Hitachi, Ltd.

Hidehumi Goto

Hiroshi Chiba

Tohru Sampei

Kazutoshi Konno

A helical scan tape apparatus including a first pair of magnetic heads having mutually different azimuth angles disposed on a peripheral face of a rotary drum at an angle interval of 180 degrees so as to oppose each other, a second pair of magnetic heads disposed on of the rotary drum so as to be perpendicular to a disposition direction of the first magnetic heads, a magnetic tape helically wound around the rotary drum so as to extend over an angle of 90 degrees, the tape being moved while the drum is controlled to rotate in synchronism with a reference signal, the first magnetic heads having a wider gap width than a track pitch of tracks recorded on the tape without providing a guard band for enabling azimuth recording of a data signal on the tracks, the data signal being recorded repeatedly into a particular recording area, wherein the first magnetic heads are used substantially for recording and the second magnetic heads are used substantially for reproduction and are positioned with a downward shift in the height direction of the drum equivalent to half of a scanning width of the second magnetic heads as compared with said first magnetic heads. Alternatively, the second magnetic heads may be disposed with a predetermine amount of shift so that an end of said second magnetic heads opposite to a tape traveling direction is located within a track recorded in advance by a predetermined value.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hidehumi Goto