The
Mini-Cassette, often written
minicassette, is a
tape cassette format introduced by
Philips in 1967. It is used primarily in
dictation machines and was also employed as a data storage for the
Philips P2000 home computer. Unlike the
Compact Cassette, also designed by Philips, and the later
Microcassette, introduced by
Olympus, the Mini-Cassette does not use a
capstan drive system; instead, the tape is propelled past the
tape head by the reels. This is mechanically simple and allows the cassette to be made smaller and easier to use, but produces a system unsuited to any task other than voice recording, as the tape speed is not constant (averaging 2.4 cm/s) and prone to
wow and
flutter. However, the lack of a capstan and a pinch roller drive means that the tape is well-suited to being repeatedly shuttled forward and backward short distances as compared to microcassettes, leading to the Mini-Cassette's continuing use in the
niche markets of dictation and
transcription, where fidelity is not critical, but robustness of storage is, and where analog media are still widely preferred.
A smaller version of the Mini-Cassette was later introduced that could be used in a standard player using an adaptor; however, this did not become widespread.
A very similar (but incompatible) cassette format was produced by
Hewlett-Packard and
Verbatim (the HP82176A Mini Data Cassette) for data storage in their HP82161A tape drive, which, like other minicassettes, did not use a capstan.