I have a bunch of old HDV tapes I was shooting on in 2007. It might be time to bring them out of storage and get re-started on that project. But I no longer have an HDV camera. What's the best way to get them on there? Rent an HDV camcorder? Buy a deck?

How many is a "bunch" ? If over a dozen or so, I would look into buying a used camera or deck,
( cameras are cheaper). Then take it to someplace like Precision Camera and let them give it a good head cleaning. Then run a "demo" tape with images on it as your practice capturing tape. If it doesn't eat the tape and it cycles just fine during the capture, then its as safe as anything else out there at the moment.

Buy, rent, or borrow an HDV "handicam," something like a Canon HV20/30/40. Capture them all in full to a master format, put them on 1-2 hard drives, and store away the tapes.

Did this a few years ago with anything worth capturing from my DV/HDV days. Hard drives are dirt cheap.

Pro-tape in Austin will do it for 60 bucks an hour: Pro-Tape.com - Austin, TX - Affordable Audio & Video Transfers, Duplication, DVD, CD - Pro-Tape.com (http://www.pro-tape.com/Store/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=5)

Hope this is helpful!

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com)