I have a PD170 and a few tapes with little data on the beginning portions and would like to erase them and reuse. It does not look like there is a tape erase feature. Is there?

There are no erase heads in the DV tape path, as recording completely erases anything that might be on the tape.

If you want to do this then simply leave the lens cap on and have the mic (across both channels) switched off. But why bother? Simply rewind them and reuse them - they're designed to be used in this way.

Thanks, Just checking.