A good archival method.

[From a Buick 8]

I am looking for a good way to transfer my VHS-C footage to DVD. I would like to get them all onto DVD and then at a later date i will want to use the DVD's to put together some movie projects.

I have a Canopus ADV110 for doing the capture. Should i just save the .DV files to DVD or should i save the footage in some other format. The .DV files take up a bunch of space.

[oliverw]

Yeah, if you're planning on working with these files later on,
I'd recommened keeping them in the original DV format

~ow

[From a Buick 8]

Ok so it looks like the best nethod will be to get a large HD in an Ext case and use that.

[oliverw]

Yes, definitely. That sounds like the way to go. But try to stay away from Lacie or Maxtor ext harddrives (Maxtor is often inside the Lacie case) - do some research on Google, and you know what I mean (type ie "lacie harddrive problem" on Google). Personally, I lost 500GB of video because of my Lacie harddrive died. Of course, they're not all faulty, but I have heard more complains about them than any other ext harddrive manufacturers.

~ow

[terryj]

I would stay away from the "off the shelf" Lacie big drives,
as you can often build one cheaper than that for what you need.

However, if you aren't so mechanically inclined that you can't
buy an external case and figure out how to stick a Hard drive in
it, then certainly LaCie, Acom Data, or Western Digital ( my personal fave)
large ext drives would be the way to go.

[slacker]

Keep in mind when evaluating hard drives that drive crashes due to logical errors, table corruption, viruses, power surge etc. can usually be recovered. Physical issues are another story.

Remember also that ALL hard drives go out eventually. I would rotate them no less than every two years if you value those bits and bytes.

If you are going to archive to a hard drive, also consider implementing RAID 1 or 5 for data redundancy and reliability. Also consider archiving to DV tape. DV tape is still more reliable than a hard drive if stored appropriately.

[From a Buick 8]

If you are going to archive to a hard drive, also consider implementing RAID 1 or 5 for data redundancy and reliability. Also consider archiving to DV tape. DV tape is still more reliable than a hard drive if stored appropriately.

Would you use another archive method. Once i get them all transfered i will then edit and burn as DVD movies, which would by my ultimate storage method. I just wanted to have enough space to hold all the footage befoe editing.

[From a Buick 8]

I would stay away from the "off the shelf" Lacie big drives,
as you can often build one cheaper than that for what you need.

However, if you aren't so mechanically inclined that you can't
buy an external case and figure out how to stick a Hard drive in
it, then certainly LaCie, Acom Data, or Western Digital ( my personal fave)
large ext drives would be the way to go.

I had planned on building my own, looks like firewire cases are about $25, i am looking for a good sale on HD so i can keep the whole cost around $100

[slacker]

Dvds are appropriate for distribution, not archiving. They should not be your ultimate storge method (too flaky long term). You are coding mpeg to dvd, DV-AVI to tape. I do not know of any better way to archive video footage than by DV tape or hard drive, and the hard drive really should be a minimum of raid 1 if you value your footage.

Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital all have large 500mb - 1tb capacity with raid 0 and 1 capability. I do not know of any lower capacity drives which have raid capability. You could go with two separate smaller drives 300mb or less and enable one of many backup routines, but to me this is one added pain in the arse.

[From a Buick 8]

Looking at maybe an SATA drive, but i will need an SATA card for my MDD G4 any suggestions

[cbkilner]

While this may sound backward, one good archival medium for .dv is DV tape (assuming you have a DV deck or camera with DV in).

DV tape should be good for 15-20 years...who knows how long writable DVDs will last.

In traditional terms, DV tape is an archival medium and DVD is a distibution medium.

However, with DVD blanks and HD prices so low, tapes can get expensive.

Instead of a SATA drive, perhaps try a couple of FW drives set up as RAID with Disk Utility.

[edDV]

Why the need for a large drive for this?

VHS-C cassettes record about 20min

DV capture results in ~20min video capture to 4.3GB (DVDR size)

Why not save the resulting *.dv file to DVDR as data and be done with it? I'd burn 2 DVDR for backup. Store in different places.

DV tape is another option for backup. By that I mean save to DVDR and an hour's worth to DV tape.

[redstripes]

Ok so it looks like the best nethod will be to get a large HD in an Ext case and use that.

i agree!

[pepegot1]

Dump the VHS tapes on a good dvd recorder. Now, they are on DVD(+/-RW). You can rip and convert to mpg files, edit with a good editor - VideoRedo and burn the customized data back on a DVD. Quick easy and efficient. My DVD recorder improves the output quality.

[edDV]

...

In traditional terms, DV tape is an archival medium and DVD is a distibution medium.

However, with DVD blanks and HD prices so low, tapes can get expensive.

Instead of a SATA drive, perhaps try a couple of FW drives set up as RAID with Disk Utility.

DV tape is only $2 to $3 if you buy in bulk.

Hard drives fail and you loose a lot in one failure. Always back up hard disks to other media.

Why a RAID? RAID 0 adds risk of one disk failure taking out two. RAID one may work but why bother?

[edDV]

Dump the VHS tapes on a good dvd recorder. Now, they are on DVD(+/-RW). You can rip and convert to mpg files, edit with a good editor - VideoRedo and burn the customized data back on a DVD. Quick easy and efficient. My DVD recorder improves the output quality.

That is a way for quick and dirty but unlike DV format, MPeg2 has no path to the original frames for future encoders to exploit. Missing frames need to be estimated.*

DV compresses only within a frame. For long term archive, DV format makes more sense.


* This is especially true for shaky camcorder video where motion estimation is poor.

[slacker]

Until flash memory comes down in price and some file system issues are addressed, DV tape remains your best archive medium if long term reliability is the name of the game.

Your average hard drive carries ONLY a 1 year warranty, with your BEST drives carrying a 5 year warranty. There is a reason! Every drive I have ever owned 'bit the dust' within 2 years. If you simply MUST go the drive route, use a single RAID 1 capable drive, or purchase two hard drives and use one as a backup.

Another issue is $$$. Typical drives cost about $0.50-$1.00 per GB. DV tape costs about $0.25 per GB.

DVDs are cheap, BUT...

[mairambija]

visit SPAM and transfer your home video tapes to dvd. You can get a pretty good conversion at a reasonable price from a lot of places. But what are most of these companies lacking? Care and attention to detail! Other ways you get totally amateurish product done with domestic equipment.