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I would like to backup my MiniDV tapes using the FireWire port in a raw format (byte for byte) to avoid any degradation in quality.

What (preferably open source) software would you recommend for Vista Basic?

Also, is there a standard file format?

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  • Out of curiosity, how many MiniDV tapes are you looking at archiving?
    – emgee
    Mar 27, 2011 at 2:34

2 Answers 2

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Tape is actually a very stable storage medium. Keeping the original MiniDVs on a shelf, plus a spare player (preferably with a FireWire output) is a solid backup strategy.

DVD-Rs suffer from bit rot even in the "archival" quality discs -- it's a technology issue. And hard drives, while fairly stable if they're not left connected to a machine but instead shelved, are delicate in comparison to tape. You could look in to solid state drives but the cost per byte there is quite high. Long term data archival is usually done to tape at the corporate level: it's cost-per-byte is very good and the durability goes from respectable to very good if you can store them in a well-controlled environment.

So, my answer is: don't bother. Put the tapes in a box and keep a spare player around.

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  • +1 for this. Tapes have a longer shelf life than your hard drive.
    – Sparr
    Dec 10, 2010 at 8:19
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    I am also looking at backing the tapes up in case of damage (fire, flood, etc). S3 is where I want to send the data too, I just need to find the format with less loss possible and biggest compatibility.
    – mr-euro
    Mar 23, 2011 at 9:17
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    @Sparr The trouble is the "keeping the spare player around" part. Old consumer a/v gear with many tiny moving parts in close alignment has a way of going bad on the shelf, far faster than the tapes do. Practically all iminiDV players and camcorders use at least a couple of tiny rubber belts which over a period of 10 or more years have a tendency to turn into something like chewing gum. There are repair shops around, mostly online/mail order, but how long will they exist? Being able to play those tapes ten or more years from now is not something I'd count on. The OP has the right approach. Jul 30, 2017 at 17:23
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If your camera and PC both have a FireWire (a.k.a IEEE-1394, Sony i.Link) port, you should be set. Hook your camera up to your PC, load a tape, and fire up the free WinDV to capture the video.

I don't have the time at the moment to get into particulars, but some basics:

  • Capture is in real-time
  • Capture is lossless compared to the DV tape
  • Very high bitrate (~12 GB/hr)
  • Captures to AVI files
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  • Thanks for the link. Is AVI the format in which the video camera itself stores the data on the tape (like RAW or TIFF on a photo camera)?
    – mr-euro
    Mar 23, 2011 at 9:19
  • @mr-euro: Yes, you're getting the raw DV data off of the tape.
    – afrazier
    Mar 23, 2011 at 12:32
  • Technically AVI is a container format that supports many internal formats. But, yes, the .AVI file you'll get from this process contains the miniDV-format video and audio, bit for bit. Incidentally miniDV video is just a series of frames each compressed individually with JPEG; there is no temporal compression, so there are no "key frames". This is why it's considered a "directly editable" format. Jul 30, 2017 at 17:28

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