With AI restoration on the horizon how much should I compress an avi file?

[Bluelude1]

I have many video files from VHS to Digital conversions I did years ago with seriously large file sizes (1.2GB ~2min). I understand the value of having raw data to work with for any restoration work I would want to do on the videos down the road, but I am wondering how much of this file size is valuable information and how much is inefficient conversion.

In scenarios like this is there a modern format I can convert this media to with minimal downside for future restoration or am I stuck with these massive files for source media?

[Swedaniel]

I have many video files from VHS to Digital conversions I did years ago with seriously large file sizes (1.2GB ~2min). I understand the value of having raw data to work with for any restoration work I would want to do on the videos down the road, but I am wondering how much of this file size is valuable information and how much is inefficient conversion.

In scenarios like this is there a modern format I can convert this media to with minimal downside for future restoration or am I stuck with these massive files for source media?

Have you tested to add the video to an zip or rar package? I've got one AVI video which is 162MB with some sort of lossless capture codec, after compressing it into an Rar package it is now 500KB! Not all videos give this super effect tough, could be worth an try! PeaZip is free open source software (FOSS) and can create many compression packages including Zip, Rar and 7z (7-Zip). Atleast this would help solve the storage problem for you, it seem to me atleast real important to try keep the original file for the future! (Using such an program will when unpacking it give back the exact same file without any losses or changes). Concider using Zip rather for compability with built in support to unpack the Zip files using built in functions within Windows, ellse the Rar packages seeem to give better result compared to Zip! You can get an free trial program allso for WinZip and WinRar aswell!

Edit: Ive got for example an ISO DVD that is 4,88GB filled with videos, after compressing the DVD ISO into an Rar package using WinRar Trial (which never seem to expire) it is now 1,83GB!

[rgr]

I have many video files from VHS to Digital conversions I did years ago with seriously large file sizes (1.2GB ~2min). I understand the value of having raw data to work with for any restoration work I would want to do on the videos down the road, but I am wondering how much of this file size is valuable information and how much is inefficient conversion.

In scenarios like this is there a modern format I can convert this media to with minimal downside for future restoration or am I stuck with these massive files for source media?

[ deleted ]

It probably won't compress much, but what is the format of your files?
You can compress this to lossless H264/H265.
Or low lossy ProRes (which is basically what it is intended for).