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VCR Recording speeds..
RitualOfTheTrout - Feb 4, 2004
    RitualOfTheTrout Feb 4, 2004 
Ok.. my g/f likes to watch passons... some sort of soap opera.. anyways she works during the weekdays when its on, but she is usually at my house on the weekends while im at work. So we figured i could just program the vcr to tape from 2-3 every weekday so she can watch the show while im at work..

Now.. to the real question.. which speed will get the most time on one tape? My VCR only offers SP and SLP.. i never heard of SLP.. i only knew of EP, LP, and SP.. what is SLP??

    mal Feb 4, 2004 
Super Long Play.

A quick google shows that's what it stands for. As for the actual speed, I'm not sure.

    RitualOfTheTrout Feb 4, 2004 
i figured the LP part had something to do with long play.. i wonder exactly how long it is... ?

    Pearl Jammzz Feb 4, 2004 
google it..I am sure u can easily find a page comparing all of the different ones.

    crystalmethod Feb 4, 2004 
SLP offers 90 minutes of recording time, but apparently sound quality is sacrificed so that the extra video can be crammed in there. SP is 30 minuutes, but audio is much better.

    mal Feb 4, 2004 
90 minutes? You guys get tapes that short?

I think the most common tapes here in Oz are 180 minutes or 240 minutes (on standard play).

    IBarracudaI Feb 4, 2004 
yeah.. I haven't used vcr tapes for long but here (portugal, europe) the most common is 180m I used to buy 240m also but the picture quality degraded faster..

   Curtis Feb 4, 2004 
SLP could be the same as EP, the longest of the recording methods offered by consumer decks. I think you can store upto 10 or 12 hours of footage on a single 240min tape. Picture quality will be crappy though.

SLP might also be "regular" LP, just under a different name.

    mal Feb 4, 2004 
So about 3x the recording time? I can't imagine what that would end up looking like.

Long Play is bad enough.

   mtxblau Feb 4, 2004 
EP and SLP are the same. LP is the mid range between SP and SLP/EP. The newer VCRs just dropped that middle speed (LP) for some reason, although I thought it was a pretty good compromise between the two.

    Tindo@heart Feb 4, 2004 
I notice a degrade in quality of sound first before video when using LP or SLP/EP.

In my area of the US 6 hour tapes are common for SLP recording.

Not that it's as noticable on modern VCRs or that it's that useful. However, another advantage of SLP is it offers a higher quality when you "pause" and view video frame by frame.

    VertigoXX Feb 5, 2004 
SLP and EP are the same, 3X speed.

T-120 tapes are most common here in the US (2 hours on SP or 6 on EP), with T-180's also out there for those willing to pay a bit more (2 hours 40 minutes or 8 hours). I use the T-180's on EP for weekly TV shows, watch, rewind, and tape over again. Then I use T-120's on SP for things I plan on keeping a while (TV movies / mini-series that may not come out on DVD, etc.).