What is Mini-DV ME?

[Rich Rubasch]

From what I found ME stands for Metal Evaporated and is a much lesser quality tape than MP which is Metal Particle. Also there is a good chance the ME tapes might cause a head clog.

Sounds like they are chepaer too, right, and you wanted to know if they were just as good?

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Michael Kellam]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your answer. No, I didn’t actually intend to get them. I needed some tape to shoot one of my kids’ birthday party and I thought Maxell just changed the package. I didn’t end up needing the tape at the time, but today, when I opened it, I noticed the tape was different. Yes, it looks like a cheaper tape and that’s why I was concerned. I should have figured buying it at Wal-Mart. I probably won’t use it as I’d like to keep kid footage 😉 and I certainly wouldn’t use it in my pro gear. I hadn’t seen the ME before, but I’ll definitely look in the future.

Thanks again!

Michael

[Bret Williams]

In the old days of Hi8, it was accepted that ME was a better quality image/signal, but that the tapes were not as durable. MP tapes were very durable but not quite as high a quality image.

So in the digital world where the isssue is whether the tape captured the data or not, I would think that whichever is cheaper would be the way to go, unless you’re planning on using them multiple times or using them in a linear editng type environment where you might ff/scan them hundreds of times. In the latter case MP would be the better choice.

Myself, I’ve bought whatever is the best deal and have hardly seen a dropout and never had a tape fail whether it be Sony, Maxell, Panasonic, Fuji, whatever. My guess is that the top of the line tapes are microscopically better than the low end tapes, but cost 10 times as much. Such is the way of the world.

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

Mini DV is all Metal Evaporated Tape, no exceptions. The MP tape is only on the DVCPRO formats. The differences in the Mini-DV is primarily wrapped around whether it is a Dry Lubrication or a Wet Lubrication. Here is where you really don’t want to cross the line.

Hope that helps,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Petter Brox]

I’ve heard much talk about Dry Lubrication vs. Wet Lubrication, but how do I distinguish one from another?

Maybe someone could say something about which brand (for example Panasonic) is using what?

Thanks,
Petter Brox

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

While I do not know them all, Pansonic is Dry, Sony is wet. If you do not know, choose a manufacturer and just stick with it.

Best,

jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Petter Brox]

Thank you, Jan.

Petter Brox

[Michael Kellam]

Unless something new has come out, Canon told us that Sony is wet and all others (Panasonic, JVC, Maxell) are dry. You can use all Sony or everything but Sony. For those of you haven’t heard of this, changing from one type to another (wet/dry) regularly will cause buildup on the components and eventually cause the unit to prematurely fail.

When we first discovered this, I was production director at a station where three machines had to be significantly overhauled after one year. Had we not had the extended warranty, it would not have been worth the money to repair them. At the time, our equipment documentation didn’t say anything about this “detail”.

Canon engineers told us that if it is urgent to switch types from wet to dry or dry to wet that we should run a head cleaning tape in the machine before and after using the “other” type. I’d completely avoid switching even with the head cleanings as the potential damage is very expensive.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Michael