erasing your minidv tapes?

[macgvyer]

I have alot of minidv tapes that I would like to reuse. I don't want to just record over the footage, I would like to find away to completey erase eveything from the tape. If there a way to do this?

[Riccardom]

I usually use ScenalyzerLive (scenalyzer.com) for this task:
- connect cam to PC via firewire;
- open ScenalyzerLive;
- select a black clip or nothing in order to have a black preview;
- check "enable recording";
- press the Big Red Button.

It will send the black screen to the cam up to the end of the tape, and will also record a continuous timestamp on it.
There will probably be other software to do this.

Riccardom

[makntraks]

I usually use ScenalyzerLive (scenalyzer.com) for this task:
- connect cam to PC via firewire;
- open ScenalyzerLive;
- select a black clip or nothing in order to have a black preview;
- check "enable recording";
- press the Big Red Button.

It will send the black screen to the cam up to the end of the tape, and will also record a continuous timestamp on it.
There will probably be other software to do this.

Riccardom

Doesn't this sound like your actually recording over the tape? My impression was that the original poster did not just want to "record" over the tape(s)....

MAC - Maybe check out Radio Shack. I remember way back that they sold "tape erasers" - big a** magnet that wiped out the info on the tapes.....
Back to work....

[bnbhoha]

It shouldn't be a big deal if you record over the tape. I heard that you can record over about 8 times before the tape becomes useless, besides its all digital, so it's going to look good.

[thing914]

Maybe check out Radio Shack. I remember way back that they sold "tape erasers" - big a** magnet that wiped out the info on the tapes.....
Back to work....

Don't bother. I looked into this a bit, don't think they sell these anymore. I did some research and the problem is these were ok for the old floppy disks and cassette/vcr tapes but for modern metal type tapes it takes a very strong field to really wipe them. Those old Radio Shack degaussers aren't up to the task. Modern ones that are strong enough are $$

[Gil T Pleasure]

If you have a friend that works in a hospital, ask him/her to put your tapes inside the MRI room. That should do the trick.

[racer-x]

Just record entire tape with the lense cap on. I do it all the time and I usually record at least 10 times onto a mini DV with no quality loss whatsoever.

I do use good quality tapes though.

[sitlet]

first thing, never put dv tapes by a magnet or in an mri room to erase them. thats just plain stupid and will most likely ruin your tapes. i work at a small tv studio, and the way we erase tapes is to use adobe premiere, and output a black screen to the dv deck via firewire. then u just hit record and let the tape roll. this also clears the timecode, so you dont have any issues with that later on. we do this all the time, and it is a perferred method of erasing tapes

[n6nfg]

But what if you want a "blank" tape without ANY timecode on it?

Reusing a tape "erased" like you suggest may have out-of-order timecodes if the tape gets ejected between scene captures. This could then confuse scene detection based on timecode changes.

[mybook4]

I believe that DV tapes contain RAW data. I don't think they have a table of contents like a cd-rw would. Therefore, you would need to record over in black. You couldn't erase since tapes dont have a TOC. A quick erase on a cd-rw just erases the TOC, and a full erase on cd-rw is actually a full record over. A quick erase tricks the burner into thinking that the disc blank when it actually is not. If tapes had a TOC like a cd-rw, then you could quick erase them.

[sitlet]

But what if you want a "blank" tape without ANY timecode on it?

like i said, when i use premiere and output a black video to the tape, it erases the timecode. that sets it to 00:00:00 so theres no confusion in playback or re-recording