Neil's Random Video Tip #6: Stripe Your Tapes

[Neil Enns]

Of all the video tips I've posted so far this is the only one that I kick myself for not doing on our trip every time I fire up Adobe Premiere. I learned this one from the Total Training DVDs for Premiere Pro AFTER we got back.<br /><br />If you've used a DV camera before you've noticed the little timecode values that run as you record. Here's what you might not have noticed: every time you start recording on a blank spot on the tape the timecode values start again at 00:00:00. This means if you rewind to watch what you just taped, and then fast forward even a frame past the end and leave blank tape, the next time you whack record your timecode for that clip start be zero.<br /><br />Why does this matter? Because when you're in an editing application like Premiere you no longer have a complete, unbroken, timeline on the tape that you can use to identify clip locations. Want to get the clip at timecode 00:05:00? That could occur three times on the tape!<br /><br />So, how do you fix this? "Stripe" the tape. Put the tape in your camcorder, leave the lens cap on, press record, and walk away. Let the camcorder record nothing on the tape all the way to the end. Rewind, and you now have a lovely tape ready to use that has a complete, unbroken, timecode sequence stored on it. I now have a stack of striped tapes on my shelf ready to use whenever I need.

[entropy1980]

Of all the video tips I've posted so far this is the only one that I kick myself for not doing on our trip every time I fire up Adobe Premier. I learned this one from the Total Training DVDs for Premier Pro AFTER we got back.

Uhhhh I think you mean Premiere not Premier. :)

[Neil Enns]

Oops, fixed!

Neil

[bryhawks]

Tell me - does this degrade the quality of the picture in any way? Essentially, you're always recording on used tapes, even if it is only one cycle.

I'm aware of this, and whenever I rewind a partially-recorded tape to review something (which is infrequent), I always make sure to fast-forward just enough to leave the counter with a value other than --:--:--. It's easiest on my Sony TRV-900 to use the quick-review button in record mode that automatically backs it up a few seconds, then slowly plays forward. It usually stops right where I need it to, but I can use these buttons to tweak it so I'm not overwriting more than one or two frames.

Granted, I review what I'm recording very infrequently so I won't have to do this, but I usually don't need to.

Am I being unnecessarily paranoid about pre-recording over all my tapes? I can see how pre-striping them would definitely come in handy.

[Neil Enns]

Am I being unnecessarily paranoid about pre-recording over all my tapes? I can see how pre-striping them would definitely come in handy.

I really don't know much about this, but I can't see how recording just once on the tape before using it for your real footage will do any harm. If you were doing it several times I'd buy it causing degredation.

Neil

[Crocuta]

Tell me - does this degrade the quality of the picture in any way? Essentially, you're always recording on used tapes, even if it is only one cycle.

No, it's fine to do this. Remember that DV is fully digital... just 1s and 0s. Unlike analog that has to be able to record and read several different levels of signal off the tape, each spot on the DV tape just needs to be able to distinguish between two levels. It's like writing a file to a used floppy disk. (Remember those? :D ) Your program or data file doesn't gradually degrade, it just works until the disk has a bad spot and then it doesn't work any more. Similarly, a DV tape will eventually wear out, but it will take much more than a single pass to do it, and when it does wear out, you'll see dropped frames rather than gradually degrading quality.

A few other things to note about this.

1) You only need to do this once, and don't have to do it again between uses. Once the time track is laid down on the tape, it's there for good.

2) People using Sony DV camcorders with the IC memory tapes don't have to do this. If you manually fast forward beyond the end of your recorded material, you can still get your time code to start over, but if you just remember to use the 'end search' button after reviewing material, it will take you to the exact last frame you shot and will correctly continue the time code.