Now is the time to archive those important projects.
You can do this yourself or Hill’s Video Productions can help. Either way, as videotape becomes obsolete, it is important to archive to keep your work safe for future use.
Digital archiving is different from traditional archiving. Traditional archiving seeks to preserve physical object. Digital archiving seeks to preserve the information regardless of the media on which the information is stored.
Computer discs and other magnetic and optical media degrades and the information on them is lost unless it has been moved to other media. Software and hardware is changing rapidly. Physical media on which digital data is stored are not fail-safe. Other methods are necessary to ensure wide access to and long-term preservation of digital data so it can be used in years to come.
It is important to select the right conversion file type, compression and frame size, rate, bit rate and codec. This is where Hill’s Video Productions can determine the right file type for you and your memories.
Everyone needs to archive traditional analog videotape as it becomes fragile over time. As tape players become obsolete, it is important to transfer your master to an archival format for future use.
Here are some handy tips:
- Identify the masters you will need for future use
- What files types will you want to use? MP4 is a good consumer editing format. Pro Res is a good future professional editing format.
- How do you want to store the files? USB? Portable drive?
- Create folders to store all relevant files
- Print a hard copy of the folders/directories
- Create a backup to prevent loss should one drive fail
- Check your save files at least once a year to make sure they open
- Create new copies of media every 5 years to avoid potential loss
Whatever the future may be for your projects, Hill’s Video is here to help, just give us a call.
Coming in to see us?
- Identify the tape/film that you want to convert
- Is this the master copy or is it a copy of a copy. Originals are better
- What format is it? Betacam, D3, 1” Umatic ¾”, SVHS. VHS, Betamax, 8mm, DVCAM, HDCam, DBeta?
- Are the tapes clearly labelled
- How many copies do you need for siblings, children, grandchildren
- Any special notation you need on the files?