[BC] Fun with Quad Videotape

[Mark A Garrett]

This brought back some memories.  I remember the station I worked at had one of these machines that would check U-Matic tape.  It would clean it (so we would not get head clogs in the field) but also let us know if the tape was bad as it would stop on any spot on the tape that had no oxide left (used a light and sensor).  We normally did not repair these tapes, crew in field was worth more than trying to save a few dollars and risk loosing a story due to a head clog or bad tape.

Mark Garrett

At 11:50 AM 12/01/2011 -0600, Alan Kline wrote:

>And talking about cheap...the station where I worked in 1985-1990 was so
>cheap that instead of replacing worn 3/4" cassettes that we used for
>spot playback, we bought an eraser/cleaning unit, cleaned loose oxide
>off of the tape, and then cut out the worn portion and spliced the rest
>back together...
>
>ak