I bought a HDV camcorder yesterday but after putting one of my old miniDV tapes in the camera it said something about "dirty head, cleaning required". The camcorder could not record or playback any tape at all. I quickly returned the camcorder to the store. I also have an old miniDV camcorder and I must have put the same tape in it, as the camcorder no longer records or playbacks anything either. The problem was probably that the tape was not placed in a case and was likely exposed to dust and debris.

Should all these old tapes be abandoned, never used again in any device, or is there a way to clean them?

As for repairing the contaminated camcorder, is it better to use one of the cleaning cartridges (and risk damaging the heads, or so I read), or send it in for repair, and how much should the repair cost?