Userbits - do you use them?
 

Hello Esteemed Videographers!

Some prosumer level DV equipment supports the setting of User Bits (Binary Group).

I'm curious to know how, if at all, people in the real world make use of this feature. (The reason is that I am currently adding the setting of User Bits as a feature to some software.)

Many thanks,

John.

Very often they're used to identify a tape sequence number, especially when using Record-Run timecode that starts at 00:00:00:00 at the head of each tape and so the same frame numbers will occur on multiple tapes.

I've also heard of them being used to record identifying data such as camera serial no. Another potential use is to record time of day time code, with rec run as the main. It could conceivably be very useful if this could survive the editing process, to end up with the edited master having continuous time code as "main" (starting at 10:00:00:00, say), but keeping the original "time of day" reference on the user bits.

Thanks for your replies.

I've read about the various possible uses. I'm wondering if anybody really uses them?