I have quite a few miniDV tapes that I need to go through.
Would appreciate reading how others manage their collection.

[1] Raw footage: do you keep them around? Or delete them all after capturing to the computer?

[2] Edited video: Do you keep it on the computer, or do you print it back to tape?

[3] Edited and rendered video: Keep? Delete?

Thanks,

When I'm done with a project I usually print it as an HD file. If I need to create a lower resolution version, I open a timeline and re-render a new file.

I keep the original miniDV tapes, and the EDL just in case I need to revisit the project. Then I'll delete the captured footage.

I have a 1 tb external for temporary archiving, but someday when the price of blu-ray discs comes down, I might look into archiving on optical discs. But by then, who knows, terabyte drives will dirt cheap.

The technology is now changing so fast, I can't count on having the tape drive in the one remaining D8 cam or MiniDV cam functional for the long term. Keeping the tapes (like I still do) may not help me.

So for now I use multiple external hard drives. I have all of the captured video from tapes (avi files) available on 5 drives counting internals. As reliable storage media arrives I'll migragte it over.

And now that I've converted to flash memory camera media, the multiple hard drive concept is about the only reasonable method for now. And an edited AVCHD project rendered to AVCHD gives me a disk image that is in almost the same format as the AVCHD files it came from.

I used to:

a. save the raw tape
b. print the edited master to tape
c. create a backup of the DVD if there was one
d. save a copy of the editing file onto CD

Since I now use eSata swappable bays, everything just gets backed up onto hard disk. But I still like to save the raw tape, and print the edited master to tape. Just in case.

What's the "usability" time limit for miniDV tapes? For most of my projects, I'm planning on printing to tapes (in addition to having the same copy of the projects on hard drives). I have tapes that are 8 years old. Once the raw footage is in the computer, I consider those tapes "blank" and will print my projects to them. Should I be concerned about their age?

Thanks,

I have metal-evaporated Hi-8 tapes as old as 19 years and they still play back as well as ever. I made the mistake during my first year of videomaking, of re-using many of my camera tapes. After that, I never erased the originals and many times, I've needed to refer to them for footage. They are cheap, compared to the amount they can dependably store. Don't worry about tape drives going out of production-----DV recorders and those for HDV, will be around for a long time, as well as repairs for them. I keep all my DV and HDV raw footage on at least two harddrives and two tapes and the same with edited footage, but I know that I can depend more on the tapes. As far as optical disks are concerned, I use them, but don't rely on them at all, as they are known to fail after just a few years, in some cases.