Video Archival - what codec?

[A_BIT]

I have a 35 min. movie that I play back from the MSP timeline that is taking 6.5GB on my D: drive. I want to get it off the system, but I put so much work into the flick that I would like a more permanent archive than the D8 tapes I've made. Yesterday I made a MPEG1 which took 15 hrs and is about 10MB per minute (not bad!). The MPEG plays flawlessly but the quality is disappointing.

Can I get better quality with another codec without having to exceed say 15 or 20MB per minute. It would be great if I could fit the whole thing on a single CD.

Thanks.

[DrMordrid]

Since we are talking archiving vs. making a playable disk....

Alternative #1: use a backup program to span it over several CD's, ZIP disks or onto a magtape at full rez? Avantrix's Backup Plus is good for this.

Alternative #2: just make a duplicate D8 tape and keep it cool & dry.

Either way you could pull it back off for use without losses.

Dr. Mordrid

[A_BIT]

Thank you for replying Dr. Mordrid.

1) If I backup MJPEG to CD without further compression it will take a lot of time and space (3.5 min/CD), but no loss.

2) Since I don't have a 1394 board, I have to record via analog to my D8, so I would have some generation loss, right? But it is fast and inexpensive and doesn't require much storage space. Plus, I can someday reload via 1394.

I've tried a few codecs and am not satisfied with the quality, so I guess the tiny loss recording via analog is much better all around in my case. In the near future I hope to get into "pure" DV NLE (I hope the Pyro/MSP combo will work well). That should help.

-Anthony