tape / SD card / DVD or HD

Can anyone tell me, what is the best base for storing a film on, regarding to the longlivety of the camcorder ?

[toni1]

For video data :
A-High quality DVD DISC (EX VERBATIM japan made since there are other producer under the trade mark or TDK for instance) the issue of dvd quality and life span is discussed on the net if you do a search.
If you do hd video you can only squeez 20 minutes of hd mpeg2 video on one dvd (much more on future blue ray or dvd hd format that are not cost effective for the time being). Work around : 1- split your 1 h video in to three parts or capture to computer 20 min interval that can be later combined when editing. 2- Or Compress video (wmv-hd or DivX-hd) with some little quality loss and that makes around 1 hour for 1h footage and takes much time to render.

B-Keep the original tapes for storage (never re-use) but with the risk that the future camcorder formats won't be abel to read them. (A double copy of dvd above solution on to 2 different dvd brands is an aditional a security)

C- EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES : this is the most cost effective (per giga) but the failure of the hard drive means the loss of your video (I myself use it for long videos projects on 2 drives and that makes it a bit less cost effective and I also keep my original tapes )

[rehoot]

For important videos, the key would be storing it in two places. If you store it on a tape, there is a chance that future cameras won't be able to read it. I store videos on my computer (which has RAID 1 redundancy) and an external hard drive. For really important videos, maybe store a copy on DVD and keep it at a relative's house (in the event of a fire or other such thing). The last thing you want to do is to keep the only copy of a video on a single hard drive.

[toni1]

This is exact . keeping a copy in another location is advised and wise: I use two external hd to have a double copy for important videos (NFTS formated) ; I use my only internal hd with Xp and VideoStudio to edit and not to stock since I also use it for other things.
The problem with dvd is size : If you have short video it?s Ok ( about 20 min of mpeg2-hd for 4.2 G) . if you have short videos its Ok otherwise you have to compress (WMV-HD or DivX-HD ) and you can put around 50 minutes.
Visually the result with WMV?HD is good looking on computer screen but I?ll have to test with my projector on a large screen to see if the quality ( resolution) is affected.. with DiX-HD I had some sound sync problems.

All around I prefer to keep my rushes in original mpeg2-hd

[Stav]

I'm surprised at the response because, being a tape man from way back, I've discovered the hard way that although DVDs are convenient they can decompose without notice. All CDs and DVDs that we burn on our computers use organic material for the laser to react with and therefore in as little as 3 years can completely wipe clean. Scary - I know. Tape is more reliable, predictable, robust, and not that expensive. Backing up multiple copies is good advice but doesn't answer Mots's question. Hard drives and CDs are second to TAPE. It's harder to destroy a tape than the other three. Digital tape is much harder to erase than analogue tape because the fluxivity is greater also.

[toni1]

Agree about tape duration , I keep all my original tapes in case.

DVDs are much easier to use or re use and wont suffer from multiple reusing if you take care of them (stocking conditions)

You are right about one thing , life span is not eternal for cd dvd, but there is a great quality difference between brands and even a same brand can get its dvds from more than one producer ( ex Verbatim japan made have better reputation than the verbatim DVD produced in china ou india)
DVD quality is discussed on the net if you take time to search.

As for hard drives I put a copy on two separate ones in case (maxtor seems to be a reliable brand). there again you can search ( something like: reliability and hard drives on google) like I have done myself a long while ago