Archive family movies

safetyfast · 31st July 2005, 23:38

I'm in the process of copying my family movies which are on Mini DV tapes. I am using Pinnacle Studio 8 to capture, and the resulting files are on average 13 gig avi files. I'm then burning to DVD, but would like to keep a backup on my harddrive, but at that size, it won't take long to fill my hard drive up. What would be the best way to save the files in case I need to burn another copy of the DVD in the future (like if the DVD is destoyed). Obviously I can keep the DV as a backup, but if my video camera dies in the future, the tape will be useless.

ammck55 · 1st August 2005, 00:07

There are several options you could choose from, but one of the easiest ones would be to burn multiple backups and store them properly. You know, keep them in a hard case, and store them upright in a cool, dry place.

You might also look into buying the largest, cheapest hard drives you can find and archive that way. You could also save copies of your project files, but to take advantage of this method, you'd still need access to the source. All a project file does is build pointers to where and what to do with the source. That's why they're so small.

Maybe there's no "best" method for you; possibly a combination of several methods might suit your needs. I haven't read a definitive article on "disc rot", but if you use high quality media and take good care of it, your discs should last way out into the future.

ammck55

CWR03 · 1st August 2005, 04:33

I agree; you could also use WinRAR to part the 13GB files to a size you can back up to DVD-ROM, perhaps make a couple backups of that too, each stored in a different location. Blank DVD media is cheap; hard drives are not, and they're much less stable.

HappyCamper · 1st August 2005, 06:44

I usually do a lot of editing of my home movies before I author them as DVD's. But before I edit them I usually encode the unedited movies as I-frame only mpeg2 program streams and burn them to high quality DVD-R's. I keep one of these at home and store another in a safe deposit box at my bank. This might seem a little extreme, but after a friend of mine lost his entire home movie collection in a fire, I decided to store these backups in a location other than my house. I had the safe deposit box for other things, so it seemed like a logical choice for me. All the insurance in the world can't replace the movies of my kids growing up.

I know there's probably someone out there that's going to say that DVD-R is not a good archival format, but the way I look at it is, the DVD format will be obsolete someday before too long...then you transfer them to something new. So it doesn't have to last all that long.

safetyfast · 1st August 2005, 21:46

I was just reading a bit on AutoGK. Would it make sense to use it for archiving the files, so at least I would have a copy on my harddrive?

CWR03 · 2nd August 2005, 07:33

Depends on the quality you expect - AutoGK and the codecs it uses are very lossy, meaning you can't maintain the original quality, plus it will lose even more quality if you ever have to burn more copies to DVD. Since you're already converting them to DVD, why not just burn several copies and give them to family members who can both help keep them safe and enjoy them? It makes no sense that you'd be so adamant about keeping a copy on your hard drive, and you won't find a way to do it with any real quality that won't take up a lot of drive space. If you really want to keep the original capture files on a hard drive, maybe go out and buy a USB drive - they're pretty cheap now, and you can unhook it and store it in a closet until you need the data. Just make sure you fire it up every five years or so and run disk check on it, as the magnetic media will degrade over time.

31st July 2005, 23:38	#1 \| Link
safetyfast Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 15	Archive family movies I'm in the process of copying my family movies which are on Mini DV tapes. I am using Pinnacle Studio 8 to capture, and the resulting files are on average 13 gig avi files. I'm then burning to DVD, but would like to keep a backup on my harddrive, but at that size, it won't take long to fill my hard drive up. What would be the best way to save the files in case I need to burn another copy of the DVD in the future (like if the DVD is destoyed). Obviously I can keep the DV as a backup, but if my video camera dies in the future, the tape will be useless. Last edited by safetyfast; 31st July 2005 at 23:56.

1st August 2005, 06:44	#4 \| Link
HappyCamper a.k.a. rubicat Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: USA Posts: 12	I usually do a lot of editing of my home movies before I author them as DVD's. But before I edit them I usually encode the unedited movies as I-frame only mpeg2 program streams and burn them to high quality DVD-R's. I keep one of these at home and store another in a safe deposit box at my bank. This might seem a little extreme, but after a friend of mine lost his entire home movie collection in a fire, I decided to store these backups in a location other than my house. I had the safe deposit box for other things, so it seemed like a logical choice for me. All the insurance in the world can't replace the movies of my kids growing up. I know there's probably someone out there that's going to say that DVD-R is not a good archival format, but the way I look at it is, the DVD format will be obsolete someday before too long...then you transfer them to something new. So it doesn't have to last all that long. Last edited by HappyCamper; 1st August 2005 at 06:49.

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1st August 2005, 00:07	#2 \| Link
ammck55 Moderator Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: U.S. of A. Posts: 1,307	There are several options you could choose from, but one of the easiest ones would be to burn multiple backups and store them properly. You know, keep them in a hard case, and store them upright in a cool, dry place. You might also look into buying the largest, cheapest hard drives you can find and archive that way. You could also save copies of your project files, but to take advantage of this method, you'd still need access to the source. All a project file does is build pointers to where and what to do with the source. That's why they're so small. Maybe there's no "best" method for you; possibly a combination of several methods might suit your needs. I haven't read a definitive article on "disc rot", but if you use high quality media and take good care of it, your discs should last way out into the future. ammck55

1st August 2005, 04:33	#3 \| Link
CWR03 Custom User Title Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3,733	I agree; you could also use WinRAR to part the 13GB files to a size you can back up to DVD-ROM, perhaps make a couple backups of that too, each stored in a different location. Blank DVD media is cheap; hard drives are not, and they're much less stable.

1st August 2005, 21:46	#5 \| Link
safetyfast Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 15	I was just reading a bit on AutoGK. Would it make sense to use it for archiving the files, so at least I would have a copy on my harddrive?

2nd August 2005, 07:33	#6 \| Link
CWR03 Custom User Title Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3,733	Depends on the quality you expect - AutoGK and the codecs it uses are very lossy, meaning you can't maintain the original quality, plus it will lose even more quality if you ever have to burn more copies to DVD. Since you're already converting them to DVD, why not just burn several copies and give them to family members who can both help keep them safe and enjoy them? It makes no sense that you'd be so adamant about keeping a copy on your hard drive, and you won't find a way to do it with any real quality that won't take up a lot of drive space. If you really want to keep the original capture files on a hard drive, maybe go out and buy a USB drive - they're pretty cheap now, and you can unhook it and store it in a closet until you need the data. Just make sure you fire it up every five years or so and run disk check on it, as the magnetic media will degrade over time.