[MacDV] Archiving

[Steve Demarest]

Archiving is a great topic.

I do home movies and have been piling on external firewire drives. Only
recently did I get a Superdrive so now here is what I do.

1. Complete an iMovie project
2. empty the iMovie trash
3. Export (share) the iMOvie back to mini-DV tape for preservation as the
'master'
4. create iDVD project with one or more iMovies.
5. Burn DVD's
6. Delete the encoded assets.
7. delete the iDVD project file
8. Delete the iMovie folder

A couple of other thoughts.

I use the DVD cases that allow a picture to be slipped under the clear
plastic cover. With Photoshop, I have a template for the cut line. I often
will take a screen shot (Snapzpro X) of the open iDVD project. Usually that
makes for a great cover. I save the .psd file. In the future if I want to
replicate the DVD, I can use Disk Utility to mirror the disk, and I have
saved the cover for reprinting.

One more thought. If an iMovie project contains a few clips that you expect
to reuse, consider keeping a 'saved clips' iMovie file and use the share
function to export the clip before deleting the iMovie file. Under Share,
select Quicktime and then select full quality DVD.

I am by no means saying my way is the best way. In fact I hope this topic
gives me an even better way as I read the other responses.

Steve

> From: Norm Lamoureux <normdlamoureux at yahoo.com>
> 
>         I'm looking for input on archiving some of my
> projects. I'm trying to free up room on the hard
> drive.  If I stored the projects on DVD  would I be
> able to get them back on the hard drive later if I
> needed to burn a copy? Would Mini DV tape be better
> then upload to harddrive?
>