[dd] bs=blocksize doesn't work as expected, for example:
tar -c /somedir | dd bs=256K of=/dev/nst0
In this example backup record will be recorded to a tape with block size =
10K instead of 256K because 10K is default for tar.
There is workaround:
tar -c /somedir | dd ibs=256K obs=256K of=/dev/nst0
If we set block size for input and output separatly - it works as expected.

lucid <http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/coreutils> (utils): The GNU core
utilities
7.4-2ubuntu2: amd64 i386