videobear
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Jul 9, 2005, 1:45 PM
Post #2 of 7
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Re: [dorigatti] Best way to back up mini DV tape footage
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I don't use a Mac, so I can't give you specific advice on your hardware and software. But a note on DVDs...
DVDs use a different video format than DV -- they use MPEG2, and the DV video must be transcoded to MPEG2 before it goes on the DVD. That's Toast's job.
MPEG2 uses much higher compression than DV in order to fit up to 2 hours (approx). of video onto that 4.7GB disc. As a comparison, two hours of native DV will take up about 30 GB of space.
Because of the compression scheme used, MPEG2 can perform this magic trick without introducing much, if any, VISUAL degradation in the video. However, that doesn't mean that you haven't thrown away about 85% of your original data, just that the missing data isn't obvious to the eye.
MPEG2 is also a variable compression format...that is, you can select how much compression you want to apply. Two hours of video per DVD is about the maximum you can get away with without beginning to see visible compression artifacts. You can select milder levels of compression, and throw away less of the video data, at the time you transcode from DV to MPEG2. This means you will need more DVDs to hold the data, of course.
Although you can do this process in your Mac, a simpler way would be to use a stand-alone DVD recorder, which operates pretty much like a VCR. You get less control over the compression options you can select, but you gain "one button recording" simplicity.
But the BEST way to back up your valuable footage would be to dub it to fresh DV tapes, using the Firewire interface, between two DV camcorders or decks. At about $5 to $6 a tape, that's a couple hundred bucks in media, but it may be worth it, and you could always re-use the tapes afterwards.
Regards,
Doug Graham
Panda Productions
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