Dvcodec to AVI backup

[wolfer]

Hi all

I need someones help PLS

I have transfered a bunch of DV and VHS video to my computer using a canopus ADVC-100 or direct from a DV camcorder.
all my video is 720 x 480 and in DVcodec
I have about 100gb of Video that I need to back up on to disk to free some badly needed HD space.

Is there anyway I can compress these AVI files (dvcodec) to a slightly smaller file without losing the video res and burn to DVD-r for later editing. without to much video loss.

Pls Help!!!!!

[guns1inger]

Tes and no. No, you can't just zip these up and get a great saving on space. DV is already compressed to a degree (about 5:1), and with 100GB you aren't going to get a great deal of space back. You could break it down and write it to DVD/R as data, but that's 25 disks.

Any conversion you do will have repercussions down the track. You could converrt to mpeg-2, but this limits your editing and reencoding later on, as it is harder to edit well, and doesn't recompress nicely without quality loss. It is also still pretty bulky.

You could encode as Xvid, with can get you high quality in a small amount of space, however, again, re-encoding later is going to cost you.

100GB is around 8-9hours of DV. You could write it back to a set of tapes and put them in the cupboard. No reencoding, easy to reload and edit later on.

You could get another HDD and an external enclosure and simply keep them on the machine, and probably get some extra space at the same time.