What is the best way to Archive original footage?

rrogan wrote on 2/12/2004, 6:37 AM
I am currently in the process of converting all my analog and DV home videos to dvd. I would like to save the original footage on dvd for future editing.Say 20 years down the road I will probally want to create a timeline for each of my kids. Does anyone have a recommendation as to what format I should save it as? AVI or Mpeg2? I think I've read somewhere in this forum that the mainconcept mpeg2 is pretty good?

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 2/12/2004, 6:46 AM
On a hard drive is still the cheapest gig for gig. AVI is best if you want to edit, as it's not been compressed too far to maintain quality. You'll be recompressing already-compressed footage. For kids- video, you probably won't mind the quality loss though. Use Main Concept at a bitrate of 9000, in a few years we'll see systems that can play this back. Moreover, you can always copy to a hard drive from the DVD for editing.
Randy Brown wrote on 2/12/2004, 6:53 AM
>>Moreover, you can always copy to a hard drive from the DVD for editing.<<
Hey Spot, I've never tried this, would you say there is no obvious difference from the original (DVD) when doing this?
TIA,
Randy
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/12/2004, 7:00 AM
Copying from the archive DVD to hard drive? No, there is no quality loss, it's a digital transfer. But when you EDIT there will be quality loss, as it will be recompressed. By then, we'll see improvements in editing of MPEG though, no doubt about that. I suspect that soon you'll see MPEG become a whole beast of it's own. The JVC cam has already gone there....
Randy Brown wrote on 2/12/2004, 7:09 AM
Let me elaborate, I have a DVD that I made for a client, now they want several VHS tapes also (copies of the same material, no editing needed). Is the best way to do this to simply capture the DVD, place it on the timeline and then PTT that?
Thanks again,
Randy
reamenterprises wrote on 2/12/2004, 7:15 AM
Randy,

I have also had to produce productions on VHS for my clients. What I have done is created a *AVI file for the production. Used that file for the transfer to tape.

Chad
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/12/2004, 7:34 AM
You will suffer a fairly significant loss by recompressing MPEG back to AVI from a DVD. Editing or not, transcoding always results in quality loss. the picture will be much softer on the VHS from the DVD, and you'll be rendering the entire project.
It's all relative though, you might be fine with the loss of quality, so might your client be. Most folks wouldn't be happy with the loss.
Randy Brown wrote on 2/12/2004, 8:02 AM
>>What I have done is created a *AVI file for the production. Used that file for the transfer to tape.<<
I will ordinarily PTT on DV tape and then make copies from that but this time I didn't know I would need VHS copies.

>>You will suffer a fairly significant loss by recompressing MPEG back to AVI from a DVD>>
Okay, I know there have been discussions here regarding saving an mpeg2 as opposed to .avi for later editing but do you understand that I'm talking about capturing a DVD using vidcap in real time?
If you do understand that's what I meant, how would you go about duplicating to VHS? Would the best way be to just hook up a VCR to a DVD player?
Thanks,
Randy
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/12/2004, 8:36 AM
You will still lose quality in the transcode from DVD to avi, regardless of how you do it. Yes, you can capture from the DVD to Vidcap, that will not change the look of the image much, but it will change the look somewhat. You'll see a slight shift in luma, but again, it may be acceptable.
To copy from a personally burned DVD to VHS, going direct is likely best. However, you'd be best served copying from PTT and an AVI file, where the file should have originated in the first place.
Randy Brown wrote on 2/12/2004, 9:12 AM
Thanks Spot...sorry to steal your thread rrogan but I hope your question was answered in all of this.
Thanks again Spot,
Randy
rrogan wrote on 2/12/2004, 9:19 AM
No problem. It's all good info!
JackW wrote on 2/12/2004, 11:24 AM
"To copy from a personally burned DVD to VHS, going direct is likely best. However, you'd be best served copying from PTT and an AVI file, where the file should have originated in the first place."

Definitely burn directly from the DVD to VHS. It's fine if you still have the AVI file, but in our business we often get clients who bring in their own DVD and want a VHS copy made. We also are often asked to do an NTSC DVD to PAL VHS tape conversion. Just connect the DVD player to the VHS deck or to the PAL/NTSC converter, play the DVD and record the output to tape.

Avoid recompressing the already compressed file if at all possible.