Posted by rynato on 02/02/06 22:29

I have a lot of footage I shot in Italy on Hi8, back in the mid 90s
when Hi8 was state of the art for industrial and prosumer use. This is
mostly professionally composed and shot video, not home movies crap,
though some of it is priceless recordings of a deceased relative.

I would like to archive this footage because someday my Sony TR101
will need service and I don't wish to put any further money into it.
So, now's the time to digitize the footage while I still have a way to
play it back.

Here are my options:

1) to miniDV - Dub the footage via S-Video/RCA audio out to my miniDV
deck. Import the miniDV footage via Firewire and burn the movie files
to DVD data discs or store on a HD. Yes I know that miniDV is
compressed.

2a) to Media100 - Dub the footage via S-Video/RCA audio out to my
BetaSP deck. Import the footage into my Media 100 system at the lowest
compression, 300kb, then burn the files to DVD or store on HD.

Of course if I dub to Beta, I can save the tapes and someday digitize
them at uncompressed, like when I get my AJA Io unit. However I have
many hours of footage and I'm not sure if it is practical to store that
many reels.

2b) to Media100 - Dub the footage directly through my Media 100
breakout box instead of first dubbing to BetaSP.

If I go straight through the breakout box, I will avoid the
(probably slight) degradation of the video that will occur from the
digital-to-analog transfer, but I won't have the Beta tapes to fall
back on. I also won't have the issue of storing so many Beta reels.

So. Which method will give me the least degraded video compared to the
original Hi8 footage... 1, 2a, or 2b?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

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