Do you DVD or DV dump?

[bowmah]

I just realized that my MiniDV camera can capture / download at:

DV: AVI uncompressed, it looks like (60 min = 12 gigs)

or

DVD: MPG compressed - (60 min = 4.5 gigs)

I am wondering which is the lesser eveil. Editing and trimming a bigger AVI file or editing and trimming a smaller but compressed MPG file. My main output is for DVD-R and I don't see a big difference on the TV but I see very minor jagged edges on the LCD notebook.

How does everyone else do it?

[MJS]

It really depends what the client or viewing audience is. Wwe stay native digital through post production and go to DVD or tape. We typically go to DVD for mass distribution and keep an archival digital copy of the project on both DVD and tape if its important.

[bowmah]

So you work in AVI until the last minute where you output the final product into compressed DVD then? I guess it's the lesser of 2 evils. Larger file sizes versus compressed / lower quality files.

[MJS]

You got it. We keep it as clean as possible till we finish. I edit with the Avid system, so the source material is always an .omf for video and .aiff-c audio till finished. We have a large enough server to keep most material arouned for archival purposes. If we need space, we dump to DV tape and store, only compressing to lower qualities when called for by a client, teacher, parent or administrator.