MiniDV Storage Suggestions

[Garet Jax]

Hello all,

I am a relative newbie to miniDV technology. I am looking for ways to store the data from the miniDV tape. I am currently downloading the contents into one or more AVI files and then encoding those into MPEG-2 format.

What do people here currently do to store their miniDV data?
Do they keep the contents on the tapes (meaning they never overwrite tapes) and keep buying new ones?
Do they keep the AVI files (requiring large amounts of HD space) since 60 minutes of miniDV data is around 12GB? Can I restore the AVI onto a miniDV tape if I store it on a HD?
Do they keep the MPEG-2 files (requiring less HD space than the AVIs, but not keeping the original)?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Garet Jax]

No one any ideas or thoughts? Hard to believe....

 

[Ipno]

I don't have any experience with miniDV but I store lots of video by encoding it to DivX and then writing it on a CD. DivX has pretty good quality with a low footprint.

However of course that causes you to have a less than perfect quality, but if you're looking for that you'll probably store it on a miniDV tape anyway, at around $5 per tape thats a lot cheaper than eating 12 gb of hard disk.

Well, technically not a LOT cheaper since 12 gb of hard disk is only about $10 these days. hehe

 

[LethalWolfe]

I just buy new MiniDV tapes. By encoding them into MPEG-2/DVD format you are compressing them by about a factor of 4 and that is too much quality loss IMO (it's fine for delivery of a finished product, but horrible as a back-up or master copy). I'd trust my master/original video on a well kept videcassette over an HDD any day.

As long as you don't convert/compress the footage you can dump it back to tape at anytime w/o quality loss (assuming you are xfering via Firewire).

Lethal

 

[Garet Jax]

Thanks for the responses. Are miniDV tapes that cheap? Where do you guys buy them?

 

[VTrider]

I've been editing my MiniDV video and storing them as AVIs on my HD. I've also been keeping the original video on tape. I get my tapes over at Costco, you can get a 6-pack for about $28.00 (after tax). I will be getting a DVD-burner soon and will probably backup the video onto that, seems a little safer than hard drive? Either way, I'd rather buy new tapes and/or hard drive spaces rather than compress anything.

-VTrider

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: VTrider
I've been editing my MiniDV video and storing them as AVIs on my HD. I've also been keeping the original video on tape. I get my tapes over at Costco, you can get a 6-pack for about $28.00 (after tax). I will be getting a DVD-burner soon and will probably backup the video onto that, seems a little safer than hard drive? Either way, I'd rather buy new tapes and/or hard drive spaces rather than compress anything.

-VTrider

Don't forget that unless you compress the video you'll only be able to get about 20-25 minutes of DV video onto a DVD. IMO the safest way to back-up a DV tape is onto another DV tape.


Lethal

 

[Pauli]

Yep, just eat the $5 for each tape and always use new tapes. It's just easier that way.