according to the spec sheet the only real

>difference is that the Excellence tapes are "dual layer" whereas the Premium

>tapes are only "single layer".

The EX have about 2db better S/N, not very important

for digital, except possibly a bit for longevity...

>I am guessing that the cheaper tape will have exactly the same picture

>quality for the first few years. But that the data life on the more

>expensive tape would be longer. Is this correct?

This would be my guess, too - but it is only a guess...

>I can't imagine how I could

>get a better picture on the more expensive tape as the data is stored

>digitally.

I master on EX, shoot on either...