>>93663821>Any tape media had to be rewound no matter what.8-tracks tapes are a connected loop. there were other loop formats commercialized, but none of them ever became popular.
>>93663672the sprocket holes are only used to support take-up. the actual tape movement is controlled by one or more capstans—small spinning metal pins, connected through flywheels to the drive motor—that press the tape against rubber rollers.
the reason you can flip a compact cassette (the normal audio cassette format) over is that there are four tracks, with the A and B sides running in opposite directions. so the end of side A is at the same end of the tape as the beginning of side B.
the main technological difference betwene VHS and compact cassette is that VHS uses helical scanning instead of the linear tracks on an audio tape, so the head is actually spinning at an angle against the tape, unlike the static head of an audio tape. DAT was the same way as VHS, and the spinning helical scan head was one reason it was too difficult to miniaturize and never became popular.
