DVDs for editing later

[DorianDW]

I have a bunch of Hi8 tapes that I need to get onto DVDs for editing later by someone else. What is the best way to go about this for the highest quality and compatibility with whomever ends up editing them, but still keep a low price? It doesn't need to be playable on a standalone player. Any suggestions?

My usual method of making a DVD is capture to AVI (Adobe Premiere)> do editing (Adobe Premiere)> convert to MPEG (Adove Premiere)> make menu, VOB, and IFO files (DVD Lab)> then burn to DVD.

Dorian

[gadgetguy]

Import to DV-AVI, cut to DVD size, burn as data files. This will maintain high quality and keep them in a good editing format.

[redwudz]

I'd go with the DV format also. If you can borrow a DV camcorder that has passthrough and you have a Firewire card, play the tapes on your Hi-8 and feed that through the DV camcorder to your computer. The DV file will be ~13Gb/hour, so you will need some room.

As mentioned, you could burn them as data discs, 4.37Gb at a time. I hope you don't have too many.

An external hard drive with USB/Firewire connectivity would be an even better option, then you may be able to get them all on, in DV format, and just give them the hard drive to work with.

[DorianDW]

I was thinking that was probably the best way, but wanted to make sure there wasn't some other way I missed. I have about 23 hours to do. So buying about 70 disks is a lot cheaper than a 300 Gb external hard drive.

Thanks,
Dorian

[daamon]

So buying about 70 disks is a lot cheaper than a 300 Gb external hard drive.

True - to a degree. You can re-use the 300Gb hard-drive or sell it on to recoup some / most of your outlay.

And then there's the factor of time - how much is your time worth having to burn 70 DVDs vs transferring all the files to an external HDD (i.e. set it up, come back when it's done)?

[julitomg]

My vote is also for AVI files in DV format. After you capture via Canopus ADVC100 or a passtrough camera, you can do some "trimming" of your clips in Premiere, both for creating 4.37 Gig clips and maybe cutting off some unwanted material (really bad takes, out of focus or other unusable footage)