Better to store on MiniDV tapes or VCDs?

[raycarlito]

I have a number of 8mm analog tapes to convert to digital (about 50 hours). I bought a digital camcorder with MiniDV and I am looking for the best way to preserve my analog recordings at a reasonable cost, the ultimate goal being to transfer the recordings to DVD-like format:

- should I transfer all the 8mm tapes to MiniDV tapes and store them until the cost of DVD-Rs solutions gets lower (maybe 2-3 years)? This represents a high number of tapes (approx 50 in SP format).
- should I right now transfer the recordings to VCD format, where the cost is lower but I do not know whether the quality will match what I have on the 8mm tapes? I will only have to use 2-3 MiniDV tapes and the cost of the Cds is minimal. If VCD quality is similar to what I have with the 8mm tapes (I read VCD is similar to VHS), then there is no point in keeping MiniDV tapes for future digital transfers on other formats.

Thanks for your input

[rayburg]

I am in the middle of converting my old 8mm to VCD at the moment so I can have a copy kept off-site at a low cost (Just in case). I don't think the quality is as good as the original 8mm or any where near as good as MiniDV.

What I do is create a MEPG2 version to DVD specs and copy the file onto CDs for the future when the cost of DVD burners are cheap for Australians... Sometimes the MEPG2 files need to be split but there are many freeware progs to do this..

I hope this helped