[MacDV] Re: archiving footage on DVD

[Erica Sadun]

At 8:57 AM -0700 7/27/04, Jim Heid wrote:
>  > Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 13:43:11 -0500
>>  Subject: archiving footage on DVD
>>  From: Malcolm Hamilton <malcolm_hamilton at cbc.ca>
>>  Message-ID: <BA41DB6E.1CA7%malcolm_hamilton at cbc.ca>
>>
>>  Hello!
>>
>>  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?
>
>I wrote a feature on this very subject for Macworld's June issue.
>
>http://www.macworld.com/2004/05/features/fromvhstodvd/
>

I respectfully disagree with Jim's recommendation, particularly if
you're looking to edit it at a future date. I think you'll do far
better to transfer to miniDV tapes (or similar) in DV-25 format
than to DVD with its highly compressed (and nearly uneditable)
MPEG-2 format. Keep in mind, the current generation of recordable
DVDs have a high failure rate. Going to miniDV puts you in
a digital format, which helps reduce or eliminate the generation
effect, uses tape, which is a very stable storage type (even if
the shelf life is limited) and uses a popular codec, suitable
for later edits.

-- Erica