Defeating Sony's 'end search' limitation

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Hi all,

On most Sony consumer-grade cameras there is an 'end search' feature
that will take you to the end of the recorded section of the tape.
This is useful in that it ensures that if you rewind to review
previous recordings, you can easily get to the end of the tape for the
next shoot, with no gaps in the tape (continuous timecode). When I
used to do this manually for my VHS-c camera, I would always either
overwrite the end of the previous recording or leave a gap (which
created headaches when capturing).

This feature only works until you remove the tape. Once the tape is
taken out, when reinserted the end-search feature no longer works,
unless you buy the more expensive 'memory cassette'.

For me, this is a real pain - if I am shooting and go to a second
tape, I cannot go back and capture the first tape until I have
finished shooting the second (which is sometimes weeks/months later)!
When I am desperate, I capture what I have shot on the second tape to
PC, and then after I have finished my other capture I lay the video
back down to a new DV tape - A waste of tapes, video heads & time.

Can anyone explain why this is, other than a Sony marketing ploy to
get you to buy their cassettes? I managed to get End-search to work
correctly on a reinserted cassette once, but it was purely by accident
& I have no idea how to do it again - does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

jojax14

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"jojax14" <jojax14@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:4c3621f0.0502162137.3a36dc6b@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> On most Sony consumer-grade cameras there is an 'end search' feature
> that will take you to the end of the recorded section of the tape.
> This is useful in that it ensures that if you rewind to review
> previous recordings, you can easily get to the end of the tape for the
> next shoot, with no gaps in the tape (continuous timecode). When I
> used to do this manually for my VHS-c camera, I would always either
> overwrite the end of the previous recording or leave a gap (which
> created headaches when capturing).
>
> This feature only works until you remove the tape. Once the tape is
> taken out, when reinserted the end-search feature no longer works,
> unless you buy the more expensive 'memory cassette'.
>
> For me, this is a real pain - if I am shooting and go to a second
> tape, I cannot go back and capture the first tape until I have
> finished shooting the second (which is sometimes weeks/months later)!
> When I am desperate, I capture what I have shot on the second tape to
> PC, and then after I have finished my other capture I lay the video
> back down to a new DV tape - A waste of tapes, video heads & time.
>
> Can anyone explain why this is, other than a Sony marketing ploy to
> get you to buy their cassettes? I managed to get End-search to work
> correctly on a reinserted cassette once, but it was purely by accident
> & I have no idea how to do it again - does anyone have any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> jojax14

It's easy.

If you use a cassette with "IC memory chip" or whatever the Engrish name for
it is, then the "end search" will work even after you have removed the
cassette - presumably it stores the end tape position on the tape's memory.

A plain old tape without memory chip won't do this. That only does end
search until it is ejected, then it's forgotten about.

Regards,

Simon.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Iain Laskey" <i.laskeyNOT@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message

> That will still leave a disrupted timecode though.
>
> Iain Laskey
> Practical PC Online www.practicalpc.co.uk

Why is this important ?
I've seen references many times to it, and once or twice I've run a MiniDV
cassette through my camera so as to put a continuous time code all the way
from start to finish, but so far I haven't noticed any difference when I
come to editing. Is it something that was more important before MiniDv came
in? Do I need a different editor? (Currently using Ulead VS8)
Thanks

--
M Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK
http://www.megalith.freeserve.co.uk/oddimage.htm

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 01:01:12 -0000, "Malcolm Stewart"
<malcolm_stewart@megalith.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

>"Iain Laskey" <i.laskeyNOT@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
>
>> That will still leave a disrupted timecode though.
>>
>> Iain Laskey
>> Practical PC Online www.practicalpc.co.uk
>
>Why is this important ?
>I've seen references many times to it, and once or twice I've run a MiniDV
>cassette through my camera so as to put a continuous time code all the way
>from start to finish, but so far I haven't noticed any difference when I
>come to editing. Is it something that was more important before MiniDv came
>in? Do I need a different editor? (Currently using Ulead VS8)
>Thanks

It all depends on how you capture, and if you ever plan to recapture
the material again using logging.

If the time code is discontinuous, there will be more than one spot
on the tape with the same time code. Trying to capture it using the
time code as a reference may fail, capturing the wrong part. If there
is an actual break with unrecorded tape between two segments, capture
of that unrecorded part is obviously impossible. How the capture
software deals with the lack of video varies. Some capture software
is *much* better at dealing with these "errors" than others.

If you capture everything on the tape at once, and your software can
cope with time code and/or blank tape breaks, no problem. Just don't
expect to reliably recapture the same video clip files if you need to
recreate it later.

It isn't necessary to prerecord video, though, in order to prevent
time code discontinuities. Don't rewind the tape if you can avoid it
(smart end search can start the new recording at the last time code
used, otherwise, it will start over from zero), and don't remove the
tape from the camcorder until you are entirely done shooting.

Tapes are cheap enough that if you do need to change tapes, or
review the tape on another deck, you can simply put in an entirely new
tape rather than trying to record from the end of one already used.

--
*-__Jeffery Jones__________| *Starfire* |____________________-*
** Muskego WI Access Channel 14/25 <http://www.execpc.com/~jeffsj/mach7/>
*Starfire Design Studio* <http://www.starfiredesign.com/>