The narrow edge on the shelf. "Tails Out" means storing it so the tape needs to be rewound before playing it. That way the tape pack is smooth in storage and the fresh rewind before playing means it's at the proper tension to feed smoothly when you play it. Rewinding and then letting it sit can result in an uneven tape tension when playing. That's really more of an issue with analog tape (and with analog tails out also helped prevent objectional print-through) but it can't hurt anything to adopt the same policy with digital.

Just to reiterate, the issue is less one of picture quality than it is the occurance of dropouts. The more a tape is used, the greater the chance of wear and tear on the tape surface leading to slight defects thus the greater chance of dropouts during recording. Tape is so cheap that is it false economy to reuse tapes at all. If you don't reuse tapes, HOW they get erased or whether it has an advantage over just recording over the old material ceases to be an issue since you don't ever erase them or record new material over old. When you're shooting anything except disposable experiments, always use fresh, unused tape.

The first symptoms are dropouts. The difference of opinion is at what point you'll see symptoms. Variables are the camcorder you're using, the brand, the grade of tape, storage, etc.. So yes... your mileage may vary. But if your end customer is not Stephen Speilberg, a film out, or professional broadcast of some kind... you shouldn't be scared to re-use tapes just 2 times.

Try it yourself with non-critical material if you're worried about it. I had at one point been using the same tapes over and over again for home video. And one day after editing all the footage it dawned on me that I had unintentionally reused the same two tapes at least 10 times. I went back through the video and scrubbed through frames and I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I looked harder... but the video looked no different to me than any other video I had shot with a new tape. And I know if I can't find anything wrong with it... Jim & Sue (bride & groom) aren't going to find anything wrong with it.

I wouldn't recommend re-using a dozen times but honestly there's a theoretical lifespan for digital tape, and my own tests proved to me, it's more than one use.

A while ago I did re-use some tapes confident that the material on them would never be needed again. I was wrong - a bit of it was needed again.

That taught me a lesson and I've never re-used tape since.

Stick the used tape in your camera, and record your new footage! Period!

Mike