DV tapes help

[crazyhamster411]

Well, I just got my DVX100B in the mail today and I was wondering about miniDV tapes.

I wasn't planning on using any other dv tapes but the one's recommended by panasonic but I wanted to know if its safe to switch back and forth between AMQs and MQs, and PQs. And also I would greatly appreciate it if someone could explain the difference of these three types to me. Does one get better image quality over the other, etc?

Again, I'm new to all this and I just don't wan't to damage my baby in ANY way. Thanks a lot!

edit: Also, is it damaging to record over already shot footage. If so, in what way?
AND, I've heard that it's smart to use another camera to transfer footage to your computer over firewire because it's less work on the DVXs head. Well I don't own another camcorder with a working firewire port. How bad is it to transfer using the DVX, because I don't really have another option at this time?

Sorry for all the questions. They may seem like they have obvious answers, but I'm just trying to learn and be careful not to do anything that would harm my DVX. Thanks!

 

[lachefilms]

I would buy another camera to do that with. Don't use your camera as a deck.

 

[crazyhamster411]

do all cameras transfer with the same quality?

 

[crazyhamster411]

bump. I hate to be a troll but i need answers and I don't know where else to get them.

 

[fevercity]

Imagine a secondary DV camera as an external firewire drive... Just with moving tape transport.

A firewire stream is just moving the 1's and 0's over from the tape as a digital clone. There is no better or lesser quality when you're moving data over firewire. That's both the beauty (and limitations) of the DV codec.

Find a cheap DV camera with firewire and save the DVX for other shoots.