Should I burn original avi for archival purposes, or mpeg2?

[jlietz]

I'm converting vhs-c tapes to dvd. Due to a need for editing, I have been capturing to avi in VirtualDub using PICVideo MJPEG (quality 19), editing (again with VDub), and then converting to mpeg2 with TMPEG Plus. I was thinking that I should burn the avi's to data dvd's for archiving, but would I be better off just burning the mpeg2's to data dvd's and forgetting about the avi's? Can anyone think of a reason why I would need the original avi's at a later date when I will already have the mpeg2's? I'll be destroying (ok, tossing in the trash) the vhs-c tapes after capturing. I plan to make at least two different sets of backup dvd's stored in different locations.

Thanks.

[ZippyP.]

Can anyone think of a reason why I would need the original avi's at a later date when I will already have the mpeg2's?

In case you ever want to edit/recompile the footage again. If you're absolutely sure that you have your final product then you don't need it. Your choice.

[redwudz]

The only reason I would see to save the AVIs is for future editing. They will take up quite a bit of space so you will need a lot of media to back them up.

If you really wanted to have the best quality archive, you would save the tapes themselves.

If you are satisfied with the end product MPEG, should be enough.

[jlietz]

OK, but if I want to edit at a future date, won't it be feasible to convert the mpeg2 to avi and edit from there? Or will I lose quite a bit of quality by doing that?
Thanks for the replies.

[redwudz]

If you convert back to AVI from MPEG that has be been converted from AVI....... Yes, you will lose quality. How much depends on the quality you started with.

I would probably use a MPEG editor like Womble instead, even though it may have the risk of introducing sync problems.

It depends on the editing needed. If all you need to do is cut parts out, not so hard. Extensive editing is more problematic with MPEG.