Archiving captured video

[FinChase]

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum, so if it's not, I apologize. Does anyone have a suggestion for a way to archive AVI footage that was captured from old VHS tapes? I've converted the footage to M-PEG2, and burned some DVDs, but since capturing the footage was a somewhat tedious process, I'd like to save the AVI footage in case I ever want to do more editing, but I really need to move it off my hard drive now. Is there a way to compress it enough that it would fit on a DVD-r, or perhaps a double-layer disc? I don't have the option of burning it to DVD-RAM right now.

[redwudz]

What format is the AVI? There are many, many types. Saying AVI is about as much info as saying 'I have a video.'

If you compress it further, you will lose some quality. You should be able to put it on a DVD disc as data as is. If it's too big, compress it. But without knowing what format it is now, hard to recommend anything.

By the way, this isn't capturing. Moving you.

[slacker]

If it is DV-AVI, I STRONGLY recommend printing your raw or edited video back out to miniDV tape. As far as I know, this is still the most secure, reliable and economical method of archiving video for long term storage.

[gadgetguy]

If you compress it, you are not saving it for future editing. Slacker's suggestion is a good one, but requires realtime export and import later. You could also break it up into disc size segments and save as Data DVDs. You can then always copy them back to HDD in a fraction of the time and join them in nearly any editing program.

[bits]

Put the DV avi on miniDV and keep the VHS tapes.

[DereX888]

If it is not split yet - chop the avi file to 2GB or 4GB pieces (depends on your avi type and your OS) using i.e. VirtualDub, just set direct stream copy for audio and video.
Burn those pieces to as many DVD-Rs as needed, why do you have to back it up just to single disc?

I dont know what OS youre using, but Im pretty sure if its any Windoze then you already have that avi file in 2-4GB fragments, just burn them all to DVD-Rs as data discs as I said, I dont understand whats your problem is.
Even if it takes 20 SL DVD-Rs it will be still cheaper than single DV tape