The instructor on my Premier 6.5 tutorial says he pre-records a timeline on his tapes before he uses them. This sounds like a good idea. I have not seen this addressed on this forum so I have to ask.

Does anyone else do this before they record material on their tapes?

Doesn't subsequent recording overwrite the timeline?

To do this, do I just disconnect the mic cord and leave the lenscap on?

Thanks, Brian

Actually, it has been discussed, and at some considerable length. The search term that you might need is 'timecode' rather than 'timeline'.

FWIW, I do think it's a good idea, particularly if you batch capture in Premiere. Otherwise, each time you start recording, the timecode resets to 00:00:00 and Premiere gets woefully confused.

Subsequent recording doesn't overwrie the timecode AFAIK.

And diconnecting mic & lenscap on are good approaches to getting a completely blank tape, although if you happen to have sound (or light for that matter) it's no biggie, since your shooting will erase it.

Others may, and probably will, differ.

This is called striping or blacking or black striping your tape.

A number of threads discuss this already:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8509&highlight=black+striping