Hi all,
I am needing to figure out what the best way to make copies or clones of our shoot tapes that preserve timecode. JVC's deck will copy the hdv signal just fine, but it seems not record timecode form the playback deck. This is a real problem for me, curious what others are doing for archiving. We have been recording a copy to D9, but that is not very future proof and we've lost the hdv signal.
thanks
Kevin

Oh, oh, oh, I know this one...

Actually, we just figured here that if I want to archive a captured or finished HDV project, the best way for now is to simply burn the m2t file or files, in the case of captured footage, to DVD. The files are a bit smaller than a comperable DV file size and they can now be reimported into our Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.2.1 suite fairly cleanly.

In Avid land, the path to HDV export is littered with m2t files anyway so why not archive them to DVD as files, rather than do a real time burn to a safety dub?

Just an idea. When/if Blue Ray makes t to the desktop as a user burnable drive/disc combo, you are going to have a ton of room for HDV footage.

Sean McHenry

I archive my HDV clips on to DVDs. Each Single Layer DVD holds 23 mins. A Dual Layer DVD will hold 40 mins. Sadly I have yet to find reliable Dual Layer Media...

Of course a single layer Blue Ray BD-R will hold 122 mins and a double layer 244 mins!!!

I agree with Hse and Sean.

I'm on Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.2.1 as well, and archiving the "computer" files is much easier than exporting an m2t stream back to an HDV device.

Hse, I work on an HP xw8000 and installed a Pioneer A09 burner. I'm using Verbatim DL DVDs sucessfully--probably 40 or so now--and have created no coasters (knock wood).

Hope this helps.

Joe Womble

I have HV20 and used this process to convert clips from m2t to 24p avi:

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/07/13/canon-hv20-24p-pulldown/

Now I have the original clips in m2t and avi (9x bigger footprint due to “RGB” used during the conversion process. They claim "YUY2" would be 1/2 the "RGB" size).

I use Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 7 to edit avi clips.

I would like to archive clips with these requirements:

1) File size of the original m2t files, ideally smaller.
2) No or little quality loss.
3) Progressive format for progressive viewing "out of the box"
4) Editable format by VMSP7

What format should I use for archiving?

Oh, oh, oh, I know this one...

When/if Blue Ray makes t to the desktop as a user burnable drive/disc combo,
Sean McHenry

Its here now.... I've been using BD-RE/25 and dual layer BD-RE/50 backups for some time now as "data discs". They are $15 each, not much more than DV tapes.

Or, just archive to a shiny 750gig external USB or eSATA hard drive.