Coming from the USA, I don't remember seeing anything outside of the budget video range that used LP or SLP. Most of the prerecorded tapes I ever saw were alway

Coming from the USA, I don't remember seeing anything outside of the budget video range that used LP or SLP. Most of the prerecorded tapes I ever saw were always SP. Your different experience interests me. VHS SP mode video can actually be quite decent quality. In the early days of digital cable, I used to record things to VHS using an SVHS deck connected via S-Video. Those recordings, while not quite broadcast quality obviously, were some of the highest quality VHS recordings I ever saw, with a quite similar "feel" to the look of U-Matic.