Raw capture/archive to hard disk

[gctaylor1]

Hi,

I have about 30 8mm home video tapes that I'm in the process of transferring to
DVD, but I also want to copy the material off of tape to another long term
medium, like a hard drive. My goal for archiving is to have the material on
another form of media for backup and also so that I can move them to another
format when DVD becomes extinct. From what I've read, since I have a PVR-350,
the best option to do this is to capture the raw material straight off of the
card at the highest bitrate I can, correct?

I haven't decided what OS to use but I'm leaning toward Linux for a couple of
reasons.
A) I know I can capture straight from the device into a file. I'm unsure what a Windows capture software would do to the file. If I've interpreted the
output of this type of capture under Linux, when I've done it in the past, I'll get an mpg2
video with mpg2 audio, which should be okay, right?

B) I perceive that I have more options with the filesystem that the material is
archived on. In other words if I use Windows and NTFS now, and try to access
the drive xx years from now, MS may or may not support that version of NTFS
that I've used, whereas it seems like Linux supports the various filesystem
formats longer. In other words if I tried to plug in a FAT16 drive right now
to a Windows 2003 system I'm not sure it would be able to read it. Maybe it would but
the risk seems lower with Linux. My thought is to use a USB HDD enclosure.

FWIW- my logic for this method is that my camcorder is failing, I don't trust
I'll be able to find a replacement camcorder reasonably priced. I've been
burned too many times by ebay and my local pawn shops want several hundred
dollars for old stuff with no guarantee of usability or reliability.

Does this all seem make to sense or is there a generally better idea?

[dadrab]

Let me begin by saying that what I know about Linux would almost fill a thimble. That said, I believe I'd take a different tact.

Regardless of operating systems, I'm striving to get all my tapes to DVD. Once a replacement comes out and is widely accepted, there will be more programs to transfer DVD to whatever than you can shake a stick at. Just look at how many options there are to get tape to DVD. It'll take a little time, but the wise will get there.

FWIW- my logic for this method is that my camcorder is failing, I don't trust
I'll be able to find a replacement camcorder reasonably priced. I've been
burned too many times by ebay and my local pawn shops want several hundred
dollars for old stuff with no guarantee of usability or reliability.

What kind of camcorder are you looking for? You can buy new DV camcorders - fairly good ones - for less than $300 all day at many places now.

I'm not saying that archiving on a huge harddrive is a bad thing, but what happens if that drive goes South? At least with DVDs you'll have something to work from.

...just food for thought...

[gctaylor1]

Thanks for your reply.

What kind of camcorder are you looking for? You can buy new DV camcorders - fairly good ones - for less than $300 all day at many places now.

Something to replace my 8mm Canon E700 purchased around 1994 so I can play my 8mm tapes.

I'm not saying that archiving on a huge harddrive is a bad thing, but what happens if that drive goes South? At least with DVDs you'll have something to work from.

Right now my point of failure is the camcorder and the tapes. I was thinking I should get the material off of the tapes and onto another medium in as close to the original quality as possible. Then when the next widely accepted format is firmly entrenched I could convert to it and not have to worry about what condition the camcorder or tapes are in. I could just use the hard drive.