Whats the best way to play back a tapes? I have a 100 hours of footage to go through that was captured on a vx2100. I was told not to use the camera since it wears out the heads. whats the cheapest and best solution? Cheap consumer camera?

I have found that some digital cameras will play back tapes originated on a digital camera and other digital camera's have a problem with the tape. You might consider renting a deck for a few days of intensive video editing.

I buy consumer level miniDV camcorders to do the capturing. I often look around for camcorders that work but no longer record since the playback and capture usually still works. As long as it has firewire, I've not had any problem with this method.