Does anyone reuse their minidv tapes? I record a lot of soccer games and would like to use the same tapes. Is there a good way to erase the old ones? Does this effect the quality?
I reuse tapes all the time - the camera manages all the erasing and I've never noticed a drop in quality. I suppose the tapes must wear out eventualy, but it takes a while!
With digital tapes, i really can't think of any advantage to erasing them first. It's just more wear & tear on the tapes.
You could try a bulk eraser, but reports are that they don't work well on digital tapes at all. I seem to remember someone posting in here that it took 8 passes through the bulk eraser before his camcorder wouldn't show the original recording anymore.
My vote is with Chienworks suggestion for a bulk earser. Running it through a dozen times doesn't affect the tape itself other than the recorded material. The reason to bulk erase is to remove the time codes along with the images.