reusing copied tapes

mi2nc · Post by **mi2nc** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:27 pm

Has anyone tried to reuse mini dv tapes? What were the results? Is it even possible?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:36 pm

It is definitely possible and the "advantage" is that any of the footage contained on these is utterly lost. For this reason I don't reuse my original tapes but have used a number to store TV captures on for editing. Reusing these does not pose any problem.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:01 am

In the past I used to recycle my tapes and had no problems doing that.
Nowadays I tend to purchase a new batch of tapes whenever I am going away on a holiday etc.

The reason is that the softweare that is available today is far more powerful than it was yesterday. It will be even more powerful again in the future. I may decide to revisit some of my old tapes and re-edit them and prodcue a fresh DVD using new ideas and new functions that didnt exist previously.

It is also an extra back up system. No matter how carefully you store your DVD discs they can still contain burn errors or something may happen to them like an accidental scratch rendering a disc useless.

The older I get the more I believe that you can never have too many back-ups.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:31 am

Steve said:

The older I get the more I believe that you can never have too many back-ups.

Like heart, liver and lungs???

But serious, I fully agree. Just recently, I got around to re-doing from the ground up (or rather, from the original DV up), a project I had done 5 years ago of a trip I made to Petra in Jordan. Wonderful place, and good video. The only problem was that I did it in the extremely early days of my video editing

and using VS7...

Much happier with "Petra Revisited"!!

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:58 am

Thanks Ken & Steve, exactly my sentiments

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:47 pm

I do think that some tapes are better than others.
Not any problems with the panasonic tapes or the Sony ones, but I have had problems rewriting to the Fuji tapes. I stopped using them after a cam said clogged heads which shouldn't have occurred. It was the the tape that was re-written had so many data errors.

I can still play my original JVC tapes that were recorded in 1998 that were recorded on one of JVC's first DV cams. Personally I think the tapes are great reliable backups. Dvd's are good but one scratch can really make the dvd useless. At least I can workaround a bad spot on a very old tape.
I swear that some players can scratch a dvd, (or I should stop drinking, maybe both? )

.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:52 pm

I often reuse tapes, as I record several games a week (if not, I'd go broke). I use Sony tapes and can reuse them many times before I see any kind of artifacts, at which time I discard that one.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:57 pm

Anyone ever use a bulk eraser on their DV Tapes. I'm talking about the large ones that have a large coil and usually about a 30 second duty cycle.
(Not the small ones to de-magnetize a cassette or reel2reel).

I've heard it's better to let the cam erase & rewrite the tapes.