While great for editing, the DV AVI file sizes make them very impractical for file storage. I want to be able to keep a backup copy of my video files in a format that does not take up as much space as DV AVI, such as DivX, so that, if need be, I can convert back to DV and make changes to the files. But it seems that no matter what format I try - DivX, XVid, MP4, etc. - any WMV files made from the converted DV file are corrupted, even though the converted DV file seems to play without any problems. Is the WMV file itself the best format for this purpose?
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good question! i would suggest keeping all your original content.
i'm currently backing up my original content on dvd as well as on external hard drives. i also archive the original mini dv tapes.
it might sound like over kill but by using several back-up methods i drastically reduce the chances of loosing valuable content.
dv tapes, dvd's and external hard drives are dirt cheap. the nice thing about the external hard drives is that i can daisy chain them together and have access to all my content for making custom dvd's, galleries, promo videos etc. if a hard drive crashes, i have two other sources of back-up. pretty cheap insurance!
a very important tip! if you don't already do this, never work on your original images. always make copies and save the originals. everytime you open an image and make a change then save it, you can loose resolution during the compression process. the same thing will happen to your videos. always keep the originals safe! speaking of that, it would be a good investment to buy a fire-proof safe to store your content. tall gun safes work well. -
dgraves is correct.
The whole point of saving the original is to preserve that original quality. Converting the AVI to anything else will toss some quality, then converting it again to AVI for changes and yet again back to another format.... thats a lot of converting and compressing and loss of quality.
Save the tapes and capture again later if needed is one option, and that saves disk space of course.
Back-up the AVIs to DVD is what I do, but that assumes that the AVIs are in clips and not too long (over 4gb).
JimmyComment
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Can you recommend a good program to burn AVI files to DVD disks for storage in the AVI format?Comment
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i currently use NERO which works really well. i highly recommend it.
http://www.nero.com/enu/Nero_7_Ultra..._InfoPage.htmlComment
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