Capture / Burn direct to drive

[Bob08]

I'm borrowing a friend's Sony Digital-8 (510) to capture all my old 8mm camcorder stuff (20 cassettes) to my HD (avi format). I know, this will take up quite a bit of room but I was told it's best to capture to HD given the problems you can have with burning to DVD. This way I can pic-n-choose footage to burn. Also, I believe they will have less chance of loosing footage with the volatility of DVDs. Is there a good free "burn-directly-to-drive" software that I can get my hands on? And does anyone know if this Sony has direct "digital-conversion-pass-through" capability? I'll be getting it in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance.

Bob.

[redwudz]

You need a FireWire card and cable, then just use WinDV for a direct transfer to your hard drive. The camera appears to have passthrough, at least it has AV inputs.

And welcome to our forums.

[Bob08]

I've got firewire since I do this all the time with my trv900. I don't have the camcorder yet and I guess what you're saying is it has a firewire connection. I didn't know that. What is your opinion on the HD vs DVD storage especially when it comes to home archiving?

Thanks for the info and....the welcome.

[redwudz]

Generally, it's best to keep them on tape, but since they're not DV, next best would be DVD data discs. JMO, though.

If I have the right model camcorder, this should be a manual for it: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=DCRTRV510

My 'rule of thumb' is to never put anything on a hard drive that you can't afford to lose.

[Bob08]

Thanks for the info. I also found it on another site:
www.retrevo.com

By-the-way, I always thought that if my HD went belly-up that I'd still be able to retrieve the data. As opposed to DVD and depending on the extent of the damage, it's usually done. Also, doesn't mini-DV tape have a life cycle of about 15 yrs?

In any case, thanks for your help.

[redwudz]

Considering I have perfectly good VHS tapes that are a lot older than 20 years, I wouldn't worry too much. Mainly keep them stored in a cool dry place out of sunlight and they should last long enough.

Depending on how a hard drive dies, it can cost a lot of $$$ to recover the data. DVDs are cheap, but use a good quality, store properly and they should also make it to 20 years.