Posted by Richard Crowley on 08/27/07 16:23

"Tom" wrote ...
> I found three techniques for preparing a new blank video tape. After
> inserting a new blank video tape into the camera:
>
> 1) Record a muted black video signal onto the entire tape and rewind

AKA "striping" or "blacking". Probably not worth the trouble
(or the wear-and-tear) on the equipment unless a particular
set of circumstances makes it more desirable than not.
(Further discussion below).

> 2) Fast-forward once to the end of the tape and rewind

Not really needed for new tapes. Advisable for archival tapes
that have sat on a shelf for years.

> 3) Start shooting the subject since no preparation is required.

Usually the practice of most of us.

The case where striping is desirable is where the tape will
be used to shoot many segments which may turn out to have
discontinuous timecode (such as removing the tape between
segments, rewinding and viewing, etc.) If you don't slightly
overlap the shots, the camcorder will start new 00:00:00:00
timecode for the shot and many NLE batch-capture systems
will go nuts and thrash your camcorder (or VCR) trying to
figure out which 00:00:00:00 shot is which.

One solution is to stripe the tape with a continuous timecode
so that every shot will be "overlapped" and pick up the pre-
written timecode. Yes, there may be "micro-slippage" in
the re-written timecode (theoretically, I've never detected it)
but the batch capture application I normally use (Adobe
Premiere Pro) doesn't seem to notice that, either.

An alternative solution to batch capturing a tape with fragmented
timecode is to use an application like Scenalyzer, etc.

Just stick the cassette in the camera and start shooting unless
you are having the NLE timecode problem, and then consider
Scenalyzer rather than striping.

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