I mostly use Sony DVM60PRR (DVC Premium) tapes, which cost about $2.50 each. These work great and I've never experienced a drop-out. I keep an unlabeled tape in my cameras, use them once, and then file them away.

Supposedly the Excellence or DVM63HD tapes, which cost about $12 each, are supposed to be more durable and withstand repeated use better. I use several of the DVM63HD tapes running tests where I reuse the tape, & sometimes for paying work because I have a stock of them already. So far I've never noticed a difference between the performance of the two tapes. I will likely discontinue buying the more expensive tapes once they are used up.

I import my files directly into Vegas, edit the .m2t files, and export usually into .wmv in 30P into Vimeo. I do not use any intermediate codecs since my machine can handle .m2t in the timeline.

thx for the input. I was reading the thread on the DVI network which led me to ur work. I've had pretty miserable luck with drop outs when recording HDV, even with good quality tape. In addition, i use FC Pro most of the time for editing (which is not particularly friendly to HDV) although I have a copy of Vegas 8 which I'm playing with on the Windows side of my Mac.

Ur work is very appealing. It's nice to see that good quality can be had with these cameras and format.
regards
dave morgan

I'm surprised FCPro has problems with HDV. I've seen a few threads about .m2t files not behaving correctly.

BDC,

I shot this one in 1080-60i but rendered it to 720-24P. I often use 720-30P as well.

1. Highlight the portion of the project in the timeline you want to render,

2. Click "File" then "Render As" from the top menu

3. In the dialogue box that appears, find the "Save as Type" field and select "Windows Media Video V9". In the "Template" field select "4.8Mbps HD 720-24P Video" or "6.0Mbps HD 720-30P Video".

4. Select where you want to save the file and name it, then press the "SAVE" button. It will then render to the file. Load this file into Vimeo and you are done.