Best Vegas codec for preservation
 

What is the best output for preserving files for future use, say 10 - 40 years? I originally stored my DV footage as .mpg at because that was available, then went on to .wmv, and now .mp4. I've used Vegas in its various releases for most of the footage and still have most of the projects. I am considering reopening rendering them once again.

What Vegas Pro 9 or 10 render settings would you recommend for original DV and for 1080 HD projects to best preserve these pieces so the rendered segments can be viewed, converted to a new format as needed, or incorporated into future works many years down the road?

Why would you not save DV footage in its original format of DV-AVI?
The same thinking apples to HD footage.
Hard drives used to be very expensive but you can now get 2 TB. drives for a little over $100.
Make sure to archive to two drives, store them in separate locations and exercise them periodically.

Mike is correct as usual. The simplest solution is often the best one. Generally speaking, anything worth storing (IMO) is worth storing in it's original form. 2tb drive will hold well over 200 hours of footage. I don't know how much it will hold exactly but I'm guessing based on my half empty archive drives.

I can't imagine storing something for archival purposes in a wmv file, etc., doesn't make sense to me...unless you only want to be able to watch it later...not re-work it.

Mike,

The work falls into two categories, 1/2 by length and 1/10 by disc space is home video shot from 1989 - 1994, originally captured on 8mm then Hi-8. I spent several months reducing family footage on many, many tapes into a summary of 8 hours or so of edited footage I wish to preserve for my children's children. Much of it was edited using a program called ULead, which I abandoned long ago. I rendered the edited footage to mpeg2 for use on DVD's, which we all have since learned is far from permanent. Fortunately I saved multiple DVD's and was able to rip it off one of the still readable DVD's. Though slightly degraded, the quality of 8mm and Hi-8 wasn't that great to start with and I'm glad to have what I have. The second category is in HDV and HD footage, where I used Vegas and have most of the source files as shot or in Cineform .avi when capturing on 7D/t2i.

So certainly you aren't saying because the 1080 x 1440 HDV footage was originally captured to .m2t, I should render the edited piece to .m2t or the 8mm shot on .mpg should be rendered to mpg. I'm assuming you are saying if DV, render to 640 x480 or 720x480 DV-avi, if HDV, 1440 x 1080 HDV-avi, or if HD 1029 x 1080 HD-avi? I don't know much about Vegas and how it renders to .avi, whether its good, lossy, or if there are specific settings to get the best render. Should I use HD 60i YUV or Cineform codec, or uncompressed... Very confusing as much of my footage was shot 1080-30P, which Vegas doesn't appear to offer a setting at high resolution.


Jeff,

I really don't want to rework it again. I want to save an edited version for future generations that they can view or pull from the edited version. I'd like to keep the edited rendering as very close to the original's quality and the codec to be supported as long in the future as possible. I'll still have most of the source files, but I don't think many would want to wade through this much footage. As techology changes, I hope to transfer to new mediums as I go so it doesn't get left behind in some obscure format or hardware device that will be difficult to convert in 2050.