A friend of mine actually did do the math. It's like comparing a
teaspoon to a full bucket. And he did it on 1/4" ;-)

>
> In audio, our equivalent of "drop out compensators" was increasing
> tape surface area per unit time. In pro video formats there was little
> option for changing track width or tape speed. In some respects, that
> is why 15 in/s 1/2-inch 2-track with IEC equalization ended up being
> close to the ideal stereo mastering format for analog audio. That
> seems to be the point where cost, performance, low-frequency response,
> high-frequency response, noise, and azimuth wander are all optimized.
> 0.2 inch x 15 in/s is 3 sq in/s of tape per track. Compare that to DAT
> or analog cassette...you do the math <smile>.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>