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If you MUST use a colored splice tape use Splicemark tape as it doesn't affect the reading of digital soundtracks. (I have yet to have a digital track drop out at a Splicemark splice...)

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Anyone who is breaking down prints, IMO, should be able to SEE the splices (or reel change) by the differnet texture/contour of the film itself. Look at a film on the platter and tell me you can't see the reels by the contour/color variations in each individual reel....

My guys build in using only clear tape anyway.

Aaron, where could I go about SEEING a picture of the Splicemark tape you mentioned?

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(Note: Simulated image.)

Only one of my theatres has SDDS. The guys who run that booth are some of my better "guys". They know not to block the tracks and they adjust the tape accordingly. (So only one yellow band shows between the inboard sprocket holes.) For the other theatres this is a moot issue.

What you get by doing this is all the "benefits" of zebra tape without any of the yellow showing on the screen or causing Rice Crispies in your soundtrack (Snap-Crackle-POP! )
Yes, it's easier to find your splices when you break down but the MAIN reason I use this method to mark my "reel-change splices" is to that it's easier to tell them from "repair splices".

Also, just how often does your theaters have damages necessitating the use of "repair splices"? If it is more than about once a year, you have bigger problems to worry about than the kind of tape being used.

Sorry for the rant Randy, but those two comments just strike me as bas-ack-wards. Great illustration though.

Also, if the SDDS reader is aligned properly, you can use solid opaque tape and not have a dropout. If that splice above would drop the SDDS audio, your reader is not aligned properly.

I couldn't give a rat's ass about SDDS, personally. I only have one of them to work on. Basically I hook up the computer to it, take the readings and write them in my reports. When the thing stops working I'll go put new LEDs in it. If I have problems with it that require more than that I'll do my homework. Until then I could care less if the damn thing fell off the face of the earth...

Consequently if there are splices covering the SDDS... who cares.

I started using the clear part of the zebra tape when we started getting the Neumade tape that didn't have the dashed cross bar. Up until that time I was just carefully placing the tape so that the soundtrack was in the clear space between the dashes. If you look closely at the Neumade tape without the dashes, the edges of the tape are "dithered" (or whatever) I guess the idea is that it will make less noise going through. Still, it sounds like a bowl of Rice Krispies to me.

It's the red (actually magenta) colored tape.

If you'd like I can send you a roll to try out...

The maximum number of frames SR*D and SDDS can miss before defaulting to analog is only 4 frames. With DTS, the max is 48 frames. Depending on the data that is obscured by a solid reel splice, you may or may not get a dropout. It just depends on what the SR*D or SDDS system was trying to do at the time.

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In almost all of these cases it is because after repairing the print, there is a slight bit of damaged soundtrack, whether its from trying to save as much of the crinkled,mangled film as possible, or from the track being scratched or stretched in the process of brainwrapping which causes misreads and subsequent dropouts. DTS is rarely if at all affected by this type of damage.

Even when your splicer is working almost perfectly you can still feel the tape going by. It's just harder and you need to pay attention more closely. What I use the zebra tape for is so that when I get to a splice I can instantly tell if it's at the end of a reel or if it's there for another reason. When I don't see that little flash of yellow I know that I don't have to stop unless I want to check to make sure the splice is still good before I put the reel back in the can.