Keep DV or save hard drive space?

[Gentile]

I have just finished making home movies from my DV camcorder in a high quality MP4 format using iMovie 08. I have also converted video tape to a high quality (for video tape) MP4 format by using the EyeTV input.

I did all of this by first importing raw video in a high quality DV or EyeTV format and then encoding it into MP4 using H.264.

My question is this: What should I do with this initial raw video? It takes up 160 GB and is making it impossible to back up the rest of my hard drive. I really don't want to buy another 500 GB hard drive to store a bunch of raw video, but will I be sorry in the future? I am happy with the movies and don't think I will want to change it in the future, but is there some reason to keep the raw video?

 

[bigbossbmb]

No, just keep the tapes. That is the advantage of the DV format, reliable and cheap storage ($2-5 for 13GB of space).

 

[Sojourn]

The thing is, if you do end up wanting to change something in the future, you're going to have to recapture all of your footage. Will iMovie allow you to "reconnect" to the newly captured files, to sync with all of your edit points in your project file (like you can in FCP), or will you have to start from scratch again? If it won't, you might want to think about how you'll feel if you have to start the project over again to make the changes.

I always lean toward keeping my source footage backed up on a hard drive (in addition the tapes, of course, in case something happens to the drive), because I know that not only am I a perfectionist, and I might want to make tweaks later on, but I also know that if I need to re-export the project with slight changes (for example, if I wanted to change the titles for release on TV or YouTube, or something like that), I could do it on short notice, and it would be as though I was just firing up my project again, the way I had last left it. Otherwise, it could be a real headache.

Hope this helps -- what do others think?

Take care,
Sojourn

 

[twoodcc]

The thing is, if you do end up wanting to change something in the future, you're going to have to recapture all of your footage. Will iMovie allow you to "reconnect" to the newly captured files, to sync with all of your edit points in your project file (like you can in FCP), or will you have to start from scratch again? If it won't, you might want to think about how you'll feel if you have to start the project over again to make the changes.

I always lean toward keeping my source footage backed up on a hard drive (in addition the tapes, of course, in case something happens to the drive), because I know that not only am I a perfectionist, and I might want to make tweaks later on, but I also know that if I need to re-export the project with slight changes (for example, if I wanted to change the titles for release on TV or YouTube, or something like that), I could do it on short notice, and it would be as though I was just firing up my project again, the way I had last left it. Otherwise, it could be a real headache.

Hope this helps -- what do others think?

Take care,
Sojourn

i think that you do have a point. it would stink really bad to have edit everything again

 

[Yonz]

Similar problem

Hi all,

I got a bunch of DV files, imported from VHS tapes via some A/D Converter. Each file is ca. 3-6GB.

My thinking is that the original VHS (mostly home video - VHS PAL) does not have that good quality anyway, so I might as well compress all the source files 1:1 into an MPEG4 format (using e.g. MPEG Streamclip, AddMovies, or RealBean) and THEN import them into iMovie8 to do further work on them.

This way I have all the Original footage, albeit manageable in size.

Does this make sense?
What would be the ideal settings for e.g. Streamclip to do the work? (Video and Audia, bearing in mind that the originl stuff came from a VHS Homevideo tape)

One more related question: Should I archive the (converted) MPEGs in iPhoto? Will iPhoto handle such things (video as opposed to Pictures)?


T.I.A.

Yonz
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
iMac24" 2.8GhZ/4GB/1TB
Mac Mini

 

[bigbossbmb]

It would be better (and easier for your computer) to just edit in DV and then compress the source files for archival after your done with them.

to archive the converted mp4 files, you could import them into itunes.

 

[eRondeau]

Buy an external hard drive and save the files there. HD space is so cheap now (<$0.50/GB) there's no reason to delete anything, ever. I've got two LaCie HD's firewire'd to my little iBook for over 1TB of space, and I'll be buying a third soon. Compared to the time you invest in a video, the storage costs are negligible.