Erasing MiniDV?

Begbie wrote on 8/12/2003, 3:58 AM
I have a JVC GR DVL 1020 miniDV cam - i ahve a few tapes i wish to re use, but recording to tapes that have footage on them is a little bit of pain in that you cant play them back and then hit the blank search key to find the marker where you can continue to record from as the whole tape time markers all of it.

Is there an easy way to blank a miniDV tape, prefferably using software, esp Vegas? I dont wish to print 60min of black frames or anythng, i want an empty or as new tape?

any ideas? (cant find anything about it in the manual or the cam)

Comments

farss wrote on 8/12/2003, 6:05 AM
Unforunately recording black over them is the only reliable way to erase them.

Bulk tape erasers have a pretty hard time getting rid of anything recorded digitally.

Guess thats why we record it that way in the first place!

But if you reuse them properly it should be an issue. Once you've got the tape in the camera don't rewind it or if you do use the edit search to find the end of the last thing you recorded on it. Manula should explain how to that properly. Doing things this way also helps with capture.
Begbie wrote on 8/12/2003, 6:16 AM
Hmm SUCKS! I knwo about the edit search - but it would be so nice to start with a blank tape again.

hanst anyone written some groovy vegas script that prints a reset timecode and blank frames back to tape or something? would this even be possible?
Chienworks wrote on 8/12/2003, 6:33 AM
Keep in mind that even if you did record blank frames over the whole tape, you would then have something recorded on the tape. The Blank Search function would not be usable since a blank frame is really just a black frame, not blank tape.

In this case, i wouldn't worry about how well a bulk eraser would erase the tape. As long as it distorted the signal enough so that the camera didn't recognize it anymore, it should accomplish what you want to do.
PeterWright wrote on 8/12/2003, 6:51 AM
Firstly, DV tapes are cheap - I still have all my significant camera tapes.

If you do re-use a few tapes, no need to blank them - just shoot over, and keep a record of where you're up to, and forget about "blank search".

In my limited experience, 2, maybe 3 re-records is ok - after that, don't be surprised with drop outs.
Jsnkc wrote on 8/12/2003, 10:04 AM
They used to sell little tape degaussers at radio shack, you might want to check there or in their catalog to see if they still do. I'm sure you can find one somewhere for under $100. We use them all the time for erasing MiniDV, DVCam and DVC pro tapes and have never had a problem with the signal not getting completely erased.