[MacDV] Re: archiving footage on DVD

[Randy Wilson]

I agree with E.  miniDV isn't a bad way to go.  Yes, because it is tape,
it, too can degrade.  My impression is that analog degrades in a way
that is "100%, 99.8%, 99.2%, 98.7%, 97%..." while miniDV would degrade
as "100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 97%...", i.e., analog will continuously
(though perhaps imperceptibly) degrade over time, but digital will
remain pure as long as the correct numbers can be deciphered correctly
(even if they're "fuzzier numbers").  Once there start to be actual
errors, though, what you'll probably see is things like weird blocks,
part of the frame freezing while other stuff sort of moves, etc., rather
than the general graininess and wiggliness of analog video.

MiniDV does do compression on the video, but it's still probably worth
doing.  DVD does additional (and different) compression, so I wouldn't
recommend that as an "archival" method for footage you plan on editing
later.  Too much compression/decompression which could result in the
loss of quality you're trying to avoid.

Keep in mind that at $3/tape, the 100 hours is going to run you $300 or
so.  If you do it, you'd probably be wise to store one of the two copies
(i.e., original or miniDV) at a relative's house in case there's a fire
or flood.  

One other thing to keep in mind: Does anyone really want to see all 100
hours of your video? I've probably got 40 hours or so of miniDV, and no,
I haven't started chucking any of it, either.  But one huge advantage to
editing the video is that you can get rid of the stuff that is
boring/lame/poorly-shot/repetitive (e.g.,
same-shot-of-Lake-Tahoe-as-last-year or
too-much-footage-of-Grand-Canyon), as well as add titles to identify
what, when and where everthing is.  Of course, doing all the fancy stuff
and adding music, etc., starts to take forever, but some basic editing
early on might cut your costs by reducing the number of tapes you need
to store.

I'm saying this because of the overwhelming pile of movies and videos I
know my Dad has that I'll probably have to wade through someday. :) I've
also been watching 8mm movies from my Grandpa's collection, and while
there are some precious moments in there (I saw my first steps, for
example), there is a lot of stuff that gets old.  It's hard to decide
what not to keep, though, when you don't know what you'll be using for
someday.  For example, while it might seem that one shot of each of the
grandkids on a particular Easter is plenty, you might actually want ALL
of the shots of one particular grandkid if you end up putting together a
video specifically about her to give as a wedding present.

Well, that's my 14 cents worth.

--Randy Wilson

>>> erica at mindspring.com 01/08/03 12:08PM >>>
>I'd love some advice!
>
>I have a hundred-plus hours of Hi-8 family movie footage, dating back
ten
>years, and lately I've been worried about it degrading away on the
shelf.
>I'll want to edit it someday, but realistically, I won't have the time
for
>at least a few years - - so I want to store it, digitally, so that
when I
>finally do get around to editing it, it won't be all washed out, etc.
>
>What's the best way of storing it?  Should I buy a mini-DV camera
(I've been
>wanting to get one anyway), and dump everything onto mini-DV tapes? 
Then
>it's digital, right? Which means it won't degrade anymore?  (or
because it's
>still tape, maybe it will?)


For now, I'm very pro-miniDV for archival storage. Once it's
in miniDV format, you can keep copying it without losing quality
because of the digital format. DVDs use too much compression
for my taste.

-- E

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