Abstract: In a cassette for a standard tape player including a platen having an inverted conical hub mounted on the platen to freely rotate about one of the sprocket drive apertures of the cassette with an endless spool of magnetic tape coiled on the hub and platen and having an operating tape loop extending from the spool, the improvement comprising a guide arranged adjacent to one of the capstan drive apertures operable to route the operating tape loop threaded in the cassette to by-pass one of the capstan drive aperture so that placing the cassette in a machine in one orientation will allow one of the capstan drives to transport the operating tape loop, while reversing the orientation of the cassette will not allow a capstan drive to transport the operating tape loop in the cassette in the opposite direction. Also the novel cassette is suitable for use in auto reversing tape players.

Abstract: Commercially available cassette cartridges which are reel-to-reel magnetic tape cartridges of a standard size and design can be converted to endless loop cartridges by replacing one of the reels with an auxiliary drive assembly including a drive hub with adjacent guides to insure positive driving in contact between the tape and the drive hub and replacing the other reel with a free wheeling tape platen with an endless loop of magnetic tape wound spirally thereon which is threaded so its innermost convolution is pulled from the hub of the platen by the combined action of the capstan drive and the forward reel drive of the recorder to insure positive tape transport without wow and flutter and returns to the peripheral tape convolution on the platen.