Erasing magnetic tapes (Beta, Hi8, 8mm, VHS, etc)

[concisa]

Does anybody have any idea or know of any equipment that to erase contents of magnetic tapes without having to pass them through a recorder?

In other words, by avoiding recording empty tracks onto used tapes using a regular tape recorder equipment, the clean up would go much faster.

I have around 54 Hi8 tapes and to clean them up on my camera, it would take around 120 hours of recording. So, I hope someone out there have a better idea on how to do this.

Thanks a lot,

Armando

[bobkart]

It's called a Degausser, or Bulk Tape Eraser; for example:

http://www.datadev.com/degaussers.html

[zoobie]

don't erase them
just buy new ones

[Epicurus8a]

don't erase them
just buy new ones

IMO, this is a better idea than reusing your old tapes.

If you do buy a degausser, don't buy a cheapie. You'll only regret it later.

[concisa]

Thanks for all your input. The degausser option turns out a very expensive one.