On Mon, 30 Oct 2000 20:36:42 -0600, "Richard Smedley" wrote:

>Okay, I'm sick and damn tired of these dropouts in my live-switched MiniDV
>tapes, so...can any of you out there recommend a *reasonable* alternative
>where the deck doesn't cost $5000+ and the tapes don't cost $50 each? Right
>now, I don't care if it's digital or not, but I'd like something better than
>SVHS if it exists. I'm live-switching/mixing and can't afford these
>friggin' dropouts in the middle of a band's set. On the other hand, I'm
>trying to keep my costs as low as possible so I can charge a fee they're
>willing to pay (and, no, most of them won't pay $200 an hour much less
>$500!).
>
>I would welcome any reasonable recommendations. I'm not familiar with all
>the formats out there. I've been told by some that Digital 8 rarely has
>dropouts. Any feedback here? What about some of the broadcast analog
>formats? Any feelings for this as a reliable alternative for live
>productions?

If you stick with one (good) tape brand and keep the
transport area of a (good) deck or camcorder clean,
the visible dropout rate with Mini-DV is EXCELLENT -
FAR (as in F - A - R ! ! ! ! ;-) better than with
analogue systems (and the mini-DV transports are FAR
less sensitive to shake and vibration). You should
see a minor (one small displaced square in the picture,
one frame long, visible only with motion) dropout
with Mini-DV perhaps no more than once per five hours
or so of recording. If you see more than this, you
are not following the advice above...;-) BTW, the
similar DVCam format, due to its faster tape speed,
has even fewer dropouts...