best way to archive captured DV footage (MAC)

[motherhucker 0]

Hey mac users;
What have you found to be the best way to archive your captured DV clips/projects? I've been trying to compress longer clips with Stuffit in order to archive as data on a DVD, but it won't compress them properly.
Any suggestions?

[BTW: Dual G4 1.42Gb, 120Gb IBM HD (int.), 160Gb Maxtor HD (int.), (1) 120Gb LaCie D2 FW400 (ext.), (1) 160Gb LaCie D2 160Gb (ext.), +superdrive, OSX 10.2.8]

ThanX!
mh

[quade 4]

What editing program are you using?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[motherhucker 0]

yeah. That would help...
FCP3
DVDSP2
thx
mh

[quade 4]

Geeze, with FCP you could just take the media off-line, archive the project and re-dig when you really needed to.

Either that or . . .

Just drag the media files onto DVDs and re-connect the media when you needed to. I wouldn't even bother with compression. I think the re-digitize option really would be faster though (except you'd have to re-render if you are rendering).

Does/can FCP consolidate media (remove the unused parts to save space)? I haven't played with it in a while and can't remember. I know AVID does, but can't remember if FCP does.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[murrays 0]

This may or may not interest you, but I just started to archive my family video. Here is my procedure:

1 - Import into a new iMovie project, edit, clean up and place Chapter markers for iDVD. I'm only getting rid of really bad footage and just going through the clips very quickly.

2 - When I have finished the above, I open a program called FootTrack. In FT I create a new tape, select the Import Clips option, navigate to the "media" folder of the iMovie project, select the clips within and click on Import. (You can use FCP and FCE as well)

3 - FT then creates references to the clips and allows you to view them, sort them and create folders so that you can group clips and organize them..similar to iPhoto. Using my mundane family example..."Swimming Lessons, Xmas, etc, etc." You could sort them as Base, Wingsuits, Freefly or whatever. The information on each clip includes the time from the beginning of the tape, time code in,out, date and time recorded. You can add comments/descriptions and also categorize the clips (Unusable, shaky, too dark, OK, Movie Material, Excellent)

5 - I then compress the clips using one of three levels of compression...depending on how much space I want them to take up.

6 - I then burn 2 DVDs by using the "Create DVD option in iMovie". One is to use and the other is going into the safety deposit box for the kids.

7 - When finished, I delete the iMovie project and media and the iDVD project.

8 - If I want to see what is on a tape, I open FootTrack, open the "Tape" I want to see and review the compressed clips. If I want a particular bit of footage, I can put the tape in the camcorder and download it.

Another program out there that I have only demo'd is called DvxDVD (I think) and it will extract DV video from DVDs burned on Macs. I imagine that you would lose some quality as the DV has been compressed to MPEG2. I believe there are also tools to extract the MPEG2 files directly.

Another relatively inexpensive way to archive your video is to make tape copies.

You can burn data DVDs of the best footage but you'd need nearly 3 DVDs per hour of DV (4.7 gb/DVD and DV=13gb/hour)

Another handy little utility I've found is called iVideo. It will search your hard drive and find all video on your hard drive. The interface is nearly identical to iPhoto so you can then create folders, etc.

Anyways, that's what I'm doing. Hope you find some of it helpful.

BTW - Nice system you got there!!!

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[skyfly 0]

It depends - If I do a project for a client. then I'd put in the proposal a designated Harddrive for the client- and use that harddrive for capturing (160-200Gb) after the project is done. I simply store the HD away with a sticker and name of the client and project (all captured clips) - I use avid, so in the Project all those clips go offline- and when I reconnect that harddrive they come online again.

If I dont have a designated HD - I just delete the clips, and when needed, I just digitize the tape again (again -avid will get the cilps offline- and when you recapture then, will go to the timecode, and capture each clip from head to tail for ya)

Other then that - I think backing up to DVDs is a waste of time and media.

my 2 cents.

Be Simple, Be Creative, Bee!
Sharon.

[quade 4]

Quote

I think backing up to DVDs is a waste of time and media.

Depends on the project, the revision cycle, the archival needs . . . just to name a few things.

If you were doing :30 spots with intense renders on a weekly basis, it would be well worth the time and the media cost is trivial compared to a disk crash and recovery.

Like I said, it all depends.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Not a Mac user but what I do is archive footage to minidv tape, and burn all associated project files(Graphics, premiere PPJ files titles etc) to CD-R.
I also trim all clips used on the project prior to archiving, this is simple in Premiere, not sure about FCP.
Dunno if this suits your way of doing things.

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[motherhucker 0]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! And Murray's--thx for the props to the machine!

[czechbase 0]

How long can you keep a Mini DV tape until it gets mouldy? I have started to use my tapes only once (to ensure good quality and reduce dropped frames, overlap etc). But when I burn onto CD's it loses the quailty. Time to get a DVD burner!!

www.motavi.com

[quade 4]

If you keep videotape indoors, out of the sun, dry and at room temperatures comfortable to most humans, it should last for about 10 years without any serious ill effects.

Burning the data to regular DVDs are not the best answer since there is a loss of data in the recompression.

Transfering the raw data on to DVD-roms is an acceptable solution to long term storage. Under the same circumstances, they should last maybe 100 years or so.

The absolutely most important thing is that as technology advances you continue to transfer the data to future readable formats.

Consider what would happen if everything you had was on BetaMax. Eventually all data formats die.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[czechbase 0]

Interesting, thanks Quade!

www.motavi.com

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"How long can you keep a Mini DV tape until it gets mouldy?"

I dunno, I vacuum-pack mine with a little sachet of silica dessicant. I have tapes from '98 that play fine. I live on the coast of a damp, cold, grey island, my house is about 130 years old so its not the ideal place to keep these.Some repro houses will store a master copy of a tape for you in a climate controlled vault. I have a couple of master tapes from some movies stashed like this.

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[jmfreefly 0]

On the DVD thought, I remember reading something about CDs and DVDs where the organic substrate (?) started breaking down in just a few years and rendering the disc unreadable.

Ah.. here it is.. I think it is only an issue with burnable media, not presssed media (?).

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/7751
Cites a dutch study on CD-R media saying basically that some of the media became unreadable within just 20 months..

That is just a side tidbit though.. as DVDs are not a useful backup media to me.