I am new to wonders of miniDV camcorders... So here is my question: are the brand new miniDV tapes usable straight out of the box, or is there any other step (not counting rewinding) that might be beneficial to quality of the picture.
As it is digital the quality should be always the same. Never heard of some pre-treating... . If you start noticing dropouts it's time to clean the head. It's a good idea to choose one brand of tapes and stay with it (If you do a search on it you'll find people often recommending Fuji).