Reusing tape (MQ)

aaandre

Member
I am planning to work on a few short projects and I don't need to keep backups of footage on tapes.

How many times should I use an MQ tape before retiring it?
Anyone have experience with this?

Thank you.
-- Andre
 
Re: Reusing tape (MQ)

Anything that is serious I use only ONCE

Anything that is for experimenting I use no more than 4 TIMES.
 
Re: Reusing tape (MQ)

my policy is pretty much the same as john's--if you have an important shoot, NEVER reuse a tape. you're pretty much guaranteed a drop out. if it's just test shoots, three or four times is fine; just expect some ugliness.

wouldn't it be great if someone came up with a way to make dv dropouts a little bit prettier? it's almost pleasant to see the stretched, electric scan lines of an old vhs tape in comparison to those damned little blocks and pauses ;)
 
Re: Reusing tape (MQ)

I made the mistake of using my first tape ever 6 times and there were some serious drop outs going on. I was like, ooppps, time to change.
 
the beauty of droopouts

the beauty of droopouts

you just gave me an idea.
I'll check if someone knows how to simulate
- analog video dropouts
- film dropouts
- tv signal dropout / instability

in post, specifically vegas video. If nothing exists, I'll start a thread in the vegas forum.
 
Re: Reusing tape (MQ)

[sub]you just gave me an idea.
I'll check if someone knows how to simulate
- analog video dropouts
- film dropouts
- tv signal dropout / instability

in post, specifically vegas video. If nothing exists, I'll start a thread in the vegas forum. [/sub]

Look no further!

Check out Digieffects Delirium's "VideoMalfunction" plug-in. It takes forever to render, but it looks awesome & I use it all the time.

[sub]DE VideoMalfunction
This effect uses a unique combination of different effects with built-in randomization to create a true simulation of television electromagnetic interference patterns. There are seven sections that control different aspects of the effect.
By modifying the various parameters you can easily simulate all kinds of abnormal effects including video noise, ghosting, intermittent static, vertical hold problems, tinting and horizontal tracking distortions.[/sub]
 
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