Best way to organize video files?

[soccrfn]

Not sure how to ask this.

 

I am creating videowave files of my family and creating dvds using DVD builder. I want to save for tehfutur, just like the old Super 8 movies.

 

My question is, since video take so much hard space, and I am now almost at 90% of my hardrive space, what is the best way to keep a copy of the dvd you made, with the assumption that in 10 years, new technology will have arrived and you MAY NOT be able to convert the dvds you made?

 

Has anyone else thought about this?

 

Should I save all the orginal avi's separately, or is there a way to save the original files on the DVD you created also?

 

I'd rather not just add a new hard drive (in case it died) but would rather store files. Any suggestions.

[bimicher]

I think we're all at risk in this category..... remember the 8 inch floppies, I mean 5 1/4 inch, no... the 3.5 inch... the format and media just keep changing. Actually, it's my opinion that the stability and lifetime of the data on our burned DVD's is the most critical near term issue.

 

My personal procedure is to save the video tapes and to burn a copy of the captured mpg file onto a DVD as a data disk. There just isn't any room left on my movie DVDs for another 4 gig file. One of the reasons I don't capture my home video as an avi file is that it won't fit on a single data DVD disk. I also save all the Videowave project files in the hope that if I lose or destroy a DVD, I'll be able to continue to use EMC 7 in the future to fairly easily reconstruct the DVD (this may be a futile hope since it isn't maintained). I have a (also futile) hope that future versions of EMC might be able to use the project files as well. And finally, I create several copies of each DVD production and distribute to family members.

 

I have, in fact, gone back to the mpg files on data DVD's and created new Videowave productions with a different topical focus. On one occasion I went to retrieve a file from a Memorex DVD (with a purple colored backing) and found it quite difficult to get the file. I was stunned and found 2 more disks (with the purpe backing) that gave me difficulty. I was eventually able to get the files to my hard drive and backed them up on Sony Accucore DVD's. The point is this.... nearly all media are volatile.... even tape backup on main frame computers become unstable after 5 years, which I discovered by experience at my job many years ago. DVD's seem to be much more stable, but I suspect that only the higher quality DVD's are stable for many years.

 

Of course, I must qualify this response as simply my experience and opinion. I'm sure one of the guru's here will explain that this response is not exactly correct.... but oh well, perhaps this discussion might have a sand grain of usefulness to you.

 

To go with some of the other recommendtions..

 

I would suggest capturing to avi files in smaller segments, about 10-15 minutes at most. You can then burn those avi files to DVDs as datafiles and not worry about any 4GB linit. Smaller files also are easier to edit in Videowave.

If you are capturing from DV camcorder tape, a small free utility called WinDV is very handy. It captures to individual avi files based on the timestamp on the tape

[gdanski]

I think we're all at risk in this category..... remember the 8 inch floppies, I mean 5 1/4 inch, no... the 3.5 inch... the format and media just keep changing. Actually, it's my opinion that the stability and lifetime of the data on our burned DVD's is the most critical near term issue.

 

My personal procedure is to save the video tapes and to burn a copy of the captured mpg file onto a DVD as a data disk. There just isn't any room left on my movie DVDs for another 4 gig file. One of the reasons I don't capture my home video as an avi file is that it won't fit on a single data DVD disk. I also save all the Videowave project files in the hope that if I lose or destroy a DVD, I'll be able to continue to use EMC 7 in the future to fairly easily reconstruct the DVD (this may be a futile hope since it isn't maintained). I have a (also futile) hope that future versions of EMC might be able to use the project files as well. And finally, I create several copies of each DVD production and distribute to family members.

 

I have, in fact, gone back to the mpg files on data DVD's and created new Videowave productions with a different topical focus. On one occasion I went to retrieve a file from a Memorex DVD (with a purple colored backing) and found it quite difficult to get the file. I was stunned and found 2 more disks (with the purpe backing) that gave me difficulty. I was eventually able to get the files to my hard drive and backed them up on Sony Accucore DVD's. The point is this.... nearly all media are volatile.... even tape backup on main frame computers become unstable after 5 years, which I discovered by experience at my job many years ago. DVD's seem to be much more stable, but I suspect that only the higher quality DVD's are stable for many years.

 

Of course, I must qualify this response as simply my experience and opinion. I'm sure one of the guru's here will explain that this response is not exactly correct.... but oh well, perhaps this discussion might have a sand grain of usefulness to you.

[gi7omy]

If you capture the movies as DivX avi, a 'standard' Hollywood size will fit into about 600 - 700 MB. It's when they get rendered to the vob format for DVD players that they shoot up to over 4 GB. For avi files, the measurement is in file size - for rendered ones it's the duration.

 

So - basically, you can save a lot of your movies on DVD if you use the DivX compression codecs (and some of the better quality DVD players CAN play back DivX files)

[Guest ml]

Has anyone else thought about this?

Should I save all the orginal avi's separately, or is there a way to save the original files on the DVD you created also?

 

Yes, we've thought about this, and it's a matter of cost and time. You've got choices and there's no 'best' way. The suggestions so far have been very good, but here are some more.

 

First, I'd prioritize those memories and pick the ones that you consider the most precious. Those are the ones that you want to back up in more than one way.

 

Then make more than one copy of all the DVDs and store one offsite. And making Data DVDs with mpeg2 or divx files are good too.

 

Also, external hard drives (or an internal hard drive in an external case) works for storing another copy of the DVD on a hard drive.

 

If you are using VideoWave and have a DV Camcorder, I'd do a File\ Output production as..... for DV Camcorder and store it back on a new tape. That's the most efficient way of saving it as DV AVI. ( Yes, the tape might fade over time, but the DVD might fade too.) Keep the camcorder and the A/C adapter and you'll be able to import them in the future if standards change.

 

If you're storing photos, I'd suggest putting the original quality photos on data DVDs and consider some type of online storage.

 

Most importantly, don't put those tapes and DVDs in the closet for 10 years and forget about them. Every couple of years, check to make certain that you've got equipment that will play them and that they are playable. If one method fails, you can still recover from the second way.

 

Questions?