Please help a New User clear a couple of rumors up

V

viperforce

Member
Being very new at using my new 100a I have a couple of tech things I need to know for sure.
When my new camera arrived the box read AGDVX100AP what is the P at the end for?
When I use a new tape say the one that came with the camera should I record color bars at the begining and why?
Aslo I have heard that when you use any new tape you should fully fast forward and rewind to evenly distribute the tape is this true? I really do not want to do that to save motor wear and tear but I also want clean images.
Thanks
        Mike
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

[quote author=viperforce link=board=Events;num=1088302038;start=0#0 date=06/26/04 at 19:07:18]Being very new at using my new 100a I have a couple of tech things I need to know for sure.
When my new camera arrived the box read AGDVX100AP what is the P at the end for?
When I use a new tape say the one that came with the camera should I record color bars at the begining and why?
Aslo I have heard that when you use any new tape you should fully fast forward and rewind to evenly distribute the tape is this true? I really do not want to do that to save motor wear and tear but I also want clean images.
Thanks
        Mike[/quote]

Not sure about the P

The color bars are for color matching (phase adjustment) and allow an engineer at another facility to match what you think color looks like with what they think color looks like. Also, the color bars can be used in a profesional monitor during editing to adjust the monitor against your source material so that you can eyeball color. FCP and many other editors have built in WFM and VS for luma and chroma (phase) checking.

For many things, you wont need those bars except at the beginning of a professional project's end product if it is to be broadcast. Your engineer, if any, can tell you if bars are needed (or desired). One thing color bars do for anyone is to get you away from the first 20-30 seconds of tape, which is were damage is most likely to occur, and where decks wont have locked anyway (hard to capture this material if you start without preroll).

The old bit about excersing the tape comes from the days of the original U-Matic cassette format. In those decks, there would occasionally be a problem that was called, when I first started (not sure if others have used this term) recoil, where a poorly packed tape snaps back during play and stop as the tension arm has to deal with the slight changes in tape tension. Recoil was also caused by humidity causing sticking in a tape that has sat in storage and is pulled out. Since the days of Betacam, BetacamSP, and now DV formats, I have never heard of exercising tapes being needed. I think that we have come a long way from the old U-Matic top loaders. In fact, with very small tape formats, I would avoid moving the tape as much as I could out of simple paranoia. A quarter milimeter goof in a Type C meant a barely noticeable ding in the image, maybe only one pixel lost, while a quarter milimeter flake of coating off on a small tape is a significant loss. Not that simply moving the tape is all that dangerous, just that I do not personally believe there is any benefit in doing it that outweights the wear on the tape.
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

I cannot exactly remember offically what the P stands for, but it is the USA model. Both my DVX100A and DVC200 have the P designation and are US "non-grey market" cameras.

Andrew
Crystal Clear Media
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

In a DVX AE, the "E" stands for the PAL format, so I assume P would stand for the non-Pal format sold in the USA.
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

"P" as in Pacific (Japan, USA)
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

WOW You guys are "The Best"! Man I ask a question and get the answers right away, thank you so much I only hope that in time I will be as quick to the draw with the right answers!
Later
Mike
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

I seem to recall the P meaning "Progressive", but yea, its just to help distingulish between the PAL and NTSC/American version.

~A
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

i like the P-rogressive approach.
it makes the european version E-xcellent..... ;)
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

The PAL version has a progressive mode as well, so the "P" doesn't designate "progressive."
 
Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Re: Please help a New User clear a couple of rumor

Right. I think the "pacific" and "europe" designations are probably more accurate.
 
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