Using Digital 8 Tapes more than once?

[Sober]

As the title says really...I have 6 Digital 8 Tapes which I have used just once. All the footage now has been archived onto (many) DVD's.
To cut costs I wouldnt mind using these same tapes again to record a new project.

So the bottom line... will there be any generation loss or will the image appear as if it were a new tape?

[gadgetguy]

Just my opinion but I wouldn't reuse them. Tapes are cheap, but the video is invaluable. Did you back up the footage to DVD as DV-AVI or did you encode it to DVD spec and therefore make it unsuitable for future editing?

Having said that, there shouldn't be any degradation in re-using the tapes a reasonable number of times.

[ZAPPER]

I agree, the contents of the tape, no matter how mundane (SP) are far more valuable than a new tape.

Each time you use a tape there will be a slight degrade, depending on your tape you may get 4 or forty reuses before you can notice even a small degrade

[kirky99]

I never re-use tapes, I can't justify erasing them.

[MachineMan]

Sometimes after I've put them on my harddrive and made DVD's, I reused them. I haven't noticed any degradation in quality after the 2nd use. I suspect that old or stretched tapes might have problems.

[Sober]

Cheers for the info guys, what I did was export it to the computer as DV-AVI and then split it into files so I could burn it as data onto DVD. Im going to buy new tapes for my new project though but as a second back up, im going to get into the habit of backing it up onto DVD as well (just in case )

[guns1inger]

tapes can be reused, however they do degrade with use. After a few goes you may start to experience image break up - squares or lines where the previous recording show through is a usual sign - at which time you need to bin the tape. I agree with the other posters here though, keep them as an archive.

[ZAPPER]

Putting them on a DVD as DV is in my opinion an excellent idea, though I doubt that many actually do it. This all kind of goes back to archiving not really being a one time step, buy rather a constant process.