Best strategy when getting started and capturing a bunch of video tapes

Question

I recently purchased FC Express. I have 2 years worth of video tapes that I am starting to capture - about 20 1 hour-long tapes covering various trips, topics, and what not. I'd like to set things up for the most flexibility down the road since I'm not sure what I will end up creating. For example, I may want to create a multi-media DVD which takes elements from various tapes. I know that's vague ...
My basic question is when doing the capturing is it best to have a project for each tape or one big project that encompasses all of them or ...? Also, any recommendations regarding capture bins.
Anything else (suggestions, links/websites, etc.) which might help with how to best set things up for this miscellaneous multi-tape situation would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve

Answer 1

First, you're going to need more than 260GB of disk space to store that 20 hours of video (assuming it's standard def DV video).
Second, although you capture video in an FCE project, the resulting capture files are not limited to that specific project. In fact, you could capture all 20 of your tapes in a single project, then delete the project, and you would still have all 20 capture files on your hard drive (20 files, assuming you use Capture Now to capture all 20 tapes, each in its entirety, rather than using Capture Clip).
You might want to look into a cataloging app like FootTrack or iDive
Regarding bins, they are associated with a project. If you want to capture all your tapes in a single project then you might consider creating bins that have meaningful names and use them to organize your captured clips/tapes by subject, trip, etc.