Status Check: Threading?

[Alex Thames]

I was looking at the status check on my A1 and it shows:

1. Operation Run in 10-hour increments
2. Drum Run in 10-hour increments
3. Tape Run in 10-hour increments

I know what those three are, I think, but correct me if wrong. Operation run is how long your camcorder has been turned on regardless of mode. Drum run is how long the drum has been recording onto the tape. Tape run is how long you've used a tape (recording, rewinding, playing, capturing footage, etc.) and is how long the video head has been used.

So far I have 0x10 for all of those, and hope to minimize especially the drum and tape run measurements as much as possible through decks, DV Rack, or tapeless recorders (when I get the money for those things).

4. Threading.

What is threading? I have no idea. On my camera it says I've done 1x10 threading already. I have a hunch it's the amount of times I've opened the bottom of the camera up where the tape goes in, regardless of if there actually is a tape in there or not? Is that right, or does threading refer to something else?

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Drum run is how long the head drum has been running, either in record, record-pause or playback modes. Tape run would be a shorter time than this, as record-pause wouldn't be counted. Threading is how many times a tape has been loaded or threaded into the recorder.

[Alex Thames]

So threading - if I open the camera up and then close it up again without putting a tape in, does that count as 1 threading? Is 1 threading a round of putting one tape in and out, or is in counted as 1 threading and out counted as another 2nd threading? If I open it up but don't put a tape in, is that 1 threading? If I close it but don't have a tape in, is that another 2nd threading?

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Originally Posted by Alex Thames

So threading - if I open the camera up and then close it up again without putting a tape in, does that count as 1 threading? Is 1 threading a round of putting one tape in and out, or is in counted as 1 threading and out counted as another 2nd threading? If I open it up but don't put a tape in, is that 1 threading? If I close it but don't have a tape in, is that another 2nd threading?

I'm guessing that the tape would have to be loaded to count as one threading. If you just open the hatch, without putting in a tape, that probably wouldn't count at all, but you'll have to start counting the number of openings and see how the camera's counter matches that, after a long period of time.