Archiving Home Video Library

[jskidis]

I have about 70 1-hour DV tapes of home videos. I would like copy this video to computer files for 2 reasons.

1) So I can put the source tapes in my safety deposit box, but still have access to the movies.
2) I would like to make DVDs of various "highlights" for the grandparents (and myself). These DVDs don't have to be "studio production" quality, just as long as the quality is not distracting to look at or listen to for the casual viewer.

I have 400 GB of available network storage. The machine on which I will be capturing has about 40 GB, so I will have capture, copy to network, repeat.

My first thought was to save in AVI/DV format. From reading some of the posts on this board and others it sounds as if the AVI/DV format is the way to go. However I don't have (and don't anticpate having) the 900 GB of storage that it would require, nor do a want to burn and maintain the 200+ DVDs that it would require.

My next thought was to save it as MPEG/DVD format, as this is the format it ends up as being on DVD anyway. While this is still an option, I don't get automatic split by scene with the option. Which means I end up 3.5+ GB files, which are workable but cumbersome. Or I have to manually split them, which is not really a workable solution as I don't want to split a file in the middle of the scene.

There's a third option that I can think of, but I don't know if it's even possible. Caputre video into AVI format, split by scene. Then convert those files into MPEG/DVD format.

I am open to suggestions/comments on how I might best accomplish this. Or if you think VS is the tool for the job. I have download the trial version, but haven't made up mind yet if this is the best tool for the job.

[Black Lab]

If you had simply done a Search for archiving you would have found many threads about this topic.