Best process for storage - need suggestions

ChristerTX wrote on 10/12/2004, 11:04 AM

Any thougts on this subject?

Ok,
My hard disk is getting full with various captured files for my projects.
What would be the best way of saving a project?

- Saving the tape with the original capture?
- Saving the Vegas project file, should I ever need it?
- Saving the final product (MPEG2 or AVI)?
- Save on Tape or DVD? What is the best economy?

I have not decided if it is a good idea to save the captured clips. I guess if I ever wanted to go back and re-edit the whole movie, that might be good.
(This is just home movies, not Oscar material) If not, I could simply delete these hard disk hogs, and then I would not need the project file either ...

I guess saving in AVI is better than MPEG2 as I would be more flexible with the AVI file for rendering in future formats and for other uses.

Comments

gogiants wrote on 10/12/2004, 10:26 PM

Dollar for dollar, your best way of saving stuff will be on mini-DV tapes. It's cheaper than hard disk, and in a pinch you can always capture it onto your machine if you are really, really wanting to re-edit.

DVD might qualify under the "cheap" rule, if you're willing to ignore the cost of a DVD burner drive. Also, if you need to recapture, then you're stuck with MPEG-2 files, which are no good to re-edit.

But, really nothing will be practical for saving all of your captured clips. Might want to just make sure you properly backup your precious finished projects. Probably better to ditch the captured clips and move bravely on to the next project!

That said, I do like to keep around my .vf project files. No good for redoing the whole project, but they are good if you can't remember how you did some cool effect or transition or yadda yadda yadda in some past project.

hbwerner wrote on 10/13/2004, 5:08 AM

Hey there, Gogiants, can you open a VF file if you deleted all the clip files that went into it? Like Christer TX I'm looking into freeing hard disk space and archiving home movie files that I might later need for rendering, or for making changes when my wife later says "that title wording is wrong" or "why did you include that - nobody wants to see that".

IanG wrote on 10/13/2004, 2:37 PM

You can, and VF handles it very well by asking where the clips are. If they can't be recovered you've got problems though! But no matter, terrabyte cards will be technicaly possible in a couple of years - that should make life interesting!

Ian G.

ChristerTX wrote on 10/13/2004, 4:20 PM

Thanks for the comments on this subject.

I think that I'm leaning towards creating an MPEG2 file and a .AVI file of each final project.
The MPEG2 file is small enough to fit on a CD. Keeping this would save time when I need to create a new DVD.

The AVI file could be saved back to tape or on a DVD.

For especially precious footage, I would keep the tape with the original footage as well, and DELETE the captured files on the hard drive.

The Project File is small enough to keep on the disc, and in a pinch, I could re-capture the footage from the tape and then re-associate them with the project file.