On Sat, 8 Jan 2000 21:48:06 +1000, "matt" wrote:

>I used up a mini dv tape recently and then rewound it after transfering the
>content to a vhs tape so i could re use the Mini DV cassete. I was doing
>some taping today and I noticed a few little jitters, by this i mean
>sections of the screen became coloured flashes (best i can describe it
>sorry) these only occured twice and were only barely noticable...What has me
>worried was when i was watching what i had recorded (watching the mini dv
>cassete back thru the in plugs of my vcr) the picture completely broke up at
>one point into sections and I could see "behind" todays taping, a frame or
>two of something i had taped the FIRST time i used the cassette -
>should it have been OK to do what i did - IE just rewind and
>tape over the top? The other end of the worry scale is does it sound like a
>camera fault?

You are describing mini-DV tape "dropouts"...
Being a digital medium, writing over old material
should be OK, but lately I have been reusing a
bunch of used mini-DV tapes, and I have been
noticing what you described (though not often - a
dropout bad enough to show previously recorded
material for a frame or two happens for me maybe
once every 3-5 tapes, though small dropouts happen
more often). For important shooting, or shooting
where I do not want to risk visible dropouts,
I now use fresh tape - but for shooting other
things, reused tape is fine. BTW, I find a good
blow-out of the mini-DV tape chamber with a large
air bulb at every tape change, the use of a Sony
cleaning tape whenever a major dropout has
happened, and the use of only one brand of tape
worthwhile mini-DV dropout preventives...