Jump to content

Passes on DVPro Tape


John Morrison

Recommended Posts

  • Premium Member

Hi,

 

One other reason I don't recycle tape is that corporate clients have a disturbing tendency to call you up after eighteen months of silence and say "You know that promo we did in 1997? You still have that, right? All broken down and ready for me to come in and work on, tomorrow? Right?"

 

Phil "EDL wrangler" Rhodes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just wondering if anyone out there has recycled their DVCPro tape? and if you do how many passes before it starts to get chunky.  We are on 2 and things look pretty good so far ....

 

 

John,

 

I have had a customer go a full year on ten tapes. He did off air recordings and kept them 24 hours, then he just recorded over them. Never had a problem. Our lab analysis has found 300 passes to be perfectly fine. I have a tape from 1996 that still plays as pristine as the day I go it and it has seen many trade shows. So suit yourself.

 

Best,

 

Jan

Edited by Jan Crittenden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is important to me to preserve the heads in the camera. I would think head wear is less with a new tape than with a used tape that has possibly accumulated some type of abrassives as fine or light as they may be. Why buy an expensive camera and reuse the tapes when they relatively cost nothing. Also what if at some point you need the original footage. Just my thoughts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess it makes sense that a tape that has been used will be somewhat smoother and less abrassive.

 

But - there is something about using a new tape that makes me feel more comfortable. The cameras are designed to handle the tapes without excessive wear for thousands of hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New tape also sheds more gunge into the heads.

Actually this is just received wisdom, I have no idea if it's actually true, but it makes sense.

 

Would you still recommend using a constant tape brand, so as not to cause potential problems with lubricants from different brands mixing and gunking up?

 

I would think that these lubricants wouldn't differ that much from manufacturer to manufacturer (for deck/head compatibility issues), but I'm not even really sure what those lubes are made out of in the first place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Hi,

 

> Would you still recommend using a constant tape brand, so as not to cause potential problems with

> lubricants from different brands mixing and gunking up?

 

This used to be received wisdom as well, hence my hesitancy to accept received wisdom - but I work with dozens and hundreds of client tapes in a year, I don't control what type they are, and I don't notice any particular problems. I've been having various issues with my GV-D900 miniDV player over the last 18 months or so, but then considering it was probably designed to LAST 18 months or so, it's probably just completely thrashed by now.

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...