What's the efficeint way to store avi files for mailing ?

[AAC]

My Head Office in New York requires us to send them monthly presentation video for editing. I used standard DV tapes to capture 1-2 hours presentation video and convert them to avi files by WinDV. For each presentation video, the avi file size is 13GB - 26GB. Protable harddrive could be the best solution to save these 26GB avi files for mailing but it's not secure because of the hard drive could be damged during delivery and high cost to buy exteral hard drive. DVD could be the solution but I don't know how to burn one (backup) 13-26GB file to many DVDs without trimming it manually.
Any suggestion for me ?
Thanks.

[yoda313]

Another alternative is to burn to bluray. Of course that adds the cost of a burner, a rom reader at the receiving site, and blank media. But I think those would get you close to 25gb a disc....

[gadgetguy]

You can adjust WinDV to capsfer to ~4GB files, automatically breaking it into DVD size chunks.

Another alternative is 16GB Compact Flash, SD, or similar, and set WinDV max filesize to fit. They should be safe and easy to mail, (not cheap though).

[vhelp]

How are you obtaining your avi's ?

A -- capturing (the full session to your HDD) and then later (day/week/month, whatever) you have to mail'em
B -- you are ripping a source (ie, dvd) and saving to an avi
C -- you are D/L'ing avi's from the internet, etc.
D -- ?

If you are {A} you could set your capture software to capture in 4gig chunks

Or, if your avi's are massive 13gig or more single files then you have >cut< then into 4gig pieces and that could take time.

Or, if you know you avi's already, you could use of the archivers .. winzip or winrar and set the option for direct stream copy (I think that's what its commonly called) and give it a 4gig segment limit and it will take your 13gig or larger "single" files and copy them to however many 4g disc's it needs. -- that's prob the simplest.

Otherwise, I don't know anything else off the top of my head, hmm..

-vhelp 4896

[AAC]

Too Late, I have transferred two DV tapes into two 13GB avi files by WinDV.
May be I try all advices next time. Save to USB flash drive could be one of the solutions. Once they are downloaded by New York office, they can mail it back to me.

[AAC]

Any simple and free software to trim avi file suggested ?

[gadgetguy]

VirtualDub. Set both video and audio to Direct Stream Copy, set your in and out points and Save AVI. Note that if your AVI is Type1, it will be converted to Type2 using this process.

[filmboss80]

Here' a thought: if the New York office has the ability to capture from DV tape, just mail them the tapes -- but only after you've backed them up. If you can't make tape-to-tape backups, then archive to harddrives that you can keep at your location. Send New York the tapes and keep the drives. That should save mailing costs, minimize potential damage to drives during shipping, and will help you avoid buying new drives every month.

[Cornucopia]

VirtualDub. Set both video and audio to Direct Stream Copy, set your in and out points and Save AVI. Note that if your AVI is Type1, it will be converted to Type2 using this process.

I've commented on this kind of thing before...

#1 You probably WANT it in Type 2. If Macs are used at NY office, they will have a very hard time with Type1, but Type2 should be ok.

#2 Use Vdub (similar to suggested above), but don't cut anything. Just use the "Segmenting" option when you save the avi. Set the segments as 4.36GB (leaves room for small text/comments file, etc).

#3 Save the audio UNCUT as a separate WAV file. This helps with making sure there is no discontinuity in the audio, plus helps in resycing.

Scott