importing back to my dvx

R

redhighway

Member
Hi, bit of a drongo when it come to technical stuff so here it is. I'm shooting a feature film with a dvx 100b and editing on my laptop. I'm now on my third 1 hour tape and it's upsetting my laptop have so much video on there. I have now edited this first batch down to an hour so...could I now import this hour back onto a mini d.v and clean my computer without any loss of clarity to the picture. I know an external hard drive would be the way forward but I'm all out of funds but I have plenty tapes left, Cheers
 
It's a bad idea because you'll be compressing your footage. Get some cheap DVDs if a hard drive is not in the budget.
 
Just the uncompressed files. Maybe chopped into pieces of 2Gb (so the file can be put on disk, which has a filesize limit in most cases). Don't export anything to a video dvd (then you'll have to much qualityloss).
 
Your best bet is without a doubt an external hard drive. They can be had very cheaply and the least expensive ones will still hold hours and hours of DV footage.
 
None whatsoever. It's no different from moving a Word document or a spreadsheet around.

You have a much greater chance of data corruption by going back to tape, or even burning to optical disc.
 
I back up all of my important tapes to DVDs. If you burn at the slowest setting, take the time to allow the software to confirm what it has written, and store it appropriately, there is not much chance for data corruption. Supposedly, DVDs will hold their information for 100 years. So, if you're not meeting certain deadlines...

The fact of the matter is that all hard drives fail. It's simply a matter of when. But still, back it up to a hard drive. However, if you want additional insurance, burn the files to optical disc as well.
 
Just talking about the process of transfer. You have more physical factors which can go wrong when burning a DVD, and coasters still can and do happen. I'm not calling it unreliable, only that transferring to a hard drive has less immediate short-term risk, which is what he seemed to be worried about.
 
Actually, for that matter, you should just put all of your footage onto the external drive and have it all at once. It'll give you better performance than editing from your laptop hard drive, and you don't have to do it in chunks.
 
It should be mentioned that if the OP is going to buy a cheap external hard drive, 5400 RPM may not cut the mustard for video editing.
 
Many thanks, looks like I'm shelling out for a hard drive, like to put them on a disc as well but what do you mean by 'optical disc' ? Are we talking about ordinary blank dvd's and is burning them in the slowest setting the best, sorry to nag on but this is such a great forum and we don't have anything like it here in Blighty.
 
Optical discs are CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs, etc. There are many others that are not as well-known. In addition to video storage, they can be used for data storage. In your case, you'll be burning data discs. Although your data discs will contain video files, they will not play video on your DVD player.

In my experience, burning at the slowest rate possible and allowing the burning software a chance to check the files after it has completed writing them is the surest way to avoid discs with problems. Yes, you will produce an occasional coaster, but you will know it immediately (as opposed to finding out a year later when you need a certain file). Obviously, keeping the discs clean before and after burning as well as storing them in a safe, temperate location are important precautions to take.

It is inadvisable to adhere labels to optical discs. Over time, this will warp the disc, rendering it difficult, if not impossible, to be read. An indelible marker is a good alternative.
 
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