Posted by Toby on 07/13/06 01:17

"PTravel" <ptravel@travelersvideo.com> wrote in message
news:rcQsg.63564$Lm5.11952@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
>
> "Martin Heffels" <youwishyouwouldknow@nottellinya.com> wrote in message
> news:unr6b219nc31phrsm2evbi8u3q1ucn4c5f@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:18:57 GMT, "PTravel"
>
>> Let me point back to your "1 error in 200 hours". But fact is indeed,
>> that
>> for now I just can't show any numbers which show how "un"-pristine this
>> all
>> actually is.
>
> To be clear, I said I've never had an instance of dropout that I could
> see, but my experience is limited to the amount of D-25 that I've shot,
> i.e. 200 hours or so. That's 0 errors in 200 hours.
>

I've shot or recorded about 2000-3000 hours of DVCPro 25 video, and can't
remember ever having a visible "dropout" that was not due to a head clog,
even on tapes that went through many recording/playing/shuttling cycles.
However it is worth remembering that DVCPro and DVcam run tape much faster
than DV, expressly so that glitches are avoided. I've talked to some of the
Panasonic engineers, and dropouts were a big concern for them in designing
the DVCPro formats (which also have quite robust error correction algorithms
according to them). Call me silly, but if they were worried enough about
errors to spend a lot of time and money designing to avoid them I have to
believe that they had good reason for concern.

In any case, it's all a damn sight better than Beta SP, where we strictly
monitored passes, used only virgin tape in the field and still ended up with
a plethora of dropouts every day.

Toby

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