how do you backup/archive your files

[unstuck2]

After a couple of days of effort in capturing and producing my first DVD, I am faced with the question of how to preserve the work.
Currently for a ~60 min video I have the following:
13GB avi file (original capture)
3.5GB mpg file (TMPGenc generated)
700MB wav file (TMPGenc generated)
3.8 GB folder with video/audio_TS (TMPGenc DVDg enerated, after edits)
and of course the resulting DVD+R disks.

Besides the disk, which one of these files do you guys keep "just in case"?
These files will basically be the only copy of the current DV and 8mm home video tapes I have. Although I'll keep the tapes and the DVD I've created, seems like I should also keep the avi file as insurance. Although at 13 GB/hour of tape, I'm going to run out of disk space soon.

What do you guys do? Is keeping the DVD enough. What if you want to make a copy of the disk, or a few minutes of the contents in the future. Is it easy to make a copy of the disk directly? Is it possible to "decomplie" (?) a DVD and extract some of the video for another project without quality loss?

[rhegedus]

Test the disk thoroughtly in your set-top to see if it plays as expected. If it does, there's not need to keep the other files because all the info you need for backups is on the disk.

[Craig Tucker]

I just keep the original DV tapes as insurance. I can then always recreate a DVD from the tape if something goes wrong.

[Craig Tucker]

Oh and by the way rhegedus I have had discs that have played perfectly well when I made them, try them several weeks later and they stutter block and pixellate. That is why I keep my DV tapes, recordable DVD is still in its infancy and we don't know for sure how they will last the test of time, particularly cheap ones.

[unstuck2]

yea, having hte dvds "go bad" is what I'm worried about.
And I'd rather not have to recapture (you know our camcorders go out of style too and the tapes deteriorate sitting there).
That avi file is mighty big. I was thinking of keep ing the encoded TMPgenc file. I thought it was mpg, but it's a m2v file along with a matching wav file.
Any value to that?

[rhegedus]

Oh and by the way rhegedus I have had discs that have played perfectly well when I made them, try them several weeks later and they stutter block and pixellate. That is why I keep my DV tapes, recordable DVD is still in its infancy and we don't know for sure how they will last the test of time, particularly cheap ones.

Hmmmmmm.....could you still rip the disks back to hard drive? I thought some DVDRs had a 'life-time guarantee' (probably about 5 years in reality).

Personally, I'm not to keen on having an archive of DV tapes because I think the magnetic media is just as perishable as say VHS or cassette (just a guess - I've no proof of this). As I never used more than 40 minutes ona DV tape, thats about 8GB data for about £5 for a Sony/TDK DV tape. For the GB/£ ratio, I may as well get a new HD every few months...........which is what I do anyway

[Craig Tucker]

Well my theory is as long as they dont get played too much the DV tapes should not deteriorate very much. Mine get used to record and then transfer, thats it.

[unstuck2]

are the m2v files made by TMPGenc plus worth keeping? Afterall, that's what I import into TMPGenc DVD author, and they are not too big.

Also, after burning the Video/audio_ts folders to a DVD, if I want to make a second copy of the same DVD, can I just copy those folders/files from one DVD to another? It seems to me that should work.
cheers!

[dcsos]

Short of outputting to tape the assets you need to protect
are the folowing

3.5GB mpg file (TMPGenc generated)
700MB wav file (TMPGenc generated)

in my case I use VEGAS VIDEO to make my authoring compliant files and then I back them up to a DATA DVD after the finished authored DVD of SAME is on the shelf

THIS WAY I CAN ADD THE MPEG ASSETS TO ANY NEW PROJECT WITH
a MPEG 2 EDITOR or utility (LIKE XP CHOPPER or MPEG APPEND(mac))
I don't worry about menus and menu music or menu loops as I'll remake those if needed

Is it possible to "decomplie" (?) a DVD and extract some of the video for another project without quality loss?

This is what we do when we rip a DVD, its an ass backwards way, as the menus and that stuff is in there and like you say...DECOMPILING is necessary..No quality is lost but its cumbersome, no?

[Paul_W]

There is no easy way to back up your video assets that I have found. What we do is..

1. Save digital video back out to tape
2. Save editor project data and computer files to a CD or DVD

We don't save compressed video since we prefer to work with original content and don't want re-encode encoded video if we go back and re-work the original. From what I have read, video tape can last up to 10 years with minimal degradation. We have had consistent results retrieving old video as long as the tapes were stored in a reasonably good temperature / humidity environment.

[unstuck2]

thanks.
I think I will back up the TMPGenc generated files to a data DVD as you suggest.
Funny thing though, the files I've generated using default settings of TMPGenc plus are in .m2v format and can be opened by TMPGenc DVD author, but not with the original TMPGenc plus software.
Am I doing something wrong? Are they still worth keeping?
thanks

[dcsos]

I don't think TMPGEnc does any RE-ENCODING of MPEG-2

If you want to shrink down or re-encode the originals, mux theM2V and sound files then use DVD shrink- or go back to the original avi and put it thru TMPG again