Kas. Immink et G. Vandenenden, A COMPARISON OF ROTARY-HEAD AND STATIONARY-HEAD VIDEO TAPE-RECORDERS, IEEE transactions on consumer electronics, 42(4), 1996, pp. 998-1002
In magnetic tape recording, two approaches have emerged in which essen
tially the same medium is tracked in two different ways: rotary- and s
tationary-head recorders. Both approaches are commonly employed in dig
ital audio anal data recording, but since the introduction of the firs
t analog video recorders in the early 50s, rotary-head recorders (eith
er helical or transverse scan) have held undivided sway in the video d
omain. The advent of various new enabling techniques such as (MPEG) so
urce coding and multi-track heads may affect the hegemony of the rotar
y-head machine. The article will appraise both types of transport in a
n attempt to establish which approach might be considered for a given
application.