Why do you want to use DVR-DL for long term storage in the first place? 2TB hard disks currently sell for $100-$120 and hold as much data as about 240 DVD-DL discs. Good quality DVD-DL discs (Verbatim) cost at least $1 each, so even with zero coasters, they are at least twice as expensive per GB as hard disks, and a lot more hassle to burn and keep track of. 1TB hard drives are not quite as cheap per GB, but still much less costly than DVD-DL. Far better to keep duplicate copies of each video on multiple hard disks and, to be extra safe, include PAR2 files with each video file, Jan Werner ___________ Will Loving wrote: > ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. > ** If you did, we all thank you. > > > > > > Here’s a question for the video mavens out there. My son goes to PVPA > (Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School) and starting last > year, we began video recording some of the performances. We would like, > eventually, to establish a viewing archive in the library of past > performances at the school and are trying to think about short term and > long-term storage and video formats. > > There are two main issues, viewing and storage. > > Most of the video we are shooting at the moment is in AVCHD format, > which for a performance under two hours will just fit on a dual-layer > DVD. However, we usually want to edit that video to clean it up, add > titles, credits, directors notes, etc. In the process it all get’s > transcoded to DV .mov format in iMovie which triples the size. Since > Blu-ray is not an option and the DV format is just to large for > reasonable storage at this time, we need to figure out two things: the > best video format to save to for long-term backup storage that will fit > on a DL DVD, so under 8GB, and the best format to save to for HD based > storage on a viewing station in the library. > > For storage purposes on a DL DVD, there is no way that I’m aware of to > easily transcode the edited video back to AVCHD. iMovie can export via > QuickTime to various formats and we could also use Handbrake to render > the edited and exported DV file down to something under 8GB, but I still > don’t know what the best format for that would be. I’m pretty sure > Handbrake has a sizing option where you simply say, render to 7.8GB and > it will do the amount of compression to get it there, but is that the > best way? > > As for the viewing station, the same format that gets it to under 8GB > might be fine in terms of current available HD space. Over time HD space > will only get cheaper and more available but right now we can’t be > storing 30-40GB files. The related question I have is whether there are > differences in format that would affect viewing from a NAS vs a local > HD? Is there some format would be better over the network or should we > perhaps have two versions – high-res for local and lower-res for network > viewing? > > Comments? > > Will > > Will Loving, President > Dedication Technologies, Inc. > > -- > > William M. Loving > Dedication Technologies, Inc. > 7 Coach Lane > Amherst, MA 01002-3304 USA > will at dedicationtechnologies.com > Tel: +1 413 253-7223 (GMT –5) > Fax: +1 206 202-0476 > > > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members