Sorry if my post was a little confusing and I didn’t mean to scare you with the remark that the files may become corrupt. I just wanted to inform you that this may be a possibility in the future. You may not have this problem but you never know. So…I would recomend that you cut the video in half and burn two data dvds like we discussed. If you want, you can copy those files from the dvd to your hard drive and make a new data dvd every 2-3 years so that you always have a fresh copy. I would also just keep the files on a hard drive. Many production compaies archive their video on hard drives and are confident that they will last. I reccomend an external hard drive or a secondary hard drive that isn’t used as much as the master hard drive that runs the operating system. You can also burn the whole video to a video dvd like you asked. But this will be your "last resort" file. Ken is right, when you make a video dvd, the AVI file is compressed into a VOB file. A VOB file is an Mpeg2 file but exclusive to DVD. The VOB, eventhough it still looks great is not as good as the original AVI. Futhermore, if you want to edit that VOB file in the future, you will have to either rip the dvd or copy the VOB file to your hard drive. Most NLE’s won’t allow you to import VOB’s, so you will have to get an encoder program and convert it back to an AVI. You will lose more quality during the conversion. I’m not sure how long "home" dvds last but I have videos that are 7 years old and still work. It’s always best to store media in cool dry places. You can also invest in removable media like Memory Stick Pro or SD but it can be very expensive depending on how many gigs you want. I do believe they now come in 10+ gigs. I think it would be a waste to use these for video storage and isn’t necessary. You will be just fine if you follow the advice in this forum.
Best Regards,
Corey
