SUMMARY: 8mm tapes for Exabyte drive. Exatape vs Sony. price?

[Michael E. Hummell]

Thankyou for your replies, and thanks especially to Joe Garvey who said:
"Exabyte sells tapes in bulk to Anthem Electronics. Anthem has an
organization called "ATS". They take credit cards. At qty 5 (a box) the
112m tapes cost $20 each. Try 800-359-3580."

I called AT ATS and ordered 30 Exatapes.  In the meantime, I notice that
INMAC's new catalog reduced the cost of the Sony 8mm QG-112M to about $20.
I tried to email responses, but our mail doesn't send well.  Sorry.
FOLLOWING are my original posting, followed by the replies.

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			Original Posting
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We get fewest "retries" (in fact, none, with the one "free sample" that
came with the machine) when we use  "Exatape 8mm Data Cartridge" from
Exabyte Corporation.  But they cost $40 each from Exabyte, or $35.90 in
quantities over 50, according to Cheryl Boyer of Exabyte, 1-800-767-8273 .
[FYI:  Exabyte Corp. 1745 38th St. , Boulder, CO 80301-2603 (303)442-4333

The other tapes tried were:
1. Sony 8mm data cartridge QG-112M             ($33 from INMAC Corp.)
2. Sony Metal HG VIdeo 8 NTSC 120              (about $7 , "on sale")
3. Sony P6-120MP "regular" Video-8             (about $6 , "on sale")

The less we paid, the more "retries" we get when doing backups with
"dump".  Our question:  Where's the cheapest place to order "Exatape 8mm"
from ?

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                 REPLIES   RECEIVED
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Out of these three choices,
1. Sony 8mm data cartridge QG-112M
2. Sony Metal HG VIdeo 8 NTSC 120
3. Sony P6-120MP "regular" Video-8

what is the meaning of saying 2 is "NTSC"?  I thought things like NTSC/PAL
were mere recording protocols, it wouldn't affect the physical tape.  What
is the meaning of ``more retries''?  Is that a fatal error or is it signs
of distress?  What kinds of trouble does one find when a tape is bad?
I've been using an Exabyte drive for a while now pretty blissfully (tape
types 2/3, never noticed which).  Do you think I'm going to have trouble
reading in old tapes?

Ajay Shah, (213)734-3930, ajayshah at usc.edu

***

I personally evaluated the "Metal HG Video 8 NTSC 120" 8mm tape and put it
into stores stock.  The second item you listed is obtainable from the
Inmac store up near bldg 411 on the south side.  I do not know what the
quality of this tape might be.  I have a "hunch" that the Inmac price may
be for a 5-tape pack and not just a single tape.  The $6 tapes from
Central Stores is a quality product and demonstratebly better than the
low-cost "Metal Particle" tape that is sold many stores.

***

Subtitle: what does a "retry" look like?
> The other tapes tried were:
> 1. Sony 8mm data cartridge QG-112M             ($33 from INMAC Corp.)
> 2. Sony Metal HG VIdeo 8 NTSC 120              (about $7 , "on sale")
> 3. Sony P6-120MP "regular" Video-8             (about $6 , "on sale")
> 
> The less we paid, the more "retries" we get when doing backups with
> "dump".

My question: I have never seen a retry, am I doing something incorrectly,
or am I just lucky/inexperienced?

I've had the Exabyte less than two weeks, so I'm not certain I'm doing
this correctly, however I THINK my dump script will report any retries.  I
run the following script every night:

#! /bin/sh
#
mt -f /dev/nrst1 rewind
mt -f /dev/nrst1 status
dump 0nucbdsf 126 6250 3600 /dev/nrst1 /
mt -f /dev/nrst1 status
dump 0nucbdsf 126 6250 3600 /dev/nrst1 /usr
mt -f /dev/nrst1 status
dump 0nucbdsf 126 6250 3600 /dev/nrst1 /mine
mt -f /dev/nrst1 status
mt -f /dev/nrst1 offline

on the following file systems
# df
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/dev/sd0a               7735    4785    2176    69%    /
/dev/sd0g             151399  120022   16237    88%    /usr
/dev/sd1g             913671  429022  393281    52%    /mine

I'm rotating seven of the following tapes
  4. Maxell EX-M P6-120				(about $6 , from KMart)

so I've now used each tape once or twice.  Following the instructions that
came with my drive, I do NOT leave a tape in the drive when it is IDLE.  I
insert the day's tape at the end of the day, and start my script.  The `mt
offline` command ejects the tape when done (I love that little touch).

Using 'cat *log | fgrep retries' on my last seven dump log files 
yields multiple copies of the following two lines:
   sense key(0x6)= unit attention   residual= 0   retries= 0
   sense key(0x0)= no sense   residual= 0   retries= 0
EVERY single line has "retries= 0" listed.

I'm doing all of this on a new SPARCstation 2 running SUNOS 4.1.1.
I have not cleaned my drive yet.

So, am I doing something incorrectly, have beginner's luck,
or just the advantages of a new/clean/well-adjusted drive?

>  Our question:  Where's the cheapest place to order "Exatape 8mm"

Sorry, the only place I know of for genuine "Exatape 8mm" is Exabyte
$40.00ea (single),  $35.20 (50+).   1-800-767-TAPE which you already know.

I do have a MISCO catalog (labeled keep until April 5th) which lists
Sony QG-112 M Certified 8mm Tape	$19.99	part number JL7612
for quantity 1-9 orders.  Their phone number is 1-800-876-4726.
(I have NOT ever done any business with them.)

Best of luck, I hope you can answer my question, and in any
case please post/CC-me your summary.

Bill Voss     INTERNET: billvoss at uiuc.edu    UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiucdcs!voss

***

Michael E. Hummell writes:  [see above]

Exabyte sells tapes in bulk to Anthem Electronics. Anthem has an
organization called "ATS". They take credit cards. At qty 5 (a box) the
112m tapes cost $20 each. Try 800-359-3580.

Joe Garvey                       uucp: sumax!quick!johnny5!garvey
J5 Research                      map entries are wrong for johnny5. They're
Bothell, Wa.                     being fixed. Please use address above.

***

We currently use Sony Hi8 Metal-E (E6-120HME) tapes that go for just under
30 dollars Canadian (local regular price) without problems.  We have
problems getting the drive to accept the tape if we do not clean the drive
regularily (once a month).

Would you please forward any information you receive on tape brands/prices
or post a summary.

Larry Bouzane
Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
larry at garfield.cs.mun.ca; larry at garfield.mun.edu; uunet!garfield!larry