vicmilt wrote:
<<Six months from now - or six years from now, if the client calls for revisions - it's all there. And exactly where I left everything, as well.>>

I agree with the use of hard drives.....
but I wonder how we'll be capturing/editing/archiving six years from now.
Maybe we'll all have a collection of the swiss army knife/USB Flash systems.
(You'll have to find Spot's thread regarding that piece of gear).

John

Swapping out all those DVDs doesn't sound like much fun.
1 DVD = 4.7 GB = approx. 24 minutes of DV video
1 mini-DV tape = approx. 12.5 GB = 1 hour of DV video

Maybe when dual-layer 8.7 GB DVDs are standard and cheap....

I'm with you, Brian. The DVD option, in my mind, is not an option. I especially like Victor's suggestion. I'm not worried about anything lasting "forever". I'm just talking a year or two, maybe three. After three years, things have changed so much, most projects would have to be totally redone, depending on the nature of the project, of course.

Thanks to everyone for your suggetions!

Jay

Jay -
Unfortunately you are too right -
stuff that I did in the late 90's won't even play on todays computers.

The good news about my dedicated HD solutions is that at least you'll have all of your source materials in one place. If they change the storage solutions (and they will) - well hopefully you'll be able to port your stuff over, in time.

Right now, we're beginning to FILM (well, video) all of our older interactive projects to show how they worked. We can't run them (I'm crying now) on the latest technology. And I'm only talking 5 years old!

I've got hundreds of hours of stuff on 1" type C and it's getting harder by the minute to find houses that can even play that stuff - and it's expensive - and who KNOWS what the future medium will be? It's a dilemma for any artist who wants to accumulate a "life work" collection, believe me.

Jay, I store with the raw footage, all programs, scripts, batch files and system batches that were used for that project.

Software and hardware are always changing, having the revision level can be a real problem.

A few years ago, a lighting hit destroyed over 300ft of 5- t1 Ma Bell, short circuited the back-up power units, destroyed the PBX, my three seperate computer networks, our large displays cracked but survived,( power units for displays were weaken). Ma Bell took close to three weeks on repairs, IBM was good, but DELL was poor. Fortunely, we had a large suppy of spares, so DELL is no more a supplier for us. Restoration was a battle, like Murphy law, we had a few requests on past work, having all critical lib and software permitted a timely response.

I just keep buying Maxtor one touch USB externals and also keep the source tapes and a disc with the veg files in a fireproof box. If the project must be re-edited i just transfer the stuff back to the Medea RAID. Cheap, esy and reliable. Life got a lot easier once we switched to DVCAM 184 minute tapes -- less cassettes to keep track of.

Peter

Victor, AJ, and Peter. . . each of you brought up some very interesting and valid points--gave me even more to think about. I'm trying not to "rush" into this in an effort to maximize the effectiveness.

Now, this whole matter is made more pressing because I just got a job shooting 240 hours of video and transferring it, with chapters, to DVD! Nothing artsy, just straight forward documentation for the client. Therefore, I have to make certain I can not only keep all 14,400(!) minutes in some logical order, but I have to make sure that it will be readily available over the next "several years!" Now the real kicker is that this will done over the next 20 months! Not long to you and me, but think of how much change has taken place over the last 20 months with digital video technology. Yeah, in some ways a lot and in some ways not so much. For example. . .

Right now, dual-layer DVD is not an option. But on the other end of this 20 months, dual-layer may be the answer! I guess this is not a big issue.

The real issue that really keeps me guessing is the storing and cataloging of this stuff. Would that I could be as well organized as Victor! ;o)

Jay

Jay I think SonicDVD Has a Dual Layer Option !

Making a dual layer DVD-Video would be of zero use.
Here's my suggestion. Get removable drive caddies, they're incredibly cheap.
As soon as possible after each shoot, capturing to said hard rive(s), into a folder with the same name as the tape, with win2k/XP you can add some more info to the file names as well. Send the original tapes somewher elese for storage, maybe a safe deposit box, I doubt a fireproof safe would be good enough to protect DV tapes in a fire, documents might be fine but not tapes. Anyway having them in a different place is the best insurance.
As you edit each program copy the projects back to the removable drive that it goes with. If you find you have a project that spans two drives copy the source onto both.
You say the editing is fairly straighforward so the most valuable thing is the source material, unlike a lot of stuff you probably cannot reshoot it so focus on keeping that safe first.

DVDs are a good backup option, no reason you cannot start with single layer and move to dual later, just don't save a mpg, get everything as original avi. The only issue I have with DVDs is they're slower and more expensive than hard drives per GByte.

Jay.
240 hours... Farss' suggestion is a good one. I would capture directly to HD realtime, using the tape as a backup. Multi camera shoots can be done the same, time is money. Storage in a fireproof filing cabinet can offer some security for a starting budget.

AJP

Gotta make sure you don't rely solely on DVD, b/c they rot too, esp. the cheapo type.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C1759%2C1590561%2C00.asp

Gotta make sure you don't rely solely on DVD, b/c they rot too, esp. the cheapo type.

". . . it turned out that most reported incidents had actually been caused by improper disc handling and storage."

We always include a brief but comprehensive explanation of "proper handling and storage" of DVDs to our clients.

Jay

Sorry, guys, what I was driving at was with all the talk about dual-layer DVDs, because of serious compatability issues, they aren't even an option for delivery of the video to the client. But maybe after nearly two years, it won't be the issue it is today.

Had a meeting today with the client. Based on how they want it delivered (on an ongoing basis over 20 months), it will be constant a shoot, edit, deliver situation. At this point, I'm probably going to go with Victor's suggestion. It seems to fit my "style" more.

Jay

I use the print to tape option and store my projects under 80 min on digital video cassettes. I don't trust hard drives after one went out on me and I lost A LOT of info.