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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc.

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Old 17th Mar 2019, 7:29 pm   #1
The Philpott
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Default VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

I can't remember where I got this cassette from- but I know it came without a case, and cost very little. Probably from a bargain bin somewhere. Johnny Vegas and Mckenzie Crook as potato delivery men, a film probably immune from the current trend of re-makes!

The label pictured is the only one on it- there is no top label, and never has been. It does exactly what it says on the label- the time elapsed is shown on the screen all the way through playback. (I may do a freeze frame and try to capture this feature.)

What is a 'TCIV' video cassette actually for? The nearest I can speculate is it is a disposable format used by the production team for editing purposes, or a copy for issue to censors/BBFC for categorisation purposes. More likely the latter, as you will notice that it does not show an age category!

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Old 18th Mar 2019, 12:31 am   #2
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

I think review copies also had the time code displayed. CBS Betamax movies at least (obtained from a local director of their music branch).
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 10:29 am   #3
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

I suspect that the tape is a pre-release one, for reviewing for example, as Maarten said. The timecode means it would be easy for the reviewer to note exactly when a certain scene had taken place and thus give feedback to the programme makers, and it wouldn't need any extra equipment (such as a timecode reader) to do so.

There might be a temptation, if such a tape fell in to the wrong hands, to copy it and redistribute the programme unofficially. This is usually undesirable to the programme makers. The presence of the timecode would make such copies less attractive, and so might discourage such copying.

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Old 18th Mar 2019, 12:01 pm   #4
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

I have somewhere in my dispersed effects, a pre-release -- and pre-certification -- VHS copy of The Delinquents, with timecode in vision.
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 9:11 pm   #5
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

Thanks. Where the code is part of the video playback it is apparently known as a burnt-in timecode (BITC). I would keep it safe Julie, you never know what the next collecting trend is going to be. We can assume they are rare, but someone somewhere might consider them 'special' enough to coo over.
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 12:31 am   #6
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

BITC dubs were also used to make subtitle files.
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 8:18 am   #7
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

This BITC appears at the top of the screen in white, the counter starts on the tape at around 'TCR 09:59:00:00' Then clicks over to 10:00:00:00 as the feature starts, the last two digits being for frames. (looks like a standard 25 frames per second- as per cinema presentations)
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 9:16 am   #8
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Philpott View Post
This BITC appears at the top of the screen in white, the counter starts on the tape at around 'TCR 09:59:00:00' Then clicks over to 10:00:00:00 as the feature starts, the last two digits being for frames. (looks like a standard 25 frames per second- as per cinema presentations)
As timecode became more and more prevalent so it became widespread practice when post producing programmes (i.e. editing them), for the first frame of the edited programme to start at 10.00.00.00 - this made it easier to calculate any particular point in the programme 'in your head' if you were sat in the gallery.

This was somewhat rather awkward otherwise if the first frame of the programme was some odd value. Simple but clever at the same time.
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 6:26 pm   #9
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

I have a VHS with this feature too, which i’d like to know more about and this thread seems to be the right place.

It’s the 1976 Christmas Edition of Top Of The Pops - If it is a pre-release editing video then it’s a very early VHS tape, or was later transferred to VHS.

It starts off with a “clapboard” style “thumbnail” (see attached) and has 10:XX:XX:XX running throughout.

As for the label it has one. The middle label on the front has BBC information and the one on the bottom has the content on with the date it was aired/to be aired.

I wonder if these were ever meant to be released from archives.
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 7:58 pm   #10
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

One TV/VCR repair shop I once worked for also hired video tapes, the reps often used to give us a few free forthcoming releases due to be available for rental that were TCR tapes, I also asked if they had any older TCR titles (which they gave me also for free) which I used these as test/workshop tapes for repair purposes.
The films themselves were often crap, but they were ideal for soak testing VCRs that had just been repaired, or for VCRs that came in with intermittent "Tape chewing faults".
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Old 20th Mar 2019, 10:19 am   #11
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

Quote:
Originally Posted by 19Seventy7 View Post
I have a VHS with this feature too, which i’d like to know more about and this thread seems to be the right place.

It’s the 1976 Christmas Edition of Top Of The Pops - If it is a pre-release editing video then it’s a very early VHS tape, or was later transferred to VHS.

It starts off with a “clapboard” style “thumbnail” (see attached) and has 10:XX:XX:XX running throughout.

As for the label it has one. The middle label on the front has BBC information and the one on the bottom has the content on with the date it was aired/to be aired.

I wonder if these were ever meant to be released from archives.
Unlikely to have been originally edited with a timecode set up in 1976 as it was quite early doors in the UK for that sort of thing - it was just 'coming in' so possible, but unlikely. What you appear to have is a subsequent dub, especially if the 'clock' slate is a still frame rather than a moving countdown clock usually seen at the start of studio productions.
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Old 20th Mar 2019, 2:36 pm   #12
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Default Re: VHS cassette- 'Time code in vision'

Hi,

I was thinking that, too being VHS was invented in 1976. I thought it’d have been a bit too early. The clock moves from 10-0 then the primary content plays.

Thanks
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