Basic TV Technology, 4th Edition

Editing gives you flexibility.

Editing Analog Videotape

Physical Cutting and Splicing

In the early days of videotape, editing was a difficult and time-consuming process. A liquid solution had to be put on the tape to make the control track oxide patterns visible. The tape had to be viewed under magnification, and then it was physically cut. Finally, the ends were spliced together with a special tape. The roughness that the splice created in the tape's surface often damaged or even destroyed the tape head. Needless to say, editing tape was done only when there was no other alternative.

Electronic Editing

Today video editing is done electronically. Information that should be sequential may be out of order on one tape, or it may be distributed among ...