Hey folks,
I am converting lots of public domain footage from 16mm film to DVD (telecine transfer) for storage and possibly reselling the footage as public domain footage to whomever may be interested.

What would be the preferred format to save in? Uncompressed footage to DVD-R? What would this "uncompressed footage" be in? Quicktime? AVI?

Nick, never save anything you want to resell in MPEG2! MPEG2 is a delivery format and not an editing format, although AVI is also compressed, but not as bad and it is a format designed for editing.

I have a choice to have the film trasnferred to DVD (Mpeg2) or Mini-DV. I know both are not the best, but which one would you choose for using in a broadcast production?

P.S> I can have it transfered straight from film to digital betacam, but I don't have a Digital Betacam VTR to copy from !

Nick,

Go to Mini-DV you'll have a better copy.

If they offer you the option, try to go MiniDV BUT in one of these specs:

1. DVCPRO 50. It holds twice the info on of a normal MiniDV 25mbps
2. DVCAM. It holds about 1.33 more info than a normal Mini DV

This is because the more info you've got, the less compression you get.

I thought I read on here that you can not see a difference?

Nick,
I'd get the Digi Beta and a DV/DVCAM version at the same time. You'll have the former for higher "archival" quality and the latter for easy ingest into your NLE. Both Dv and DVCAM are the exact same 5:1 compression. There is no quality difference. DVCAM moves a bit faster- 40 minutes as opposed to 60 on a mini tape- which can (though I've never seen a difference) minimize dropouts. The track pitch is also different, but that only mattered with deck to deck editing, not simply downloading into your computer.
Hope this helps.
Ken

If they offer you the option, try to go MiniDV BUT in one of these specs:

1. DVCPRO 50. It holds twice the info on of a normal MiniDV 25mbps
2. DVCAM. It holds about 1.33 more info than a normal Mini DV

This is because the more info you've got, the less compression you get.

This is simply NOT TRUE!!! The basic video encoding algorithm is the same between all three formats. The video data recorded in all three formats is essentially identical, though there may be minor differences in the actual codec implementations.

"The consumer-oriented DV uses 10 micron tracks in SP recording mode. Sony's DVCAM professional format increases the track pitch to 15 microns (at the loss of recording time) to improve tape interchange and increase the robustness and reliability of insert editing. Panasonic's DVCPRO increases track pitch and width to 18 microns, and uses a metal particle tape for better durability. DVCPRO also adds a longitudinal analog audio cue track and a control track to improve editing performance and user-friendliness in linear editing operations."

Quoted from: http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#DVformats

Regards,