Does recording over a full DV tape effect the quality in any way?

Question

I have no more tapes and have plenty i can record over.

Answer 1

No, there should be no degredation of quality using a miniDV cassette more than once. They are made for multiple uses. In fact, it may be better in some cases, as a pre-recorded tape would have less (if any) timecode breaks when recording over again. Some pros actually pre-record all their tapes  (they usually record 60min of black--they just leave the lens cap on) just so they can ensure their are no timecode breaks.

Time code is pretty complicated to understand, so to make it simple, a timecode break can be aggravating in post production.

So, in conclusion, if you're sure you don't need that footage anymore, you'll be perfectly fine recording over old footage. I'm not saying to reuse each tape a hundred times, (never tried that to be quite honest) but there will be degredation of quality. Some tapes suffer from tiling, but that's because they are faulty, not because of reuse.

Well I hope that helps a bit :)

Answer 2

Great answer from Nikolai!  Another reason for using pre-recorded tapes is to make sure that any loose oxide particles or dried adhesive are removed from the tape.