8mm digital tape life

[juanbenae]

i have a digital video camera that i will use the same tape on, just record over stuff ive already shot. i record it to vhs for TV replay, as to not dirty the head on the camera, or beat the motor too much. i like to drink beer and watch my twisty back road runs again and agin.

seem that the quality of the video falls off after a couple tapings on the same 8mm tape. is this the case, or am i imagining it? is the 8mm tape good for one quality taping and then additional retapes suck?

thanks for any experiences you have in this

[Moses]

Digital video to VHS? Stop now or we'll have to organize some kind of intervention!

Your camera is designed to produce digital media meant to be stored digitally. Sure, you can transfer to VHS, but why? You don't see a lot of 993 owners putting 2.7's in their cars.

Buy some extra digital tapes and use the camera as a player or burn DVDs on your computer.

[84porsche]

I second that - You lose so much quality going backwards - you can buy a firewire card for your computer and most likely digitally record your video directly to an mpg format depending on the camera model. I have had my digital camera on the dash a few times while driving and everybody on the road thinks I am an insane but it sure is fun to watch the vids afterward.

[bmwluke]

There are different types of tapes, some that are designed to work best for repeated use and others that are designed for single use. Having said that, I agree with the above posts that it is best to transfer it to another digital source.

Although, if the main issue is not wearing out your camera, you could probably buy a special 8mm player for playing back your tapes.