Yes. If you want to do IDR restore from tape, then do a backup directly to tape.
Re Item 2. I am a bit confused on the utility of the IDR. If we consider a disaster scenario, I would assume that the server and also media server would become unavailable and hence the reason for the tape backup that is taken offsite.
My idea was to initially restore the media server (I read on the forum that the media server could be backed up tp tape directly to create a dr file). Once the media server has been restored, I intended to restore the other servers using a manual recovery as per http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO24208.
Would the above manual process work as your answer seems to imply that it is not possible.
