That one looks like the typical late VHS era generic shell, which almost all brands used, sometimes winding their own tape into, but more and more there was Saehan tape inside, as the other big players ceased their production.
You could look for a VHS license number somewhere in the shell, like LN 2xx, which may help to track the manufacturer.
I assume license numbers are very rare and more common for older VHS models. But I know about it just from this forum. But apparently they were only listed on the shell and never on the packaging.
That generality of the VHS shell has always annoyed me a lot, because there could have been so much creativity there and the manufacturers only made minimal use of it. Towards the end of the VHS era TDK and Sony cornered the market a bit with color VHS, I know TDK had more colorful projects, that there were translucent VHS, or from an earlier period Scotch had some extreme shell releases.
On Video8 that creativity was considerably greater.
Even if the shell and components were generic, as you say, they could wind their own tape, but there could also have been Saehan, or SKM. You could already navigate just by the information on the packaging, it's so much more complicated to tell the colour of a VHS tape by the manufacturer than it is for audio cassettes.
I'm also a bit disappointed that there aren't more stories and scholarship on VHS when compared to audio cassettes. Of course Wilhelm has the most experience, but there are still so many questions.
You guys are probably the best bunch here who know anything about this subject, no one else in the world can help anymore
Kirunavaara: Hi.
JP is a brand of Jusphoto, Made in Korea by GoldStar, I already have an SKM cassette from this brand on the site. https://ez647.sk/cc/jusphoto_jp.html
I already have GoldStar PRO CDI on the page, I picked this one up again for another collector in Slovakia.
The cassettes are here: https://ez647.sk/cc/goldstar_procdi.html
But then I will separate them, only now I realized they are both from the same period but for different markets, according to the barcodes.
The Scotch is straight Sony CDix in a different printing, I've wanted them for many years but only managed to get them now.
They could have done a metal version but probably didn't think it was important, but at least the shorter C46 version includes the big hubs
Great, thanks. I think I've seen the other Jusphoto on your website before, but didn't remember when I saw this blue one sitting next to those Axias with Jz lettering in quite similar style.
They have managed to make the GoldStars look quite good, even though it's just basic clear shells in that case. The dark tint and black labels with reduced design give them a kind of serious touch.
Maybe GoldStar are a little too dark for my taste, but sometimes it suits the type of music
But the darker GoldStar just has a print instead of a label, which reduces the luxury a bit.
13.05.2024, 14:42 (Dieser Beitrag wurde zuletzt bearbeitet: 14.05.2024, 10:44 von 2245.)
Thanks for the pic... I have never seen seen the "Tape made in Europe" print before. So...
Zitat:surely TDK made all their tape in Japan?
...is obviously wrong! I always suspected that they made tape in Luxemburg and said so in many of my older postings, but after vague or contradicting statements in some official TDK reports and no real hard evidence I took that back.
So after seeing this print, I spent some hours on google and found two telling profiles on LinkedIn on wich those former members of TDK Luxembourg are talking about coating lines in Bascharage.
Zitat:Mai 1991–Sept. 2001 10 Jahre 5 Monate
•Issue and update production standards for painting and coating departments (magnetic tape production)
•Improve line productivity and quality
•Introduce new coating technology (training in Japan)
Zitat:Jan. 2002–Feb. 2004 2 Jahre 2 Monate
Development of a new product Thermal Transfer Ribbon (TTR, production of TTR by coating PE film using existing coating lines used for magnetic tape)
And also I came across this environmental report from CORDIS, (Community Research and Development Information Service) an official EU service agency. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/IN.-00010-95
Zitat:TDK Recording Media Europe SA runs a fully integrated factory for the production of Audio and Video-tapes in Bascharage, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Fully integrated means that form the base film and the painting materials (mixed with solvents), all steps of the production of the final product are covered within the same site.
For environment reasons TDK is operating two exhaust gas incineration lines, combined with waste heat boilers for the generation of saturated steam. The so-called EGIs (Exhaust Gas Incinerators) are used to incinerate the solvents evaporating during the paint production, the coating and the tape drying process.
One incineration line covers the Audio production and the other one covers the Video production.
So in Bascharage TDK made it all from scratch, even the base film!
So updated with the new information my actual best guess for TDK production of Cassettes/Audio tapes:
Chikumagawa Plant Nagano 1966-1993 First TDK Cassette Plant Coating, Molding, Assembling
Mikumagawa Plant Hita City 1982-2007/8? Coating, Molding, Assembling
Irvine California USA 1973-2001 Molding Assembling
Rammelsbach W. Germany 1986-2002 Molding Assembling
Bascharage Luxemburg 1991-2002-04 Coating, Molding Assembling
Rojana Plant Thailand 1991-2011 Molding Assembling
13.05.2024, 15:23 (Dieser Beitrag wurde zuletzt bearbeitet: 16.05.2024, 14:27 von 2245.)
To get even closer...some questions:
I know that TDK ceased all the production at Bascharage in Mai 2006, but at that point they only made optical discs there.
Audio/Video had been stopped before, my guess is 2004.
What the newest Cassette with Code AH/AG at the beginning?
The newest I found on you site are from 2002?
I know that, the Chikumagawa plant completely switched to optical discs at some point in the mid 90s, so TDK only had one plant left making Cassettes/Audio Tape in Japan, the Mikumagawa Plant. Edit: In a history report by TDK I found the information that it was 1993 when the Chikumagawa plant went to disc production and ceased Cassettes/Audio Tape so Mikumagawa plant became the only japanese factory for Audio Video tape.
So to find out when TDK stopped their japanese production and their own tape, what is the newest Cassette with Made in Japan, orTape made in Japan?
The switch from these samples seems to be 2007/2008 with exeption of the C150 (2009) the November and December 2008 cassettes are already filled with Korean tape? Did you get it (tape made in ...) from the japanese print?
Od course no one in Korea made C150 tape, so the 2009 AE is most probably loaded with stock tape from the Mikumagawa plant.
We would need more samples to be sure, but it makes perfect sense that TDK went out of costly production in Japan when switched the sales to Imation.
And only had to use their cheaper production site in the Thailand Rojana Plant with OEM tape from 2008 til the big flood in October 2011.
Btw. you have stated 2010-2012 for all the different Cassettes with the Life On Record print. I'm pretty sure they are all 2008-2011.
You have stated made in Luxembourg for all newer Cassettes with the AG/AH Code, they also could be made in Germany, they surely produced Cassettes up to 2002.
I too was concerned that the packaging said Tape Made in EU, so here is the only place I could share such information.
Now it makes sense that SA-XS triple-layer Avilyn only existed in Europe and never in the US or Japan.
I had incorrect information or ideas about the German factory. I thought they had completely moved production from Germany to Luxembourg.
Now again it makes sense that they had no shortage of audiotape supply in between during this period.
So we can't tell the difference, which were from 1992 and newer, made in Germany and Luxembourg?
If those codes were clearly distinguishable I would have written everything on the web, this way I don't know now. To write for each newer audiotape and the possibility of German production?
Slightly off topic, but on VHS it doesn't work to mark the codes on the country of manufacture, only the date works.
And it's very annoying that TDK refuses to indicate the country of manufacture since 1992, but in Japan and the US there's no problem with that.
TDK AE latest generation:
Except for the C10, the information is from the packaging. Now I read the Japanese packaging very carefully, but I have the C10 unwrapped, used, and the tape color and sound characteristics match Dynamic Grained Ferric. The Korean tape is quite different in appearance and sound.
But I have found the same characteristics of the Korean tape in both calibration and sound from the TDK Thailand period after 2005cca, that the Made in Korea tapes in these TDKs are identical to many batches of Panggung Maxell.
But that was a bit offtopic.
I think the Japanese tapes in the pancakes may have been stored for a few years, like the ones for C150 cartridges. So this won't be entirely accurate.
Life On record, I'll try to correct the years if I don't forget.
But TDK D Life On record for the US market, for example, also bought some Panggung cassettes.
The most recent AH/AG cassette is probably really 2002.
Somewhere in my private notes I also have a reference to a TDK D 90 design 2005+, AGBC327, but that may be inaccurate as it was notes for tapes I once digitized for some people, so I wrote down the numbers.
I always check the serial numbers when I get an audio cassette, especially for audio cassettes where we know the keys to the numbers.
Two months ago, a work colleague told me that his wife works at a school and they were tasked with throwing out some old, unneeded stuff. They found TDK audio tapes. I assumed they were last generation from Thailand, but he brought me one piece and it was the last Luxembourg production where there were black clamps in the TDK D, but the year still only shows 2002. I was very curious about it.
Not managed to get any more pieces yet, probably forgot about it. https://ez647.sk/cc/tdk_d.html#02bl
13.05.2024, 18:43 (Dieser Beitrag wurde zuletzt bearbeitet: 16.05.2024, 14:20 von 2245.)
Zitat:So we can't tell the difference, which were from 1992 and newer, made in Germany and Luxembourg?
Seems so, never caught a difference to tell them apart. So all we can say is Germany or Luxemburg.
Zitat:I think the Japanese tapes in the pancakes may have been stored for a few years, like the ones for C150 cartridges. So this won't be entirely accurate.
I don' think so, storing is very costly (manpower, energy and space) so just in time production became industrial standard about two decades before 2007.
Especially for low margin mass products! Cost cutting was very important for Recording Media with high cost pressure since the late 80s.
In the case of the much rarer C150 tape it could have made some sense to store some stuff, because they knew they would not get such tape after ceased production.
If you think about the numbers of cassettes that were produced in a month, it's impossible to store enough tape for a full production in the next year or even futher away. All these old stock theories are total baseless in my opinion.
And the Mikumagawa plant was still active in coating audio tape in 2007. Sadly there is no such "site report" for 2008 and later.
From the 2008 CSR report for the year 2007:
It's highly likely that that they ceased the japanese tape production at the Mikumagawa plant by end of 2007 or in 2008.
In a fiscal report for 2007 TDK stated, that with shift of the sales operation for recording media to Imation in 2007 the whole media buisiness had to be reorganized.
At the same time the tape made in Korea appeared on TDK Cassettes.
They already had stopped to make their own optical discs in Japan and USA in the early 2000s and in 2006 the last disc plant in Lux was closed too.
So most probably, beside of Blue Ray and Audio Cassettes (molding assembling) in Thailand TDK made nothing on their own after 2007/08.
Zitat:The most recent AH/AG cassette is probably really 2002.
Possible... But in the 2006 STEREO tape test they claim that TDK stopped Luxemburg Cassette production in 2005.
And when TDK Germany was closed in early 2003 reports were that the production went to Lux.
But maybe they meant CD-R and El Colis, that were also produced in the german plant.
I too don't think 2005 is correct, my guess is somewhere between 2002-2004.
Zitat:But TDK D Life On record for the US market, for example, also bought some Panggung cassettes.
Of course, these non TDK cassettes that were bought after the flood destroyed the Rojana Plant in October 2011 can be from 2011 and 2012.
All LOR cassettes made by TDK were from 2008-2011.
14.05.2024, 13:31 (Dieser Beitrag wurde zuletzt bearbeitet: 14.05.2024, 13:38 von 2245.)
I don't know, but I still believe metal tape was only coated in Japan. It makes no sense to coat it in more plants, the demand was so low. (About 1-2%)
Did you ever see a metal tape with AG? It seems they are all AH... same for special editions and SA-XS?
Maybe it would make sense to let the smaller plant make these and let the high efficiency plant make their continuous output without disturbance of small series and metal tapes.
Also Rammelsbach was used to get Pancakes or Jumbos from Japan ....why change workflow and logistics.
I just checked half of my TDK Cassettes and everything until 1990 is also AH... can you confirm?
Also in my collection of about 400 TDK cassettes AH is much more prominent than AG for Cassettes made between 1991 and 2002.
Highly possible that the german market was getting more tapes from Rammelsbach than Bascharage for logistic reasons.
A lot of speculation... but with all the new info I become more and more confident that AH may be Rammelsbach and AG Bascharage.
