I never re-use mini dv tapes accept to back up an event that they were used to film.
I now own a sony dvcam camera and it uses £20 184 min tapes. They are not cheap and I still use the mini dv camera as a second so I can still back up the event with these but I wanted to ask is it alright to re-use the bigger tapes and if yes how many times?
Thanks
Paul
You might find this thread useful Paul: Record over DV Tapes.
I use new tapes for critical stuff - but always shuttle them through the deck and do a test recording. I reuse Full size tape 5-6 times before retiring them. £20 is nothing compared to the final bill.
Chirpy found the perfect thread. Tape hardly 'wears' at all because the rollers and capstan/pinch roller in the tape transport all revolve at zero speed relative to the tape. The head drum is separated by a fine sliver of air. Always best to rewind to the beginning before ejection, but that's only theoretically speaking; mechanisms are pretty kind these days.
You can safely reuse tapes again and again because to make the tape good and reliable enough for its first pass it has to be made able to handle its hundredth pass.
tom.
I'm still using DVCAM 184s that must be nearly ten years old for non critical operations, no problems.
Always use a new one for essential stuff though.
Thanks Claire,
How do you backup/archive all of your finished products apart from just a finished DVD?
Paul
I back up onto tape in DV SP mode as I feel there will be more players around in the future that can read this. DVDs are good if you just want to burn the files to them, but I'd not advise you to keep your work as MPEG2 compressed. DVDs can be a bit unreliable, anyway. Tape's much better.
tom.
Thanks Tom,
I totally agree, dvd's are not reliable.
Paul
Video mag. did a test on DV tapes when the format first arrived on the consumer scene. Copied about 50 times and not a glitch in quality. I keep my original tapes for archive but also black tapes from weddings/shows which won't be kept for archiving. If they have been used once then at least you know that they are good.
Harry