Do you re-use your tapes?

[Bill Edmunds]

I'm a bit new to hdv, so I wondered if reusing your tapes once is okay? Do you reuse tapes with your XH A!? If so, what tapes are you using?

[Larry Kamerman]

Tapes are cheap enough that it's not worth the risk, IMHO.

[Bill Edmunds]

Originally Posted by Larry Kamerman

Tapes are cheap enough that it's not worth the risk, IMHO.

I would agree. The problem is that I ordered some tapes for a wedding I have tomorrow and the tapes didn't arrive. So I'm stuck with once-used tape stock.

[John L. Miller]

Slip over to walmart and buy a few before your wedding in the morning. Regular Mini DV tapes would be better than trying to record over an HDV tape. J

[Brandon Freeman]

Ditto on that. Regular MiniDV tapes will work just fine. Just get the same brand of the regular tape (i.e. if you use Sony HDV tapes, grab some Sony MiniDV tapes -- same difference, really).

[Bill Edmunds]

Originally Posted by Brandon Freeman

Ditto on that. Regular MiniDV tapes will work just fine. Just get the same brand of the regular tape (i.e. if you use Sony HDV tapes, grab some Sony MiniDV tapes -- same difference, really).

I use Panasonic tapes. The local walmart carries only Sony I believe.

[John L. Miller]

I would still rather use a new sony tape than a used panasonic tape. I use sony and have no problems. J

[Bill Edmunds]

Originally Posted by John L. Miller

I would still rather use a new sony tape than a used panasonic tape. I use sony and have no problems. J

I was just worried about the old "never mix Sony & Panasonic tapes" routine that has been around since DV was introduced.

[Jack D. Hubbard]

Bad idea, no matter what. It is not worth taking the chance. Even with HDV tapes, you can shop around and get them for under 10 bucks. It is all about planning, order enough stock ahead of time so you don't get into that kind of situation.

[Richard Hunter]

Originally Posted by Bill Edmunds

I was just worried about the old "never mix Sony & Panasonic tapes" routine that has been around since DV was introduced.

I never reuse tapes, but in your position I'd rather reuse a Panasonic tape than switch to Sony. IMO, mixing tape types carries a higher risk than reusing a tape. Of course if you can get some new Panasonic tapes it's even better. :)

Richard

[Brian Boyko]

I have a tape that I re-use as a "crap roll" - usually for when I'm recording sound tests. Nothing on the crap roll is intended to be part of the final picture.

[Chris Soucy]

Just a thought to rain on this "do not" parade.

Till now I have never re - used a tape for HDV capture.

Whilst pondering this, as a result of a query elsewhere on DVinfo, it occured to me that, despite using the best grade tapes possible, brand spanking new, I was still getting what I, and probably anyone else, would consider excessive dropouts.

So, with that in mind, I did a trawl for "hard evidence" that re - using Mini DV tapes, and errors thereon for HDV capture, was affected, one way or the other, by usage.

The result? Nothing. Nada. Niet.

I, personally, have found no hard, documented evidence, anywhere, to support the "do not re - use tape" stuff being spouted by so many people.

This would "appear" to have gone into mythology, in a similar way "using camera to ingest to NLE wears heads out in 15 minutes" rubbish that CH has kyboshed so many times it must be getting absolutely nauseating.

My answer:

Well, considering I can't re - use my "old" tapes as they are, in fact, my "vault" of shot stuff, not a lot.

If I can identify one that can, indeed, be sacrificed to the greater good, sacrificed it will be - but if Mini DV tapes behave the same as tapes have for the last 30 odd years (and have got better with each passing year at that) then they probably have a life span in excess of 300 passes minimum.

Passing on "percieved wisdom" has it's place, but old wives tales really aren't much good to anybody.

If anyone can point me to any body of hard evidence that supports the "don't" view, I shall most happily recant. Till then, untill someone does the hard work to actually document this, I'm simply not buying it.

Think I'll put the hard hat on.

CS

[Lloyd Coleman]

I started re-using tapes for things that are not critical and have not found any higher rate of drop outs or other problems. At this point I don't think re-using a tape once or twice is a problem and would not be afraid to use them for your wedding.

As an interesting note, not long ago someone on this board said that they always re-used tapes because a used tape had been proven to work without problems. Just as he would not use a brand new camera, microphone, or any other piece of equipment for a critical job that had not been tested, he had more faith in a tape that had previously proven to work well rather than a new unproven one.

Many people 'stripe' or 'black' their tapes, which means that they record blank footage over the entire tape before they use if for recording an image. All these people are thus re-using their tape for the real event and I have not heard of increased problems from people that do this.

[Bill Watson]

I do a bit of filming for a weekly news segment for one of our local TV stations and have a set number of tapes that I use for this.

My experience to date is that I can get away with recording over each tape three times.

On the fourth recording I start to see dropouts.

This is SD by the way.

I also have a mix of Panasonic and Sony tapes and haven't experienced any problems so far.

[Michael Wisniewski]

I had a scratch tape that I re-used about 20 times before it become completely un-recordable. It started generating all kinds of drop outs and head cleaning messages. In the end I gave up on re-using tapes mainly for convenience. It's just easier to throw in a new tape everytime and label it afterwards.