Customer Reviews

Spain [VHS]

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I liked the content of this two tape set which I bought due to my interest in travel to Spain. I also thought I might used it in my Spanish classes for cultural interest and awareness. The content of both videos was very good and interesting on both videos.

The very big hangup I had with the two tapes is that they were recorded in the EP (6 hour) recording speed, which is the lowest quality, especially when using non-HIGH GRADE tapes. Due to this low speed recording there was a very tiny amount of tape in each tape cartridge shell, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch max. The cost of the increased amount of raw tape to have recorded this tape at the SP (2 hour) or faster recording speed for higher quality would have been minimal for them. I would have gladly paid the .50 to $1.00 more in raw tape cost.

The second gripe I had was if they were trying to be so cheap in using a tiny amount of tape and therefore recording at the very slow speed, why didn't they put it all in just one cassette shell instead of two separate cassette shells. I would rather have the better recording quality and lose the convenience of having each episode on its own separate cassett.

On the Rick Steves cassettes, he puts more than one episode on a single cassette and still manages to do it at the 2 hour SP speed resulting in a higher quality for playback. Bleeding colors etc is the common result with those tapes where the 6 hour EP speed is used in commercial reproduction.

If you like the subject, I still think you will enjoy these two tapes, however. I did. I did send an e-mail to the website listed on the cover of the box with my comments on the recording speed and they did not respond.