Re: To HD or not to HD...

HDV takes about the same amout of drive space than dv. So one hour of HDV takes about 12-13GB.

HDV-cameras are very sensitive when it comes to tapes. Best thing you can do, is to never change your type of brand. Every type of brand uses differend tape material and using different brands can cause a smear film on the video-heads. Cleaning tapes may help, but they wear out the video-heads.
I personally never use special HDV tapes, I stick to my Sony Premium DV tapes and never had any problems. They are basically the from the same material, but quality control is higher with HDV tapes.