Standard Tapes for HD

I have a boatload of new Sony miniDV tapes. They seem to work just fine. I have not gotten any dropouts yet


Do any of you use Non HD tapes for HD?

I use the Sony Premium miniDV tapes for HD - the ones in the orange/yellow wrapper, stock code DVM60PR3. I haven't looked closely, but I haven't seen any Sony tapes that are branded as "sub-premium", so these could be the same one that you are using. I haven't had any problems with them.

Paul.

If you use them once the cheap ones will work just fine. Maybe a couple of times even. No need to buy the HD tapes unless you plan on using them several times.

AY-DVM60EJ from Panasonic. Sell as normal MiniDV tapes.

So far no problems with the HV30.

Stefan

I was under the assumption that you really needed to get the Sony HDV 63 (PHDVM-63DM with nice case) tapes... and one day by accident I put in a regular tape.. the only difference... 3 minutes. Other than that, it worked perfectly. The other tape was a Maxell that had been used many times, and it still performed just fine. Of course the HD tapes run in the $11.00 each range compared to a couple of bucks for the regular ones..

lol ?? You aren't supposed to mix tape brands and types.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-hvr-z5-hdr-fx1000/141915-mixing-sony-tapes-other-brands.html
Stick to one brand and never change it, unless you don't care about clogging the tape head.

I buy the $2.20 sony tapes, blue wrapper , the ones you can get a walmart. Work great.
Yes, iron, you don't want to switch brands, and if you do then run a head cleaner.

I use mini Sony DVCAM tapes. They're all I use in my XH-A1.

No the head cleaners are damaging and they do a terrible job of cleaning the transport rollers. The guy who posted the second post (on the link above) wrote something similar.

If you want your camera to last longer dont use head cleaners often, and you wont have to if you dont switch tapes often. Personally I like recording direct to a hard drive when I can.

Iron, I agree that head cleaners are damaging to the mechanism, but it is sometimes necessary. I wouldn't do it unless I was promted by the camcorder that it needs cleaned.