Glenn Chan
March 21st, 2005, 07:06 PM
I bought a realistic tape eraser off eBay a while back. It is not the "high power" version, which according to others actually does wipe out mini-DV tapes.
Anyways, I tried using this tape eraser on mini-DV tape and found that it doesn't erase the tape. It does cause a rolling vertical column of dropouts. I did not degauss the tape properly so I turn off the degausser while it was right on top of the tape, leaving it magnetized one way. When I recorded over the tape, the new recording is highly prone to dropouts (around 20 a minute, with audio dropouts). (I haven't investigated this that thoroughly, but I think it does cause terrible dropouts.)
Tape erasers can also create psychadelic effects with monitors while they are on.
Warnings: Empty your pockets of credit cards and take off your watch before messing around with tape erasers.
Don't erase the back of televisions.
Anyways, I tried using this tape eraser on mini-DV tape and found that it doesn't erase the tape. It does cause a rolling vertical column of dropouts. I did not degauss the tape properly so I turn off the degausser while it was right on top of the tape, leaving it magnetized one way. When I recorded over the tape, the new recording is highly prone to dropouts (around 20 a minute, with audio dropouts). (I haven't investigated this that thoroughly, but I think it does cause terrible dropouts.)
Tape erasers can also create psychadelic effects with monitors while they are on.
Warnings: Empty your pockets of credit cards and take off your watch before messing around with tape erasers.
Don't erase the back of televisions.