Another Mini-DV/VHS Archive Thread - Sorry... Need Settings Help Read more

[jharmon203]

irst, my apologies for creating another thread on this. I did search these forums quite a bit, but I could not find an "updated" thread with regards to current SSD prices and software presets. I searched mini DV, vhs, and other things on this forum, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

I have finally gotten serious about getting all my family VHS tapes and MiniDV tapes on my hard drives. I wanted to create a solution that future proofs the archive with regards to non-deteriorating media format that is also easily accessible. I decided to basically create external hard drives out of the cheapest M.2 SSDs that I can find. WD blue series seems to be a good option. I will give an external SSD to several family members with all the videos sorted in folders and the like. This way they can easily click on whatever video they want to watch and easily sort through content.

I don't like the idea of using DVDs, blue ray, or any type of media that requires careful handling and storage. Disc media scratches and degrades overtime. Non-volatile storage like SSDs carry a bit more of a premium price vs HDD, but not like they used to and they will have a far better life expectancy that an HDD.

Feel free to refute my thoughts or findings.

I used a Canopus 110 to convert the VHS

I used a miniDV camcorder with firewire port to get the miniDV tapes.

Now to my questions:

1) Do you really see any reason not to compress the footage into H.264 format? I have zero plans to make any additional media cuts or anything artsy and I am fairly confident any family member won't really care either. They would rather just have a video clip to click on and enjoy.

2) I have adobe premiere CC 2019. Is this software ok for capture and encoding? Any other recommendations?

3) I was planning on upconverting both VHS and MiniDV to 1080. I have tested this out already and it appears decent enough. (probably some of you are out there cringing already) What presets or settings would you recommend for both vhs and mini for the upconvert on these? Or or what settings in general from adobe would you recommend? Or perhaps even another program.

If you made it to the end and plan to offer advice, congrats and thanks a ton from this newbie!

[aedipuss]

it's your home footage. how you present it is up to you. software vs. hardware(tv) conversion to 1080p has been debated. it leans to hardware being better but if your eyes don't see any difference then convert as you will.

you really don't need premiere to do the encoding. a simple easy to set freeware like vidcoder will do as well. if hard drive space isn't an issue use as high a bitrate or low a constant quality crf as you want and visually the h.264 won't be any different than the source.

[JVRaines]

1) Do you really see any reason not to compress the footage into H.264 format? I have zero plans to make any additional media cuts or anything artsy and I am fairly confident any family member won't really care either. They would rather just have a video clip to click on and enjoy.

Make MP4s for the family and casual viewing and keep the AVIs or MOVs. You said you want to future-proof your archive. How do you know you or someone else won't want to work with the originals some time in the future?

2) I have adobe premiere CC 2019. Is this software ok for capture and encoding? Any other recommendations?

Pretty much state-of-the-art. There are free alternatives but you already have Adobe.

3) I was planning on upconverting both VHS and MiniDV to 1080. I have tested this out already and it appears decent enough. (probably some of you are out there cringing already) What presets or settings would you recommend for both vhs and mini for the upconvert on these? Or or what settings in general from adobe would you recommend? Or perhaps even another program.

Again, you have the latest software with Adobe. If you are happy with the result, go with it. Or you could save storage space and just let the playback and/or display device worry about upscaling. Tomorrow's algorithms may be better than today's.

[Cornucopia]

As you say you already have Premiere, might as well use it. It has a decent DV transfer module.
However, for quality sake, I would strongly recommend you add the Voukoder ffmpeg/h264 encoder plugin (available through this site), as that encoder is tons better than Adobe/Mainconcept stock version.

Scott

[lingyi]

SSDs, flash drives and any RAM based storage isn't archival. When they fail, they fail completely and without warning, unlike HDDs which will give you SMART (use something like CrystaDiskInfo regularly, say once a month) or audible warnings. Also, recovery is very, very difficult and very, very, expensive, if possible at all.

Also, AFAIK, M.2 SSD interfaces are only available on motherboards as it's a faster alternative to SATA. There's no advantage, other than size to use it in a external case. WD Blue are HDD

The long term storage/backup strategy is the same as everyday backup. 3-2-1. Three (3) copies of everything, Two (2) on different media (SSD, HDD, optical disc, cloud, tape, anything else that may come up), One (1) offsite, ideally in a climate controlled, fireproof environment such a safety deposit box.

Also, as stated above, keep the original unedited, ideally uncompressed files. "One man's trash, is another man's treasure". Just because you don't think anyone may have in interest in reediting or restoring the footage, you never know what someone else in the future may want to do.

[lingyi]

SSDs, flash drives and any RAM based storage isn't archival. When they fail, they fail completely and without warning, unlike HDDs which will give you SMART (use something like CrystaDiskInfo regularly, say once a month) or audible warnings. Also, recovery is very, very difficult and very, very, expensive, if possible at all.

Also, AFAIK, M.2 SSD interfaces are only available on motherboards as it's a faster alternative to SATA. There's no advantage, other than size to use it in a external case. WD Blue are HDD

The long term storage/backup strategy is the same as everyday backup. 3-2-1. Three (3) copies of everything, Two (2) on different media (SSD, HDD, optical disc, cloud, tape, anything else that may come up), One (1) offsite, ideally in a climate controlled, fireproof environment such a safety deposit box.

Also, as stated above, keep the original unedited, ideally uncompressed files. "One man's trash, is another man's treasure". Just because you don't think anyone may have in interest in reediting or restoring the footage, you never know what someone else in the future may want to do.

I stand corrected. There are WD Blue SSDs.

[dellsam34]

It depends what is the actual function of the HDD, If it is spinning all the time like those used in NAS or inside a computer chances of failing are high, But if it is an offline HDD that is just plugged in to do the backup or the retrieval of the file I wouldn't worry about those, I have few HDD's dated back to 2006 and they are still working fine, Actually even the ones inside my computers never had one failed on me since my first laptop back in 2004. But failures do happen due to a lot of factors among them heat.