Consumer Reports looks at the baseline requirements for most
people, and
the majority of videotape users aren't videophiles, they're folks
who maybe
reecord a show off the air for later viewing, record somebody's
wedding, that
sort of thing. Things like signal to noise ratio and video
dropouts really
don't mean much.

The degree of difference increases the higher you go into
video
equipment. A small 21" old color TV won't show much difference
between tapes.
A 32" fairly new Sony Trinitron will. Similarly, if you're piping
your audio
through the TV speaker, you won't notice much difference. If
you're sending
it through a surround system, you will. For the majority of the
population,
and the majority of available equipment, yes, there's not much
point in
distinguishing between them.

If you want the real skinny on videotapes, go to such consumer
oriented
publications as Video Review or Video Magazine, which do very
comprehensive
tests on videotapes. You'll find out more than you could possibly
want to
know. Generally, TDK comes out at or near the top every year.
Same for
Maxell in general. Which is why I use TDK almost exclusively, and
have never
had a problem.


jms