Digital 8 or Hi8 for Archiving?

argray wrote on 5/24/2003, 5:03 PM
Hello, all. I want to archive AVIs when I've finished rendering my files for DVD, Web, etc. As I am essentially looking for a lossless storage, I don't want to save MPEG-2's or WMVs or other lossy formats. I have been using print to tape for these hideously huge :-) files.

My question is this: In seeking as close to "lossless" as possible, is there an advantage to using Digital 8 tape over Hi8? Furthermore, is it better to splurge on metal oxide or other exotic types for this purpose? Am I better burning data DVDs for this purpose? Any and all answers appreciated.

By the way, even if I didn't like VF2 better than it's competitors (and I sure do), access to this forum would make the product stand out. I am amazed by the helpfulness and activity going on here.

-- Andrew

Comments

DaveCT wrote on 5/24/2003, 5:19 PM
Andrew,
For archiving purposes I would definitely use a digital medium! My guess is that DVD's would last longer than any tape format so saving your AVI files to data DVD may be the way to go. Otherwise you could go with the Digital 8. I'm not sure what tapes are available for Digital 8 (I use mini DV) but I would get the best possible tape for archiving. I wouldn't bother with Hi8. That will just degrade the video further by converting it back to analog.

-Dave
Former user wrote on 5/24/2003, 5:30 PM
Just my opinion, but I would archive to tape before DVD's. Right now there are not any dependable sources about the life expectancy of a DVD. Tape's will last several years, and if it is digital, will suffer minor, if any, degradation.

Some of my CD-R's have already begun to self destruct, so I don't know about recordable DVD'syet.

Dave T2
JohnnyRoy wrote on 5/24/2003, 8:09 PM
I archive my important masters back to miniDV tape. If your digital tape format is Digital8, then I would archive to that. They should last long enough for mass optical storage to get very cheap in the next few years and then you can always do a digital transfer to some other digital storage medium five years from now. Right now DVD’s can only hold about 18 minutes of DV quality AVI files so it’s not quite big enough to store a 30-minute project on one disk. That’s the great thing about storing them digitally on miniDV or Digital8. Your copies in the future will be lossless.

I would stay away from Hi8 as converting back to analog will loose quality and then copying back to another format in a few more years from analog (because analog tape only has a 10 year expectancy) will lose even more quality.

~jr
pete_h wrote on 5/28/2003, 4:39 PM
My camera is a Digital8 Sony 350 and Best Buy sold me blank tapes that say DV/Hi8. Apparently these tapes do both recording formats ..... ????

Is there a difference between "DV" tapes vs "DV/Hi8" ?

I bought this camera because it was "back-ward" compatable with my old 8mm analog tapes.

I too am concerned about how to archieve my newly created DV-AVI's of my old analog movies.

Klavisha wrote on 5/30/2003, 8:30 PM
My understanding is that Hi8 and 'Hi8/Digital8' tape is the same animal. They are labeled this way so consumers will know they can be used with both camcorder formats. Digital8 camcorders record digitally on the same tape that Hi8 camcorders use, though you will only get 60 minutes on the tape from a Digital8 camcorder vice 2 hours if recorded from a Hi8 camcorder. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.