How to archive your HDV projects???

Jayster wrote on 4/5/2006, 2:14 PM

I know this topic has been discussed before, but I would like a few opinions.

I am doing a project with HDV source, putting lots of effects into the project, and ultimately distributing it in a variety of formats (WMVHD, PAL DVD, PAL VCD, and even NTSC DVD). So I figure I should render it once to intermediate (Cineform), then transcode the intermediate to the distribution formats. This way the actual rendering (processing of effects) is only done once.

That intermediate (the Cineform AVI) seems like a great format to archive the final project's output with, too. But of course the file sizes are not trivial, nor is the hassle of burning bunches of DVDs.

I wonder, is it a good idea to transcode it back to HDV and then "print" the resulting .m2t back to a tape? HDV tapes are easy compared to the hassle of burning multiple DVDs. Cost is probably comparable but the hassle is not. It's probably less error-prone, too (don't have 12 DVDs that could all fail or have burn errors).

How much loss of quality will you get when you transcode the intermediate back to the .m2t (and then back to intermediate if you ever want to use it again)???

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 4/5/2006, 2:25 PM

Use CineForm as your on-line master. and store on an HDD, or print back to tape. I'd print to tape anyway as a means of "analog" storage. You'll lose quality, not a tremendous amount, but you do lose. Which is why the CineForm is the better format for storage, IMO. But it's not gonna fit on DVDs. :-)

Jayster wrote on 4/5/2006, 2:35 PM

Thanks for the reply. If I were storing on DVDs, I'd be using a backup utility (they can span disks easily enough). But this is kind of error-prone (don't misnumber a disc, make sure you don't lose the backup program) and a big hassle swapping discs during the store.

Guess I'll probably just keep piling up hard drives until BD/HD comes out and is affordable.

When you use Vegas to print to tape, isn't it effectively a direct m2t file copy to the tape? Or does it get transcoded back and forth? Or can you print an AVI to tape without having to manually transcode it to m2t first? Sorry, I just haven't ever done this before..

Serena wrote on 4/5/2006, 4:25 PM

Office Works stocks 125 & 250Mb zipdrives, at reasonable prices, which is a technology I thought had gone. Now this is about the right size for archiving projects in Cineform or perhaps even YUV. What are the views on this methodology? Probably most will prefer removable HDs, but Zip tapes are smaller and presumably cheaper (haven't checked).

johnmeyer wrote on 4/5/2006, 5:00 PM

Office Works stocks 125 & 250Mb zipdrives, at reasonable prices, which is a technology I thought had gone. Now this is about the right size for archiving projects in Cineform or perhaps even YUV. What are the views on this methodology?

I think you may have had a temporary brain freeze -- I've done the same thing myself. The zip drives are 250 megabytes, not gigabytes. It would take almost twenty of them to equal the storage on one DVD, which is 4,482 megabytes.

I think when you see "250," you just naturally assume 250 GBytes. Shows how far things have come in a short amount of time.

Serena wrote on 4/5/2006, 5:41 PM

Yes, you might well be correct! Thought it was a lot more than I expected. And I note by my post that my subconscious had it right --- Mb!