Bell and Howell (B & H) Color Timing 8-Channel Tape Punch Format
This info seems hard enough to come by in high enough quality that
all the info can be read easily.
This is the hole punch format used for color grading, and is something
I'm having to work with often enough to keep this around for reference.
A common format I'm having to work with is the "COMPOSITE TAPE" format, where both FCC and
RGB data are included for each scene. Some things I've found which goes unsaid:
- My familiarity is only with 8-channel punch tapes; all 8 rows covering the entire width of the punch tape
- The first FCC should be 0'0 - reads "zero feet, zero frames" - as certain software requires this or
it won't load correctly.
- The three RGB values are in "points" which range from 0 to 50.
- FCC stands for "Frame Count Cueing".
- Punch tapes may either be FCC's only, RGB's only, or both of those (called "Composite")
- Tapes may also include "effects" information in channel 7 of the RGB data (fade/dx), and are limited to 16x, 24x, 32x, 48x, 64x, 96x, and 128x fades or dissolves (aka. Lap Dissolves)
- In my case I'm working with a Facit N4000 tape punch and tape reader which can communicate with a computer over RS-232 at 9600 baud which sends/receives raw 8-bit data for the 8-channel tape

Color Grading Punch Tape Format

Another Bell and Howell tape punch decode chart.

My decoding of the below paper tape generated by a composite FCC/RGB test written from a film analyzer.

Screenshots of my C++ facit tape punch simulator I wrote to read the raw RS-232 tape reader output from a Facit N4000
and display it as if printed out on a tape punch. See that program's github page for details.
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