DAT Tapes.....64 min. preferred over 90 min. or longer ??

[SpaceMusic_Guy]

So.......I'm starting to do my mixdowns out of the box once again into a Panasonic 3700 DAT. As far as DAT Tapes go.......I thought I read something a number of years back about anything longer than 64 minute DAT Tapes not being preferrable because of the tape being thinner to be able to fit the extra length.......therefore possibly affecting quality or having other issues arise because of it.

Anyone have any insight on this ??

I went to Guitar Center to pick up a DAT Tape today and all they had was 90 minute tapes. So I decided to wait until I find out if there's anything to the "thinner tape" theory to the DAT Tapes that are longer than 64 minutes.

[joelpatterson]

I know with *cassette* tapes you're begging for trouble with longer-than-90 minutes... not sure if the same is true with DATS. I used to get 2 hour DATS, back in the day, and the ten year old ones still play fine. Your mileage will probably not vary that much.

[James Lehmann]

I've used dozens of HHB DAT 90's with no problems at all over the years - in fact I've been busy transferring many to DVD Archive recently which has involved playing them back after a 10 year interval and on a different DAT machine. No problem at all - certainly nothing like of the order of cassette failure.