Tape striping question?

rocketguy2

rocketguy2

Well-known member
Do I understand correctly that recording (with lens cap on) or "striping" a tape is the best way to set timecode? Since I would be recording onto the tape a second time when shooting MiniDV footage, is the image quality affected at all?

Thanks,

Gary
 
Striping a tape is not necessary.
Set up your tape with bars and set TC using Preset setting. Set it for something like 00:59:30:00
Record 30 seconds of bars which will bring your counter up to 01:00:00:00
Now go back into the menu and set your TC to REGEN (Regenerate) It will pick up the TC where it left off.
Of course make sure you also have it set to Record Run instead of Free Run.
 
Sirius Doggy, LOVE your new annimated picture. Too cool.

I've yet to run into an area where I've really had to use TC. Where does it come into a major benefit? In my NLE (Vegas), I've always just manually lined clips up as needed, then cut from there ... am I making things too difficult by not using TC properly / at all?
 
Envision - thanks

using TC comes in handy when you've edited a project, given it to your client, then 6 months later after you've dumped thier footage from your computer and they want to make "changes".
It makes it real easy to just re-digitize only the clips needed to make the changes.
 
Six months LATER? Yeah, I'd have a response for them alright.

However, as you mentioned, if I ever dumped the footage off & wanted to only pull up certain clips again, it does sound like it could help with future time issues ... I'll have to read up on what you're talking about & figure out how to do it in both the camera & to benefit from it in post.

Thanks!
 
What NLE do you use?
In Premiere, when you capture your footage you have the ability to assign tape name/numbers to the clips, also comes in handy if you are working with a bunch of tapes.
I usually set the TC hour to match the tape number. ie - tape 1 starts at 01 hour, tape 2 starts at 02 hours...etc..
 
By using the method you described, then, a tape will retain consistent time code even when removed from the camera? Sorry to sound so dense, I've never tried this in the DVX menu...

Thanks,

Gary
 
yes, If you remove a tape halfway through recording and return it later. As long as you still have the setting to REGEN, it will pick up the TC where it left off. You may need to rewind the tape just a bit so it picks back up where it left off.
The REGEN stand for "Regenerate" - ie regenerate whatever the last TC was that it sees.
 
Ah, I see. I understand what you're talking about, and think I can figure out pretty easily in camera what/how to do it.

The NLE, of course, is Vegas. Doesn't EVERYONE use it? :grin: I've actually noticed that most, if not all, of the moderators on this forum use it as well.
 
It's just because you're only a Platinum member. If you ever go Moderator, you'll see the light & switch to Vegas. Just kidding, but it does appear that most of the moderators (at least the ones I've seen) use Vegas.

Since I'm self taught, I just couldn't figure Premiere out, and I tried. Vegas was pretty intuitive & natural.
 
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