DAT Tape Speeds

This may be more trivia than anything, but someone asked, and the answer is somewhat interesting. Tape speed in DAT machines is 8.15 mm/sec for recordable tapes, but is 12.225 mm/sec for pre-recorded DAT tapes. There are several electronic switches in DAT machines (both audio recorders and computer DAT drives) that allow them to interface with various kinds of DAT tape. So if you want to use a data DAT (which are usually measured in meters) in an audio DAT machine, or an audio DAT (which are usually measured in minutes) in a SCSI DAT drive you now know the conversion. A T-120 DAT tape is just under 60 meters long.

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