I have a bunch of old video tapes which I need to convert to digital format for long term archiving - does anyone know best format for me to keep them in? Seems like DVDs burned from iDVD get scratched pretty easily so probably not the best. Is it best to just convert with digital pass through and then export as quicktime file? Maybe store in iTunes? Thanks for any advice.
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Backing up old videos
- Thread starter ibrainch
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Do you have a MiniDV camera? If not, can you borrow one from a friend? Recording onto MiniDV tape would be a simple, effective, and inexpensive way to go.ibrainch said:
Lethal
storing videos
yeah, i have mini dv with pass through - i really need to know which format quicktime, h264, itunes, is best to store videos without losing any quality.
yeah, i have mini dv with pass through - i really need to know which format quicktime, h264, itunes, is best to store videos without losing any quality.
If your using iMovie than just click "share" export to tape on your miniDV tape. If you really wanna store them on your computer, than i believe H.264 has the best compression/ quality look. Im not positive though. Each codec has its own good and bad points.
Why not just store them on MiniDV tape? If you want to lose the least amount of quality then keep them at DV quality (about 13 gigs per hour). Using MPEG-2 or H.264 compression is just going to degrade the image quality and make things worse if down the line you want to use the footage in iMovie or iDVD?ibrainch said:
Lethal
I agree with keeping the footage on DV.
Just buy a whackload of miniDV tapes, and copy your old tapes (VHS, Hi8 or whatever) onto miniDV by recording using the A/V inputs of your miniDV camcorder. Use the s-video input if the VCR or other tape source supports it. Then label your miniDV tapes and put them in storage somewhere cool and dry.
Later if you need access to the footage, it's all right there in your DV tapes. If you should ever fear tape degradation, you can always make a 100% digital copy from miniDV to SuperDuperHiDefPurpleRayVideo or whatever the new standard is 5-10 years down the line.
DV footage, at the equivalent of 13 gigs per tape (~$5 or so?) still rivals hard drives and DVD-R's for cost effectiveness, and is certainly much more convenient than trying to burn the raw DV footage onto a DVD-R (you'd need about 3 discs per tape).
You could buy a large hard drive and digitize all your tapes onto that, but I would have reservations about how long the drive would last and if it were to fail, you'd lose it all.
Just buy a whackload of miniDV tapes, and copy your old tapes (VHS, Hi8 or whatever) onto miniDV by recording using the A/V inputs of your miniDV camcorder. Use the s-video input if the VCR or other tape source supports it. Then label your miniDV tapes and put them in storage somewhere cool and dry.
Later if you need access to the footage, it's all right there in your DV tapes. If you should ever fear tape degradation, you can always make a 100% digital copy from miniDV to SuperDuperHiDefPurpleRayVideo or whatever the new standard is 5-10 years down the line.
DV footage, at the equivalent of 13 gigs per tape (~$5 or so?) still rivals hard drives and DVD-R's for cost effectiveness, and is certainly much more convenient than trying to burn the raw DV footage onto a DVD-R (you'd need about 3 discs per tape).
You could buy a large hard drive and digitize all your tapes onto that, but I would have reservations about how long the drive would last and if it were to fail, you'd lose it all.
notjustjay said:
Definatley the biggest worry of all. Hard Drives are great but if they crash.. thats it. Kinda like the video game revolution to CD's and DVD's
The cartridges were great, and they didnt scratch and lasted more wear and tear, but CD's were better to hold more game files, and were smaller and thinner, but scratched alot easier runing your $50 dollar game... Video is precious, so keeping it on a DV tape has alot of benifits.
If you are in the business, you could always get a DV recorder. MiniDV as everyone knows are small tapes that store about an hour of video.notjustjay said:
When using a DV tape, you can store up to 6 hours per tape.
For example:
http://www.ggvideo.com/jvc_br-dv3000.htm