Best lossless format for storage/future editing for Hi8

[jkryan]

Okay, I've searched and don't see a duplicate problem.

I have a Macbook Pro late 2008, using OS 10.5. I have a Sony DCR-TRV460 with about 50 Hi8 tapes from the first 5 years of my kids' lives. I now want to put all that footage on a large hard disk drive for storage and future editing possibilities, mostly because these tapes are now 10-20 years old, and I just want to get them digitized before they start to have problems, despite storing them properly. I also have a Canopus 110, and an external 1TB drive.

What I did last night was hook up the Canopus 110 to the external drive, and the drive to my Macbook. I opened iMovie 8, and it immediately came up with an import screen recognizing the Canopus 110 (which perhaps I don't really need as the Sony camera is a digital videocam...but the camera used to record these Hi8 tapes was not, it was an analog Sony...a little confused here).
Anyway, I tired just using the iMovie's standard capture, and when I looked on the external drive, I saw several files, with extensions I did not recognize. So, I re-captured, and this time changed the format to .avi, and now have a 24GB file for the 2-hour tape, sounds about right, I guess. But when I view this in Quicktime on my 15" screen, it just looks okay, not great. I wonder what this would look like if I were to edit it, code it into MPEG2, burn it on a DVD, and watch it on my HDTV...my sense is it would suck. I have also heard .avi, while lossless, is not a great format to work with, like importing a 24GB file into Final Cut Express to edit, or perhaps multiple 24GB files, synch problems, etc.

So, the questions is, in what format should I capture the Hi8 video for storage and future editing?

[minidv2dvd]

skip the canopus. it's an unnecessary extra step that is degrading the video. use the dv out of the camera and capture the video as DVavi over firewire direct to the mac.

keep it in DVavi, as it's editor friendly and only lightly compressed.

[bhbuckeye]

I just finished a large transfer project for my brother. 18 hi 8 tapes. Many nearly full (~2H)

I have a sony trv 320 that converts to DV "on the fly".

I also have a Canopus ADVC 100.

I capture using Ulead VS8 DV-AVI--but this should be irrelevent.

After I did a few tapes using the Sony I found some audio sync problems near the end of the tapes (files) on longer tapes (1.5 + hours).

I had access to the original cam the tapes were recorded on and borrowed it. (it was in pretty good shape-I just cleaned the heads) I found the colors slightly better and the Canopus kept the audio dead in sync. If you have this option I would definitly try a tape or 2 and see if you can tell the difference.

Also if you are going to use hard drives you have to make a backup--hard drives do fail. (50 tapes at 2 hours at 13 GB per hour = a lot of hard drive space and work) And don't make the backup after you're finished. Every time you put in a a good nights work drag the files to the backup drive. Keep the backup(s) at your Mom's
house

I used external SATA500 GB Seagates in an external dual enclosure from Newegg.

Good luck

bhb

[jkryan]

Fantastic advice, thanks very much.

[PuzZLeR]

I say keep the DV-AVI as is for precious, and irreplaceable, footage (disregarding the long-term possibility of the tapes lasting). DV-AVI is not theoretically a "lossless format" but it's good enough, and it will serve just fine for your storage/future editing needs.

DV-AVI is built for editing, has high and visually lossless quality (even with several generations of re-encodes), and can be encoded easily to other formats (such as DvD). And with roughly 13GB/hr you can store lots of video as Masters onto the ever-growing hard drives of today and tomorrow.

IMO you need not search for another format for the type of memories you're trying to preserve for the future.