Hi Gary, I have always used sony premium DV tapes on the canon xh a1. I believe that the hdv tapes are a bit of marketing scheme although some people claim that they result in less dropped frames. The hdv tapes are about 4 times as expensive as the dv tapes. I have never had a problem with the just the dv tapes but if you want to use hdv tapes, the sony hdv are good as well