[MacDV] Re: archiving footage on DVD

[Gerhard Kuhn]

I think you misunderstood what he is planning to do on DVD, the way I 
read it he wants to just burn a straight DV file onto the DVD hence 30 
minutes per disk.  The result would be same quality file as on the DV 
tape and he might be able to wait 100 years before he needs to edit it.  
Seriously, I agree that DV tape is the way to go from both a time and 
cost point of view and I think the amount of degregation in the next few 
years would b minimal.

Gerhard
On Wednesday, January 8, 2003, at 02:23  PM, Randy Wilson wrote:

> 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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Gerhard Kuhn
suspice at hay.net