I want to digitize for safekeeping / standard dvd authoring my analog 8mm video tapes using the pass through capabilities of my Canon HV30.

I have done this , capturing with DVSplit on one tape and created 2.7 gig files of 12+ minutes each. Wow.

I use Super (but also have Sony Vegas 9 I have not played with yet ) and want to convert them to a smaller format but w.o losing much quality. I don't want to lose the footage but if the tapes die (or camorder does).. i'm sunk.

They claim they are now 28.8 mbps bit rate.. 720x480 4/3 aspect ratio files.. at 29.97 fps.

I did a mp3 h.264/AVC / AAC LC conversion on super..selecting 720:480, 3:2 , 29.97, and either 1000 bitrate or 5000 bitrate.. Im not sure I can tell how much data I lost (but the files are 500 megs/ 200megs for these settings ).

I'm just looking for suggestions on best conversion practices for archiving the files and / or turning to a standard dvd.

Thanks