Mini DVD tape: HD vs Regular vs HDV

[CliveJ]

What Mini DV tapes do I need for an HV40 shooting HD 1440? Canon recommends the HD Mini. Do I have to use the more expensive HD Mini tapes? The Sony DVM 63HDR costs 5 times the Sony DVM 60 PRR. What are the tapes labeled HDV? What are the Master tapes (most Expensive)? What are most people using? I know to buy name brand.

[zoobie]

You don't have to use the more expensive, higher quality tapes that have less dropouts. Most amateurs are using the cheap miniDV tapes with the pros using the higher quality stuff. I'm shooting an indie movie using the blue Sony miniDV tapes available at Walmart and even cheaper by bulk online.

[jagabo]

The reason to use better tape for HDV is the way the video is compressed. A small dropout on a DV tape will cause one frame to be slightly corrupt. But with HDV's MPEG 2 compression a small dropout can effect several frames and a much larger area.