Long-term storage / Video editing

[Aspen]

What would be the best video format to use to move Hi8 120-minute tapes to CDR for long-term storage and later video editing? How many CDRs can I expect to use per one 120-minute tape?

I'd like to keep the video at a high quality so that I can later use it for video editing purposes. Also, HDTV might also become a standard so I'd like to video to look good.

They will be used for long-term storage, so I'd like a video format that would be around in 10-20 years. Also, the hardware used to create the CDRs might not be around in that length of time.

Your opinions would be appriciated,
Aspen

PS. I currently have a Marvel G400TV.

[jeff b]

Hello Aspen,

With Hi8, archiving is a really tough nut to crack. The problem is that the highest quality is on the tape. As soon as you start compressing it, you're decreasing the level of quality. For CDR's, the level of compression is something that I certainly would never consider good enough for future source material.

I had many years of audio tape on reels and cassettes that I had always been so paranoid about losing to attrition and degradation. When audio CD burning finally became a reality, I was so relieved to be able to transfer all that stuff onto a more reliable medium that I spent the better part of a year getting it all done.

So, the audio archiving problem has been improved vastly. But the video archiving problem is still with us, and won't be going away for a while yet. Hopefully, the cost of software and hardware for doing DVD's will trickle down to affordable levels soon, and then we'll have that durable medium for video archiving.

Meanwhile, take good care of those Hi8 cassettes for a couple more years!

Jeff B