Archiving HD footage

[Jim N]

Just out of interest here is a new BD-R drive with gold disks that claims to be archival up to 200 years!

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/con...id=7-9316-9628

I agree with Steve, hards drives are too unreliable.

Jim

[swsw1550]

Hi Geoff,
Steve here from the Sunshine Coast, Don't go the hard drive way, they are not reliable enough for that, What I do is shoot every thing in HD and capture and work with it in Edius 5 and when finished I keep the original tape as back up. you could also print back to tape and just keep them in a dry dark place, As I own a computer company as well on the Sunshine Coast I have seen to many hard drives die for no reason at all, Your other option is since you have a Blu-Ray burner is to store them on BD-RW disk's, just buy a few 50GB ones on Ebay, The question is how long do you really want to store wedding footage for?

Cheers
Steve

[wags]

What I did was **** in all my HDV footage as m2t clips onto two Terra Drives in my machine here. They hold allot of tapes and the originals are kept safe on tapes in the cupboard. Once I fill up the drives I will buy another $250 Terra drive and stick that inside my computer as well.

My computer now can edit the raw clips pretty well but If I need more responsive capacity I will convert the clips I need to Canopus HQ.

I know I will one day but I am not looking forward to moving to tapeless camera's as it's going to take a huge amount of time to archive the stuff onto something safe. No hardrives are not safe.

[STORMDAVE]

Obviously you'll lose some quality, but nothing much that you eye can see anyway.

If you are going with the hard drive route, at least backup to two different drives.

[Nerfboy]

Think I might just go with the hard drive option. Get a terabyte worth and that should last me awhile. I like to save HD def footage to cut up later too, not just whole projects.

HDV MPEG loses no resolution when converted if I shoot in 1440 x 1080i? I plan on upgrading my camera next year and getting something that shoots in 25p. Don't know if that modifies things a bit.

[tingsern]

Best medium to archive is COMPUTER grade tapes (SDLT, LTO3, etc ...). You can get a "cheap" QUANTUM DLT tape drive - external (using eSATA) for about US$900. Then you dump the entire subdirectory of a complete project - whether it is Panasonic P2 MXF, Sony EX1 MXF, or Canopus HQ ... including the project files.

Then when your client wants you to do more work, take the tape out, restore the entire subdirectory to your working hard-drive, and ... presto - you have everything there.

DLT-V4 tapes are about US$50 each - 160GB native capacity.

http://www.cdw.ca/shop/products/defa...iew-_-Main+Tab

[Nerfboy]

Nice email

And to whoever read this forum topic and sent me a negative email, your a coward for giving me a false email to write back and need to get a life. This isn't a place for that.

[Nerfboy]

Thanks for all the help!

[STORMDAVE]

So just so I have this clear in my head...I should archive as an HDV file, not HQ AVI (huge I know).

If you shot in HDV, then you can archive back to DV tapes (cheap and more secure than hard drives. 60 minutes per mini dv tape or if your VTR supports larger tapes, go for that). Make sure to pack the tapes tightly so no dust gets in.

That will allow me to put it back in the timeline if I need to or use it for authoring later on?

Yes you can capture it again and edit away...you can capture to Canopus HQ if you want. Basically you get the same format of your master that you shot originally with. HDV in HDV out.

I am confused about doing it as a "normal" SD Mpeg2. Generic MPEG will allow me to change the settings and keep the HD quality? If not, then why not just save as an m2t?

Just do MPEG2 as you've done before but keep a master HDV tape of the final project. I brought up Generic MPEG for people who have 1920x1080 HD projects and want to archive them instead of using HDV and losing resolution. Generic MPEG exporter allows you to use higher bitrates too if you don't want to use Canopus HQ but still keep high quality video you had originally.

So I would use MPEG (HDV)?

Yes for archiving. Read the EDIUS manual on how to write back to tape.

Also what is the difference with Program and Elementary Stream? just get two separate files for video and audio? Which is better?

These two are for DVD authoring...but also apply to HDV. HDV clips (.m2t) are program stream, multiplexed clips. Audio + Video are in a single file. Elementary Stream is just a demuxed version which means the audio and video are separate files.

[Nerfboy]

So just so I have this clear in my head...I should archive as an HDV file, not HQ AVI (huge I know).

That will allow me to put it back in the timeline if I need to or use it for authoring later on?

I am confused about doing it as a "normal" SD Mpeg2. Generic MPEG will allow me to change the settings and keep the HD quality? If not, then why not just save as an m2t?

So I would use MPEG (HDV)?

Also what is the difference with Program and Elementary Stream? just get two separate files for video and audio? Which is better?

[STORMDAVE]

I am using XDCAM disks for HD shooting, so I have an instant backup of all source footage, however, I have no idea how long they last before they fade away? one day I will know

Probably longer than you will need it. It's in a cartridge so it's more secure.

[David Ice]

I archive my HDV projects back to tape by making a m2t file from the timeline and then using MPEGwriter to copy back to tape. If you imported from tape to HQ what's the difference if you made a m2t file from HQ timeline and put back to tape. There may be a very small loss from the editing can conversions but will be hard to see. That is how I archive my HD projects.

A word of warning: I've gone back into my HDV masters only to find a dropout or two (and I'm using the expen$ive Sony HDV Digital Master tapes, both small and large cassette). So I ALWAYS do two masters. Odds are astronomical that the same dropout would occur at the same moments of the tape. This has saved my tail (and reputation) several times! I have the Sony HDV deck, and just get a tape that is double the length of the show, and use the MPEG writer to copy it twice. I.e., if the show is 60 minutes, I get a 120 minute large Digital Master cassette, and copy it twice. Yes it costs a bit more, but the peace of mind is priceless.

[antonsvideo]

I am using XDCAM disks for HD shooting, so I have an instant backup of all source footage, however, I have no idea how long they last before they fade away? one day I will know

[STORMDAVE]

Well I am shooting in 1440 x 1080...so is getting an external hardrive to store my HDV files a good idea? I would rather store it on that then tape. Much easier to put back on the computer.

And is HDV good if I want to do some editing ? I know not as good as an HQ AVI, but that takes up so much space.

When outputting from the quoted suggestion...is it just as a "DVD" and then up the bitrate in the advanced menu?

If you're shooting HDV, it's a good idea to archive back to HDV so yes you will be fine. DV tape is a cheap way to backup, much safer than hard drives. You can however export a HDV stream and backup to lets say a Rev Pro disk. Much more reliable of course.

You can edit HDV without a problem, but you need a fast computer for that.

If you want to archive to MPEG2, just hit F11 (Print to File) then choose "Generic MPEG" and it should give you lots of options. This is good for people who do Full HD (1920x1080) or for people who want to backup to something else besides DV tape and use a higher bitrate so you won't get that "blockiness" from recompressing.

[Nerfboy]

You can also archive to MPEG2 and EDIUS is pretty fast and uses all cores. Use a high MPEG2 bitrate...maybe around 50mbps. The max EDIUS can do is 80mbps for MPEG2 HD (from Print to File). It supports Full HD.

Well I am shooting in 1440 x 1080...so is getting an external hardrive to store my HDV files a good idea? I would rather store it on that then tape. Much easier to put back on the computer.

And is HDV good if I want to do some editing ? I know not as good as an HQ AVI, but that takes up so much space.

When outputting from the quoted suggestion...is it just as a "DVD" and then up the bitrate in the advanced menu?