Bryan
11-19-2003, 11:10 PM
We’ve had this discussion before, but I was bored today and I started going through my skating tape collection, so I thought I’d bring this topic up again.
So, how do you organize your tapes—by date, by competition, by skater? How many do you have? Do you tape and keep all competitions? How far does your collection go back? Do you have any special ways of distinguishing them, such as color-coding? And do you keep some sort of database on Microsoft Word or Excel to keep track of the contents?
As for me, I have 3 boxes of tapes. I haven’t counted them lately, but there are probably 100 or so. The vast majority of them are skating tapes, but there are a good number of gymnastics tapes too. My collection goes back to 1993 for skating and 1996 for gymnastics. For a while, I only taped and kept major competitions, such as Nationals, Worlds, and Olympics, but once ABC, ESPN, and Lifetime started providing complete coverage of the Grand Prix series, I started keeping those too (both SP/OD and LP/FD broadcasts). But, last season, I decided to cut back a little bit since I’m running out of room in my house, so I just made a “Best Of” compilation tape of the Grand Prix Series, and I limited that to only men and ladies LPs. As for this season, I’ve moved and no longer have cable, so I’m missing out on all the SP/ODs, pairs LP, and FD. :x :cry:
I apply the sticker labels on the tapes with generic titles, such as “2003 Worlds—Ladies SP, FD, Ladies LP.” I used to keep a Microsoft Word file of my tapes and their contents, but I haven’t updated it in a really long time. I also used to number/alphabetize my tapes; for example, 1993 Nationals is tape “A,” 1994 Nationals is tape “B.” But, I eventually ran out of letter stickers and stopped doing that.
I always tape in SLP (or EP) mode, and I try to skip commercials whenever I can. By skipping commercials, I can fit an extra 2-hour broadcast onto a tape (I can fit four 2-hour broadcasts on a 6-hour tape by skipping commercials, as opposed to three if I left the commercials in). If I’m not able to skip the commercials, I record the whole broadcast and then go back and dub a copy to get rid of commercials; I usually don’t do this with major competitions though, so as not to compromise the sound and picture quality.
Yup, so these days, I’ve decided to continue making “Best Of” tapes of the Grand Prix series and then keeping the GPF, Nationals, Europeans, 4CC, and Worlds broadcasts.
So how about all of you? I know I’m not the only obsessive tape freak here! ;)
So, how do you organize your tapes—by date, by competition, by skater? How many do you have? Do you tape and keep all competitions? How far does your collection go back? Do you have any special ways of distinguishing them, such as color-coding? And do you keep some sort of database on Microsoft Word or Excel to keep track of the contents?
As for me, I have 3 boxes of tapes. I haven’t counted them lately, but there are probably 100 or so. The vast majority of them are skating tapes, but there are a good number of gymnastics tapes too. My collection goes back to 1993 for skating and 1996 for gymnastics. For a while, I only taped and kept major competitions, such as Nationals, Worlds, and Olympics, but once ABC, ESPN, and Lifetime started providing complete coverage of the Grand Prix series, I started keeping those too (both SP/OD and LP/FD broadcasts). But, last season, I decided to cut back a little bit since I’m running out of room in my house, so I just made a “Best Of” compilation tape of the Grand Prix Series, and I limited that to only men and ladies LPs. As for this season, I’ve moved and no longer have cable, so I’m missing out on all the SP/ODs, pairs LP, and FD. :x :cry:
I apply the sticker labels on the tapes with generic titles, such as “2003 Worlds—Ladies SP, FD, Ladies LP.” I used to keep a Microsoft Word file of my tapes and their contents, but I haven’t updated it in a really long time. I also used to number/alphabetize my tapes; for example, 1993 Nationals is tape “A,” 1994 Nationals is tape “B.” But, I eventually ran out of letter stickers and stopped doing that.
I always tape in SLP (or EP) mode, and I try to skip commercials whenever I can. By skipping commercials, I can fit an extra 2-hour broadcast onto a tape (I can fit four 2-hour broadcasts on a 6-hour tape by skipping commercials, as opposed to three if I left the commercials in). If I’m not able to skip the commercials, I record the whole broadcast and then go back and dub a copy to get rid of commercials; I usually don’t do this with major competitions though, so as not to compromise the sound and picture quality.
Yup, so these days, I’ve decided to continue making “Best Of” tapes of the Grand Prix series and then keeping the GPF, Nationals, Europeans, 4CC, and Worlds broadcasts.
So how about all of you? I know I’m not the only obsessive tape freak here! ;)