David Pogue relays his experience transferring his old MiniDV tapes to hard drive and keys in on a theme that I've harped on in the past: backing up your camcorder videos is a bit of a slog, but an important slog nonetheless. Writes Pogue:
I still have to back up my two video drives. I still have to edit these videos, which I'll probably wind up doing in iMovie 2045.
And above all, I have to steel myself for a lifetime of format migration. The DV format imported by iMovie (or the .WMV files created by Movie Maker) will eventually be replaced by newer, better file formats, and today's files will be orphaned.
I'll have to be vigilant, converting my stash every 10 years to whatever's in vogue at the time.
I don't like that idea. I don't like putting all my videos in one or two baskets. I don't like the expense and inconvenience of switching to a tapeless camcorder.
He ends on a more upbeat note (and personally, I much prefer tapeless camcorders to tape for a number of reasons). But the important point to emphasize is whether you like it or not, your digital memories are only going to make it if you take the time to ensure their survival. You can find some best practices for archiving your video memories here.
Comments
It is posible that DVD recordings will degrade over time. It might be nessesary to re-record a new DVD every X years.
Maybe someone who has the equiptment, could check out the degredation of DVDs and CDs to pass this on to us.