Any thoughts on BEST way to bulk erase HD tapes when recycling?

[Steve Mahrer]

Hi Marion:

DVCPRO tapes are thin film metal particle tapes with VERY high coercivity, about 2200 Oesteds, Betacam by way of example is about only 600 Oe. The higher coercivity makes DVCPRO tapes very hard to erase with conventional bulk erasers…. they may buzz, but the tape may still have signals recorded after “bulking”.

In reality however, your fears of “old” timecode causng problems are very unlikely as the TC in DVCPRO / DVCPRO HD is recorded in the DIF signal’s subcode area (actually recorded as part of the Video / Audio data). This means the TC can only be read by playing the tape and then demuxing the data to extract the TC. It’s not like 1/2″ formats with a TC edge track. Blacking the tapes beforehand could be done, but it’s a real time operation and costly in terms of both decks and people. You can reuse tapes by simply recordng over them, just ensure that no clients material remains at the tail end!

Cheers,

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic)

[Marion Laney]

Steve,
Thank you for the clarification. I had been informed with similar info but your concise description of the forces at work are very helpful. Fortunately I will only recycle these on the “Good Eats” series as inhouse backup masters.

Best regards,
Marion

Marion Laney
Director-DP-sometimes Editor
ideaWercs, inc.
Atlanta, Ga. USA
Producing in HD&35mm&SD
Food Network series “Good Eats” and others.