Hi Jan, We're talking about a public school here with a limited tech budget. Right now a dozen or two DL DVDs (for this year), which I already have and can donate, is cheaper than several hundred $ for multiple HDs (or a RAID) which the school would need to purchase. Yes, in the long-term a NAS device like the Drobo FS that I just bought for my own use, will be the preferred option, but for now we're working with what we have. Will Will Loving, President Dedication Technologies, Inc. on 9/17/10 9:26 PM, Jan Werner at jwerner at jwdp.com wrote: > 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. >> >> >> >> >> >> Here¹s 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 get¹s >> 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 I¹m 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 >> don¹t know what the best format for that would be. I¹m 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 can¹t 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 -- 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