Time Code is On Your Side (page 4)

They can put a man on the moon, but can they create a system that can perform frame-accurate editing? Actually, they did. NASA used time code before anyone thought of using it for editing. The space agency created the system to keep track of all the information from their instruments (it was recorded onto telemetry tapes). A firm called the Electronic Engineering Company of America modified the system for use with videotape and put the first editing systems on the market in 1967. Other companies came out with competing versions, which prompted the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) to step in and standardize the format in 1972.

--W.R.

[Sidebar: How to Make Your Own Time-Code Window Dub]

All you need to make a working window-dub copy of your existing footage for editing is two VCRs (one with time code), a video camera and a video mixer or SEG (such as the Videonics MX-1 or the Panasonic WJ-AVE55).

1. Run the output of the source VCR (the one with time code) together with the video camera's output through your video mixer; then run the output of the mixer to a record VCR.
2. Point the video camera at the time-code display of the source VCR.
3. Using the mixer's picture-in-picture or vertical wipe feature, record the VCR's time code numbers together with the output from your source tape onto the record VCR (see illustration). Be sure to make the time-code numbers visible, but be careful not to block significant portions of the screen.

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