I am in need of converting about 40 old analogue video 8 tapes, 2 hours each, onto DVDs. I don't want to do any editing right now and I want to preserve as much of the original quality as I can. Also, I want them to be in a format where I can edit them in the future. In addition, the tapes are very precious and I want to do a double backup in case there are any errors.
I have no problem transferring the analogue files to my hard drive. I do this by passing the signal from my analogue video camera through my Sony digital camera through fire wire using Video Studio 10 Plus.
My problem is deciding on what to do with this 19 gb or larger .avi file. One idea would be to break it into 4.5 gb pieces and just copy the .avi files directly to dvds. This seems like it would give me the best quality and it would allow me to edit them in the future. This would take 5 to 6 dvds per analogue tape for only one copy.
Can someone let me know if I have other options here? Is the dvd format that is editable a good option? I have only read a little about it and I have never tried it. Also, is the new dual layer DVD a good option here? It seems like the DVDs are pretty expensive, but I haven't done any research on it.
Thank you in advance for any help here.
Willem
Archiving Old Video 8 Tapes
Moderator: Ken Berry
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VS88
Hi, One option is to buy a USB or Firewire external disc, 320gb is available for under ¢G80 and would store a lot of AVIs and should be pretty future proof - you can not guarantee DVD format will be around for every and DVDs can become unplayable over time
Editable DVD not such a good idea but if you want to view your archives convert them to DVD - you should be able to get 1.5 hours on a single DVD at about 6000kb - you can then watch then easily on your TV via a normal DVD player.
Editable DVD not such a good idea but if you want to view your archives convert them to DVD - you should be able to get 1.5 hours on a single DVD at about 6000kb - you can then watch then easily on your TV via a normal DVD player.
Hi Willem,
That's a lot of footage! If the tapes are all full, it will translate to up to 27Gb per tape in avi format. What are the file properties of your captured avi files?
40 tapes at an average of 19Gb per tape would fill up 160 single layer DVD disks, costing perhaps $32. You could archive to external USB drives - using three 320GB drives for perhaps $300 or so.
Although archiving to DVD disks is clearly the cheapest option, it also requires you to spend time splitting the video into suitable sized chunks to fit, and it's much easier to access the material if it's on a hard drive instead. I've not experienced any problems accessing my own archive DVD+R's yet - but the disks are only 2 years old. I store them in ZipLoc bags.
You need to be sure that your Sony is doing a good job of the pass thru before you spend all that time archiving the collection! I know that my own JVC MiniDV camcorder is not good for pass thru. I had better results using a friend's pinnacle capture box, capturing analogue footage to mpeg2 at 8000kbps. You might get good results at lower bitrates - the usual recommendation for 8mm might be nearer to 6000kbps.
Although mpeg2 is not really an editing format, it's pretty good if you minimise the amount of recoding you do. For example, if you always made up DVD's at 8000kbps constant bitrate, it would minimise transcoding if your archived source material had the same properties.
Instead of 160 DVD's, you could archive to maybe 50, or store everything on a single 320Gb drive.
You could then carefully store your original tapes in a protected environment, so that you have the option to recapture footage if there's a problem.
Before you embark on your mammoth capture, apart from getting in supplies and saying goodbye to your loved ones, I think you should experiment with different available workflows. Try the avi capture, and compare it with capture to mpeg2.
Good luck!
That's a lot of footage! If the tapes are all full, it will translate to up to 27Gb per tape in avi format. What are the file properties of your captured avi files?
40 tapes at an average of 19Gb per tape would fill up 160 single layer DVD disks, costing perhaps $32. You could archive to external USB drives - using three 320GB drives for perhaps $300 or so.
Although archiving to DVD disks is clearly the cheapest option, it also requires you to spend time splitting the video into suitable sized chunks to fit, and it's much easier to access the material if it's on a hard drive instead. I've not experienced any problems accessing my own archive DVD+R's yet - but the disks are only 2 years old. I store them in ZipLoc bags.
You need to be sure that your Sony is doing a good job of the pass thru before you spend all that time archiving the collection! I know that my own JVC MiniDV camcorder is not good for pass thru. I had better results using a friend's pinnacle capture box, capturing analogue footage to mpeg2 at 8000kbps. You might get good results at lower bitrates - the usual recommendation for 8mm might be nearer to 6000kbps.
Although mpeg2 is not really an editing format, it's pretty good if you minimise the amount of recoding you do. For example, if you always made up DVD's at 8000kbps constant bitrate, it would minimise transcoding if your archived source material had the same properties.
Instead of 160 DVD's, you could archive to maybe 50, or store everything on a single 320Gb drive.
You could then carefully store your original tapes in a protected environment, so that you have the option to recapture footage if there's a problem.
Before you embark on your mammoth capture, apart from getting in supplies and saying goodbye to your loved ones, I think you should experiment with different available workflows. Try the avi capture, and compare it with capture to mpeg2.
Good luck!
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GuyL
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THank you everyone for the great information and ideas. Regarding the last post, i.e. keeping them on the tapes and not doing anything, I don't want to do that because I have heard that magnetic tapes degrade over time. I certianly won't throw them away after I archive, so if something goes wrong with the archive I will have them.
Willem
Willem