On Thu, 08 Feb 2001 02:41:36 GMT, "Evan Mann" wrote:

>I was talking to a friend who owns a GL-1. He blacks all of his tapes. He
>brought up a few good points as to why he does it
>
>First, he noted that he has used Sony cameras that don't start/stop at the
>exact same point, this would lead to a timecode break on an unblanked tape.
>
>Next he noted, that if the above situation was true, and I wanted to record
>something at that instant and could futz around to make sure I was in any
>'trailer' area of my previous recording on the tape, then I would have a
>timecode break because the tape wouldn't be starting where it last left off.
>For that reason he blacks his tapes.
>
>Lastly he noted, that when I preview my tape, it's more time intensive to FF
>to the end and back up a little into my trailer area to know I won't have
>timecode breaks. The Sony D8's have an END SEARCH feature which does this
>automatically for you, but if you remove your tape frm he camera and
>reinsert it to record on later, the feature isn't useable anymore. Sony
>also mentions how this feature can sometimes fail. With a blacked tape, I
>could just fast foward past my footage and if I over shoot the actual video,
>I woudln't have to worry about backing up, since I had a blacked timecode, I
>could not worry about it.
>
>So this gets me to a question:
>Has anyone experienced any problems with their D8 not stopping/starting in
>the exact same place. I've seen this occur on older 8mm cameras, but I'd
>expect that this problem has been somehwat irradicated with todays
>technology.
>
>And again, is there anything BAD about blacking a tape?

Head wear...
With Sony Mini-DV, I have never had a problem with the tape
coming back up to the right spot after the camera is turned off,
or the tape removed, IF I have not manually moved tape
between recordings - so no problem with TC gaps (even if I
use the "auto-replay" feature in record mode). If I have lost
the tail position, it is easy to find again with DV camcorders,
since they can transport tape frame-by-frame in search mode...