Blacking your tapes before shooting?

FatDaddy

FatDaddy

Veteran
Do most people black stripe their tapes before shooting to get good, continuous TC?
 
How many do it with the DVX? (bad way to ask that question! I mean black with lens cap on audio record turned down or BB generator and deck).
 
I looked up "Blacking Tapes" and got no results.
 
Any thoughts?
FD
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I also wanted to ask this question.

I've read articles that people do blank their tapes so that the recording points are marked for each in/out points, as well as to avoid timecode reset. A better way to do this is probably to leave the color bars on and blank the tape with color bars so that the in/out points are more clear.

However, I've also read that you are NOT suppose to re-record onto the DV tapes multiple times to avoid dropouts. Unfortunatel, blacking your tapes and doing your recording is technically a form of re-recording.

Any thoughts?
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I have never in my life bothered to black a DV tape, and I don't know anyone personally who has done so either. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea necessarily, just that I don't bother. If you stop the camera to review your footage or something, you usually just have to be sure to press REC END to make sure the camera starts up at the end of the recording and keeps continuous timecode.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?


I black my tapes.

But I only do it because I'm paranoid about timecode reset. It's just a pain in the ass when batch capturing and having a reset. I like to be able to just walk away and do something else while everything is being downloaded off the tape.

Didn't realize there was a "skip to the end" button on the DVX, though. That's handy. I guess I just never had a video camera good enough to have a feature like that.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I think blacking tapes is a total waste of time. I've been shooting for almost 30 years and I have yet to black a tape to shoot. For one thing, you are putting a lot of extra time on your camera record heads (or tape deck heads) that just are not necessary. And think of the time it takes to do that. Just be careful in stopping your camera and starting to shoot again. I always run several extra seconds of tape when the director yells "cut" just for that reason. Good shooting.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I used to black my tapes using my Sony GV-D300, but since i can set timecode in my DVX, I do that so I can have a progressive count of my tapes used (tape 1 starts at 1 hour, 2 at 2 hour, etc.). I set it in the DVX on insert and burn a minute of tape, since I've had dropouts in the first minute sometimes from tapes crinkling on rewind (though not in this camera). I recently did a live shoot where I had to shoot for 3+ hours continually, so I preblacked the tapes with proper timecode ahead of time.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

Thanks for the info. Without pulling out the manual or trying it out myself, I see two buttons that might be the ones Barry and Elvis are talking about: Rec Check (by the eject button and zoom control) and End Search (above the scene file wheel). Sorry to ask without checking it out myself, but will these get me to the end of the last scene and keep the TC good (I know it has to be in regen).

If I power off the camera, then should I make sure I am sitting in some footage of the previous scene for it to pick up TC and keep it continuous?

Thanks much,
FD
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

You need to press the End Search button, if you have previewed the last scene. this will line you up exactly where the timecode ends. this also works after you have powered off the camera, so no problems there.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I have only balck and coded my tapes when editing tape to tape on a linear editing system. I no longer have a need to do that, so I no longer black and code my tapes.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I used to pre-black my tapes prior to getting my DVX and was bedeviled all the time with sporadic mosaics. I have since given up the practice and the DVX has never let me down!
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

I've picked up some info on another forum dealing with the idea of blacking tape. I'll try to rem all the points and list them not in any particular order.



Blacking DV tape adds wear to equipment, especially the heads which have a life of about 1500 hours.

A pre-blacked tape can stretch slightly, causing TC problems anyway.

Record 'handles' prior to and after a shot - 10sec will do. Then (option) rewind a bit and que up the tape for continuous TC. This also lets you check for clogged heads. (kinda like 'checking the gate'.)

FF and RW the tape in camera to 'set up the tape to the heads -- ensures transport alignment. Also tosses off any loose particles that may cause drop outs.

Blacking a tape was important in analog days. It allowed insert edits and the analog signal strength actually improved over that of a new unrecorded on tape. It serves no such function in digital recording.

Some people will pre-black DV tape anyway, despite all you tell them.




That's pretty much all I can recall off the top of my head. Hope it's useful.

LHB
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

Blacking tapes was important when working with analogue equipment and linear editing, as keeping a constant timecode was more important than all of the disadvantages of blacking a tape mentioned in the above posts.

When we moved to using digital formats (DVCPro and miniDV) and an all digital workflow, we no longer black tapes.  Not a problem as strict constant timecode isn't soooo important (tho it still is), and as long as you press the end search button on the camera, you shouldn't ever have problems with timecode breaks.

In short, blacking dv tapes is a waste of time IMHO.
 
Re: Blacking your tapes before shooting?

 "Not a problem as strict constant timecode isn't soooo important (tho it still is)"

Spoken like a true cameraman, any editor who has ever sat through broken DV code while digitizing is probably cursing right now. The end search actually works on the DVX unlike my vx1000 and the PD150, never really worked and got caught a couple of times with the infamous reset TC. I used to Black stripe tapes , now with the DVX I dont.

Gordo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top