Archiving - and viewing - AVCHD projects

TravelJunkie wrote on 6/17/2011, 2:05 AM

I would appreciate some advice on appropriate final render formats for my VMS 10 Platinum projects.

I am just starting to edit AVCHD video (1080 60i) - after years of DV and HDV - so my former practice of archiving back to tape no longer looks clever.

Now I'm planning to archive the edited footage on usb hard drives, so what format would you recommend for the final render?

I'm also torn between burning Blu-Ray compatible discs or acquiring a WDTV for viewing the finished movies, so advice on this would also be gratefully received.

Thanks in anticipation!

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 6/17/2011, 5:24 AM

Are you archiving them with plans to use the video in future Vegas MS projects? Or are you just saving finished projects for burning to BluRay?

TravelJunkie wrote on 6/17/2011, 10:24 AM

I'm wanting to archive completed projects - after editing!

aquaholik wrote on 6/17/2011, 10:32 AM

If the edited footage is really your final edit then do this:

1. If it is a once in a lifetime event, render it to blue ray format and burn a blue ray disc. This will be your backup in case your hard drive, internal or external ever fail. It will also be easier to duplicate if the inlaws want a copy. This will also leave you with your file in .mts format in case you want to edit any further. I don't know if you can drag and drop .mts file from your blue ray drive to your hard drive but there are plenty of software to get around that if you can't.

2. Get an external HD and render it to 1920x1080 30p in .mp4 format(or 1280x720 30p if space is a problem). Connect external HD to any of the dozens hard disk media players set top TV box(Seagate Freeagent, WDTV, Logitech Revue, Boxee). If you got a Samsung LED TV, it has a built in media player that will handle up to 1920x1080x24Mbps .mp4 without a problem.

The beauty with option 2 is that all you family videos are all in one place in your external hard drive. No need to look for disc when the wife wants to see any family videos, slideshow, etc. Most media players set top box will handle lots of codecs and play 1920x1080 files without a hiccup. They can be had for $50 and it is a bargain considering you need a fairly new laptop to handle HD stuff.

I personally use the Seagate FreeAgent Theather and hard drive to hold all the home videos(HD and SD).

And of course, another external HD as backup for all your home videos.

TravelJunkie wrote on 6/19/2011, 10:01 AM

Thanks for the advice - which is much appreciated!

Would there be any significant loss of quality rendering 60i to 30p ?