[Cottonsworth]

What is the best way to backup video footage from my Mini DV tapes to DVD discs? I am not looking for the ability to play these on a home DVD player, I just want to have them on a DVD so I can access the videos from my computer. Most of the video on my Mini DV tapes are short clips. Ideally, I would like to be able to import each clip as an individual file. I used iMovie HD to import the video from my Mini DV tapes to my computer but the ensuing iMovie file is usually much larger than what I can fit on a DVD. What I have been doing is dragging individual clips that are created in iMovie HD into Finder and just burning a disc in there. It seems a bit redundant to do it this way. I was wondering if there is a better way to do what I want?

Additionally, when iMovie HD imports the video, it saves it as a .dv file. Would this be the best file format to have if I eventually want to do video editing outside of iMovie HD, such as Final Cut?

Finally, can anyone point me to a good video editing forum if I want to ask questions about editing in iMovie HD or Final Cut?

Thanks!

[bmcgonag]

So, I've only done this method once, but not too hard.

Your miniDV should have a Firewire port. You will need a firewire cable with the appropriate sized ends to connect from your camera to your mac.

once connected, open iMovie, under the preview pane there is a little virtual switch that you need to move to external camera with your mouse, or trackpad, whatever.

Once done, select to import video, then just click play on your camera. should begin recording into the mac.

Once completed, you can edit the video, audio, etc. or whatever you want to do with it, then Export the file from iMovie to iDVD, and burn it to DVD.

hope this helps,

Brian

[Cottonsworth]

Thanks for the reply, but it doesn't answer my question. Anyone else? Thanks.

[bmcgonag]

Originally Posted by Cottonsworth 

Thanks for the reply, but it doesn't answer my question. Anyone else? Thanks.

Sorry man, The entire post didn't come up when I replied. It was cut off at the point where you were talking about wanting to import from your miniDV.

So, once you have the .dv in imovie, have you tried exporting it to iDVD? I kind of figured this would compress it somewhat to make it fit on the DVD. If you are just wanting to store it more as data, then once in iMovie, click Share, then Quicktime option, then in the dropdown under that select the format you want, and it will be compressed, or you can create a compression size you prefer using the Expert option in the drop-down. Once selected, just click share, and it will ask you what you want to name the file, and where you want to save it too.

Depending on the output format you choose, The compression of the file size is pretty immense. at 720 x 480 with stereo sound output i've compressed several hundred MB down to 30 or 40 MB files. So looks good on SD TV, still good for import back for editing if I want later.

As far as editing, i haven't looked at this forum's Audio/Video stuff, and I hate to point you away from here, but you might try forums.macrumors.com as well.

Hope this is a little more helpful this time, and sorry for the confusion before.

Brian

[MRTrauffer]

The best way to "backup" your footage from miniDV would be to follow the steps provided above, except instead of using iDVD, use a burn folder in the Finder to back the .dv files to your DVD. That will keep your back your files up without reencoding the video.