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General discussion

best way to backup my digital8 tapes without loss of quality

Oct 12, 2005 7:48PM PDT

I know there are many applications to transfer digital video from a camcorder to a PC but here's what I need to do:

I want to know the best way to create a backup copy of all my digital8 tapes. My most important criteria is to maintain the quality of the video from the original tapes (recorded with Sony digital8 camcorders) but of course would like to store the backups in as little storage space as possible. I don't have to play these back on a PC or a DVD player, but I want to have a second copy of the tapes with original quality in case the original tape gets lost or destroyed.

I don't care what kind of media I the backups on although it's getting harder to find digital8/hi8 tapes in stores lately.

Thanks for your help.

Discussion is locked

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I find no shortage of tapes at..
Oct 12, 2005 9:07PM PDT

amazon.com and other places.

As to backup, how did you do that before the PC?

Bob

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more info...
Oct 13, 2005 6:01AM PDT

I used to see 4-packs of tapes at many stores including target, walmart, and most electronics places that were reasonably priced. Now I mostly see one or two-packs. I can certainly order online but I have lots of tapes to back up, so I'm not sure whether I want to purchase that many additional tapes.

I've never backed them up, that's why I was asking here. I don't want to make DVD out of all of them as the quality isn't as good after converting them, so I'm looking for alternatives that can keep the original quality or close to it but which will last and can be stored in another location in case something happens to the originals.

Thanks

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No tape shortage then? Here's some finer points.
Oct 13, 2005 6:59AM PDT

1. "Digital8 and miniDV use the same compression to record to tape. The difference being that D8 camcorder can play analog Hi8 tapes. But there's no difference in the digital format itself."
- http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/152801
That's good news. This means if we keep it in DV format as we transfer, it's bit for bit copies.

2. " Digital8 Firewire capable camcorders"
- same discussion.

If we have that capability then we can use WINDV to possibly download the DV content and maybe upload it to miniDV decks.

Cheers,

Bob

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(NT) (NT) How much are miniDV decks?
Oct 13, 2005 10:54AM PDT
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(NT) (NT) So far, multiples of miniDV cam prices.
Oct 13, 2005 12:35PM PDT
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(NT) (NT) OK, I thought maybe you had a cheaper source.
Oct 13, 2005 2:29PM PDT
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Here's some finer points.
Oct 14, 2005 3:27AM PDT

Some of the newer DVD stand alone recorders have a firewire input. So you can hook up your Digital 8mm camera directly to the DVD recorder and make a great copy/backup. John

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followup question on DVD recorder
Oct 14, 2005 5:23AM PDT

Thanks for your suggestion. However, if I used a DVD recorder wouldn't it do some kind of conversion or compression to the DVD standard losing the quality of the original? Or is there a way to copy the original quality to a DVD with these devices?

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Just getting into this myself...
Nov 24, 2005 12:00PM PST

I'm just getting into this myself.

I bought Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. I connect the camcorder via firewire to my PC and save down the file as type .avi

I don't think (but could easily be wrong being a newbie) this is compressed. The files are huge. You need 1 GB of drivespace for every 5 mins of video. I split this file and burned it down to 2 DVDs -and this is for less than an hour of footage.

Then I converted the file so that it can be played on a typical DVD player (using Premiere). The quality is fantastic. It limits the compression of the file you are using so that its the least compressed for the full DVD space (depending if you have single or dual layer). Rendering DVD takes mucho time. One hour of tape took over two hours (I went to bed and it was still rendering the footage). Its a job left for the PC to do overnight. I've heard its like that for even dedicated video systems.

Its not straight forward but the results are fantastic. -GOod luck.

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Thank you.
Nov 24, 2005 11:21PM PST

You took the right road (FIREWIRE) and avoided the issues right out of the gate.

In closing, look up WINDV on google.com if you ever want to try another capture method.

Bob

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thanks everyone...
Nov 29, 2005 3:46AM PST

Hello
Just wanted to thank all those who replied here. I've decided to not do anything yet, unfortunately. I've put together some videos on DVD and have had many issues with different software where things like the DVD burning didn't work 100%, or the video and audio were out of sync. I feel that backing up tapes to DVD is not reliable right now for video that I can't afford to lose, that the only safe way to store it is to back up to another tape. I'm not looking forward to purchasing a lot of tapes right now or taking time to only capture parts of my existing tapes, so to be honest I'm still pondering what I will do. But I do appreciate your help.