Online archiving of home video

I've had a hard time finding any meaningful discussion of this topic.
I am currently archiving all of the old home video I've shot over the last 20 years, getting it off tape, etc. iMovie has proven to be a decent tool for organizing the video into events by year and month.
My "iMovie Events" library is on a 4 TB Drobo. I'm using a little under 1 TB right now, but when I'm finished archiving, I expect to have 5-6 TB of video data. And growing!
So getting the local capacity isn't that hard - lots of options for big drive arrays. But I'd like to start archiving that data into a cloud-based service. I'd settle for backup only, but ideally I'd love to be able to stream the video to my computer as well.
Has anyone found a solution to the large storage requirements of video online? In my ideal world, I'd continue using iMovie to work with the video, and store it locally for convenience, but I'd have a "trickle backup" running pushing the video up to a service somewhere for long term storage and disaster recovery.
Unfortunately, the likes of Mozy and Carbonite seem to think that 100 GB is "tons of space". Not when you are dealing with video!
What are other people doing with this?
Craig

I am using CrashPlan for this.
CrashPlan lets you seed your cloud backup with a 1TB disk drive that they send you, so that you only have to send online new files, or files that will not fit within 1TB.
I currently have about 1.5TB backed up to the cloud. I have all my DV, all my h.264, and all my VHS and Hi8 backed up to the cloud. For my AVCHD, I only backup the archive copy from the camera, and the completed movie, because the Apple Intermediate Codec versions of the Events are too large to backup to the cloud on a timely basis. So the Archive copy is fine, and it is the first generation copy anyway. I also backup my documents folder, my iTunes library, and my iPhoto and Aperture libraries to the cloud.
I have a fast internet connection with 50 Mbs download and 10 Mbs upload.

Similar Messages

Best format/compression for archiving old VHS home videos?

To those who have digitized old VHS home videos: what format/compression did you choose for them when archiving? I have been experimenting with all the different choices when exporting from iMovie, and the tradeoff between size and image quality. Just curious to see what others have decided on.

Thanks for the responses. Is MPEG-2 the best choice for VHS footage? i.e. is it sufficient for the relatively low quality of VHS? I thought MPEG-4 was superior to MPEG-2. Or is MPEG-4 for HD videos? I have been importing from a VCR through a Canopus ADVC-55 (i have eyetv but i think the imported video was blocky...it was a long time ago). Editing in iMovie 09 and exporting to QuickTime movie H.264 on the "high" quality setting, just below "best". Anyway, now I'm wondering if i can just export to MPEG-2, have the same quality image, but a smaller file size.

Whats the best way to transfer VHS home video's into IMOVIE '11 for exporting/editing?

I have been reading about this subject online for a while now but need assistance/guidance before I go out and buy adapters etc. to begin my project. I am attempting to put home-videos of mine from VHS-C format onto my Macbook Pro.....Is it possible that if I use VCR adapter cables that go Red, White, Yellow, to USB I can directly import these VHS home videos into my computer?
I am going to have to buy a new VCR to do this and I would like to find out if this is going to work properly if I buy a VCR and use these Adapter cables I mentioned above.
Throughout my reading on the topic I've ran across a lot of different suggestions for a million different Video Conversion programs etc. although I would feel most comfortable using Imovie '11 on my brand new Macbook Pro because I have faith in Mac Programs for this type of a procedure.
I'd truly appreciate the help I've been wanting to work on this video project for quite a while now and I'm anxious to get some material in digital format to work with.

The VHS tape deck is analog. You have to convert these signals to digital format before you can edit them with iMovie.
There are a couple of ways to do this.
1) You can get a device called a DAC (Digital Analog Converter). Grass Valley makes a series of these. They are pricey, but give good results. They attach via Firewire, so make sure your Mac has a Firewire port. They produce a file in the DV format. You can import directly into iMovie with this option.
2) You can get a device called an EyeTV Hybrid. This will accept your RCA red, white, and yellow on one side, and attach with USB. This produces a file in H.264 format. You import the VHS into the EyeTV software, and then send it to iMovie through a menu choice.
3) Some camcorders have "passthrough" capability, meaning they can take the RCA Red, White, and Yellow in and output digital DV through Firewire. You can import directly into iMovie with this option.
Once converted, iMovie is a great way to edit your movies.
Personally, I use the EyeTV Hybrid. It also lets me view and record over the air HDTV on my Mac.
Here is a sample of my results with the EyeTV Hybrid.

Import home video DVD's into iMovie

I want to import my home video DVD's into iMovie for editing and backup. What is the best way to do this? I have already tried creating a disk image, but somehow when I open these images with iMovie, some parts of the original video are missing. (for example the video on DVD is 60 minutes, but the video opened on iMovie is 50 minutes). I also tried to convert to MPEG 2 using MPEG Streamclip, and purchased the MPEG2 Playback component from Apple Store, but it turns out that this component was intended for earlier versions of OS X, so I could not even install it. I am currently at a lockdown, please help me out!!!

There are directions on the MPEG Streamclip website on how to get the MPEG2 Playback component installed on your computer (I'm assuming your running Mac OS X 10.7). I'm cutting and pasting them here in case someone else runs into the same problems.
From the MPEG Streamclip homepage
The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.
To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. You don't have to install QuickTime 7.
Also read the information for Snow Leopard below.
Snow Leopard and MPEG-2 Playback Component
The Snow Leopard upgrade DVD released on August 28, 2009 may wipe the content of the /System/Library/QuickTime folder during the upgrade process, and delete your MPEG-2 Playback Component installed in that folder. To use MPEG-2 files with MPEG Streamclip you have to reinstall the MPEG-2 component or restore it from a backup copy.
If you are going to upgrade to Snow Leopard
Open the /System/Library/QuickTime folder and drag the QuickTimeMPEG2.component file to your desktop to make a copy of it. Then upgrade to Snow Leopard. When the upgrade is complete, open the /System/Library/QuickTime folder again and move the QuickTimeMPEG2.component file from the desktop to the /System/Library/QuickTime folder (enter your administrator password if necessary).
If you already upgraded to Snow Leopard
You have to reinstall or restore your MPEG-2 Playback Component.
If you have a Time Machine backup of your System folder, then open the /System/Library/QuickTime folder, enter Time Machine and go back in time until you see the QuickTimeMPEG2.component file; select that file and then click Restore.
If you purchased the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the Apple Online Store, then you probably still have the DMG file that contains the installer. Use Spotlight to search for "QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg": if you find a file with that name, double-click it and then in the disk image, double-click the installer package for Intel Macs.
If you purchased the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the Apple Online Store but you can't find the QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg file, you can download the file again from the Apple Online Store if you remember the Apple ID used when you originally purchased it (if you forgot your Apple ID then go to Apple iforgot). Visit the Apple Online Store, click on "Account" in the store menu, then click "Downloadable Software Purchases," enter your Apple ID and password, and click the link to the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component to download it again.
If you obtained the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the installation of Final Cut Studio, then you can reinstall it again from the Final Cut Studio DVD. Insert the DVD and use the Finder's Go menu > Go To Folder... command to get to the /Volumes/Final Cut Studio/Installer/Packages/ folder inside the DVD. Locate the QuickTimeMPEG2.pkg or the QuickTimeMPEG2Pro.pkg installer: double-click it to reinstall the MPEG-2 component.

Video converting and burning home videos

Do anyone know the best program to convert my sonyhandycam video files and then what software I should use to burn these home videos onto a DVD? Sony's software is not compatible with Mac and iMovie won't recognize them! iDVD is not on my Mac (just purchased a few weeks ago)!!

The current Apple thinking is that the entire world has access to fast broadband and wants to distribute home movies to friends and relatives via download (iCloud) rather than mailing them a DVD. The fact that nothing could be further from the truth has so far had no effect on this policy. If you scream and shout loudly enough down the phone Apple may send you a free copy of iDVD. That worked for some, but is now said to have been withdrawn by Apple. Also, you can complain bitterly here, perhaps suggesting that Apple could have provided a choice between using iCloud and burning DVDs:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
Whilst Macs with a Superdrive continue to be able to burn video DVDs, the software for so doing, iDVD, is no longer included in the iLife bundle that comes with OS 10.7 Lion or will come with OS 10.8 Mountain Lion. And it is no longer included in the iLife 11 from the online Apple Store: http://www.apple.com/ilife/. Your only solution is to look on Amazon or eBay and try to get an older version that includes iDVD.
However, the vastly more expensive FCPX can burn a DVD without iDVD or DVD Studio Pro involvement, but lack the themes etc of iDVD.

Seeking broad guidance on home video scheme

Hello,
I'm interested in resources anyone can point to that provides guidance on designing a home-video set up.
For example, after many years and many tweaks, I've found a flow that works very well for my photos; folder structure, naming convention, face tags, content tags, etc. It has taken a while, but my photos are now stored in a way that I can access them intuitively based on what I'm looking for....
I'm still a bit lost when it comes to the best set-up for videos. I know there are MANY factors, and no solution works for everyone. I'd be interested to hear how other folks have arranged their 'archiving scheme' to store and allow intuitive access to their home videos. I'm sure there are many factors I haven't even considered and tips I would never think of.... looking forward to some wisdom from the community.
Though I'm most interested in just learning how other folks have designed their systems, here's a brief snapshot of where I am, and hope to go:
Context: basic every day family home videos / memories
Source: raw unedited video from past 12 years or so, in several formats (still on 8mm needing to be captured, .mod files, 720 mp4 files,)
Goal is to
Choose output format (I realize there's no single good answer). I am flexible on space/quality tradeoffs.
I'm thinking I want to avoid DVDs: access from PC and from Apple TV device (jailbroken, will accept pretty much any video format).
Considering no DVDs, would love tips on meaningful folder/naming structure, etc. to make accessing videos intuitive based on context of an event (do you put that week vacation in one 40min video file, or is there elegant way to arrange multiple files.. etc)
Again, I know there are no perfect answers - but would love advice and thoughts from the group.
Thanks All, Chris.

Hello Steve and all, Thanks very much for your help with my post.
I think the most straightforward way for me to ask would be this:
Similar to retiring the CD player in favor of digital music players, I would like to avoid using DVDs to store/access home video, in favor of hard-disk storage, and accessing the videos directly on the PC and other digital devices on my home network (specifics below)
The immediate drawback I can see to this is losing the 'chapter' or 'scene' functionality of a DVD. If I have a 60min video of a birthday party, it would be simple to set the DVD up with chapters to easily navigate to the scenes I want.
Any thoughts on ways to mimic this functionality when setting up a HDD based storage/access scheme ?
Below are answers to your specific questions. Thanks again for your input !!
Camcorder models (I have video from several sources over dozen years. So, some is old, some is newer)
1. Hi8mm - still on tape (have not captured it yet)
2. JVC Everio .mod files
3. Kodak playsport zx5.
Archiving for future projects?
My goal is to go through all the video, cut out the 'junk' and produce final cut videos, typically based on the event.
Example: Take all 54 .mod files from a birthday party and make a single video for the event. Or, perhaps down to a couple of files to mimic the functionality of chapters on a DVD ?..... open to thoughts from those who've been down that road.
The bulk of video from over the years is either still analog, or .mod files standard def.. Moving forwad, all new video is Hi Def. Currently 720 mp4.
So, I will likely have final video in low and hi def ??
720 mp4s are from the Kodak PlaySport I've had for a short time.
How do I plan to display video?
1. Hoping to avoid DVDs altogether in favor of hard drive based system. Storage will be on desktop system in 'office' room of house.
2. Primary viewing on living room tv via Apple TV2 (specifics below).
3. Secondary viewing directly on storage / multimedia PC in 'office' room of house.
4.Would like to be able to access from iPad / iPhone around the house. Not necessary to be able to view remotely.
Videos would be delivered to Apple TV2 over wireless home network, direclty from a 'multimedia' pc. The PC is wired into router, Apple TV is wireless. It seems to perform well at streaming HD video from PC over wireless network.
Thanks again for your kind help !!
Chris.

How can I get my personal home videos into iMovie?

I REALLY wanted to make my sister a special birthday video with home videos. I put the home videos which are on DVDs into my laptop and I tried just about everything, but nothing is working to convert these so that they can go into iMovie. Can someone PLEASE help me? This is super stressful. -__-

This tip will show you how to import your home movie on DVD into iMovie 11 for editing. It will not work on commercial, copy-protected DVDs. (Ripping commercial DVDs is against the Terms of Use of the Apple Discussions).
DVDs are encoded by iDVD into MPEG2, which iMovie cannot edit. So you need to convert the DVD into a codec that iMovie can edit. For highest quality, I recommend that you convert the DVD to Apple Intermediate Codec. There is a free tool called MPEG Streamclip that will do this. You will also need to install the Apple QuickTIme MPEG2 Playback Component.
Here are the details.
1) Download and install the Apple MPEG2 QuickTime Component ($20) - available online from Apple.
2) Download and install MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5 (free).
3) Start MPEG Streamclip
4) Insert your DVD into your Mac. If DVD Player or Front Row starts automatically, quit those.
5) Open a Finder window. Navigate to the DVD.
6) Drag the Video_TS folder from your DVD and drop it into MPEG Streamclip.
7) If MPEG Streamclip offers to fix timecode breaks, say yes.
8) Use FILE/EXPORT USING QUICKTIME to convert the files to Apple Intermediate Codec (or h.264 if you prefer)
9) Optional steps.
9a) Optional: You can deinterlace your footage in this step, if you like. If you don't know which is best, try a short clip both ways. I usually do not deinterlace.
9b) Optional: If you know the date and or time of the footage, name your file
clip-yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm;ss
(let mpeg streamclip provide the extension). This will provide metadata that iMovie will use to put the event in the right year and month.
9c) Optional: If you don't want to make one huge clip out of your DVD, you can make smaller clips by using MPEG Streamclip. Move the cursor to the "in" point of the clip, and press i. Move the cursor to the "Out" point of the clip, and press o. Then do steps 8 through 10 and repeat until you have done this for all clips you want.
10) Save the resulting file in a place where you can find it, like your Desktop.
11) Open iMovie.
12) In iMovie, choose FILE/IMPORT/Movies... and choose the file you saved in steps 8, 9, 10.
13) iMovie will generate thumbnails and you can edit.

How do u share home videos with relatives on itunes?

How do u share home videos with relatives on itunes? My son moved but still has itunes account on home computer. can the home videos be moved or placed into his Itune acct, and then viewed?

No, use an online storage facility such as dropbox which will allow you to share content with each other.

How do I add my video files to the "home videos" folder on itunes?

Sorry, I'm relatively new at this, I'm trying to add my family videos to my itunes "home videos" in itunes but I can't seem to bring them into my library. ideas?

make sure they are MP4 or MOV files, and simply drag them into the library window of iTunes.

I'm using Windows 8. I have 2 folders in my videos library - movies and personal videos. When I try to import a movie into iTunes, it puts it in the Home Video section and if I import a personal video, it puts it into the home video section. what up?

Im using Win8. I originally had all my ripped movies in a movie folder listed in the videos library. This imported into iTunes movies with no issue. I later added a second folder t my library - personal videos where i put all my home videos. I was able to import this into iTunes and it showed up in "Home Movies" - very cool and exactly what I wanted. Now, if I add a new ripped movie and put it in my movie librairy and try to import it into iTunes, it places it in Home Movies. And if I put a new personal video, it will also import into iTunes under 'Home Video?. What is going on here?? Any help would be greatly appreciated - it seems like this is a bug in iTunes 11.

I thank you for the response. Apple does some assinine things sometimes and this is one of them. Ask the planet the difference between a movie and a home video and with the exception of Apple, you'd get 100% consenus on the what difference is. A home video is something that I shoot, like my kids birthday party. A movie is something I urchased either via download or a DVD that I ripped. Unbelievable! The fact that Apple has chosen not to distinguish based upon which folder I tell it is Movies and which folder is Home Videos is really hard to fathom - sounds like something Windows would do. I find it funny that in my iTunes movies sub-section of the movies section, the movie icons have a cloud icon in upper right corner to distinguish it as bought from Apple iTunes versus no cloud icon for movies that I have ripped - so the distintion was already made and clearly visible. Now - everything just defaults to "home videos" if I try to import a new ripped DVD - why even bother to have this distinction on the iTunes bar? WOW!
As for your direction, I do not understand what you are telling me - what Media Kind and what Options tab are you referring to? I see no Options tab in iTunes. Right licking on the movie icon does not yield media kind or options as well. Gping to the source file does not yield these options either.
Thanks again for your help.
Clay

What is the best way to make and organize home videos? Macbook Pro? iPad?

I have a Sony Handycam HD camcorder and a macbook pro. Right now, I'm creating home videos by dumping all raw video into iMovie, adding a date/time stamp and saving the video to an external hard drive. Is this the best way for me to create and store these home videos with my current setup? I also take some video with my iPhone and include them in the iMovie projects as well. I want these videos to be around for a long time and I'm afraid I'm going to lose them since I've graduated from DVDs to actual .mov files.
With that said, I would like to find a more streamlined approach. Idealy, I would love to replace my macbook pro with an iPad and use the iMovie app to process all of my home videos and then save to iCloud or an external hard drive. Is this possible?

Deleting the application from your /Applications folder is sufficient. There are sample projects in /Library/Application/Aperture you may want to get rid of as well, as they take up a fair bit of space.

How can I organize home videos and photos in ipad

I don't have a mac or pc, just the new ipad. I'm planning to buy a camera card reader adapter so I can load my photos and videos directly from my camera card to my ipad. But then how do I organize my home videos and photos in my ipad into albums?
I saw the photo folder app does essentially what I want but does it treat videos the same as photos? I didn't see anything about it being able to organize videos.

See the follwoing and the links in the following:
iTunes: Frequently asked questions about viewing and syncing videos
Yuo will likely need a computer app to convert the format to one compatible with the iPad. I use the Free HandBrake app. It has an iPad preset.

How do you move or can I move Itune folders (Movies), (TV Shows) and (Home Videos) to other internal hard drives (running out of space) on my computer's main hard drive and have Itunes recongize where they are?

I built my own computer which has 4 internal hard drives with 3 internal hard drives that are 3tb. With my movies and tv shows, I need to know if I can move the Itunes folders (Movies, TV shows and Home Video's) and move each one of them to 3 seperate internal hard drives while Itunes can still find them to play with my apple tv. Does anyone know how I can do it?

While you can do that, it is not a feature of iTunes. Put your movies on the external drive, then add them to iTunes by dragging the files to iTunes while holding the option (alt) key down so it leaves the files where they are located. There are other ways to move them if they are already added but they can be more involved and tricky. If it's just one or two try: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected

How do I put several iphone 4 home video clips together on Quicktime so that I can watch them together on the one DVD.

How do I put several iphone 4 home video clips together on Quicktime so that I can watch them together on the one DVD as a movie. And what export setting do I use to play on a DVD player?

burney1967 wrote:
How do I put several iphone 4 home video clips together on Quicktime so that I can watch them together on the one DVD as a movie. And what export setting do I use to play on a DVD player?
QuickTime Player is not itself able to do this. You need a proper DVD authoring solution such as Apple's iDVD.

I have my home videos on imovie. How do I get them to idvd so I can burn to a dvd?

I have my home videos on imovie. How do I get them to idvd so I can burn to a dvd?

Export to the camera roll, then import them to your comuter as you would any photos or video from your device:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3994426?tstart=90

Online archiving of home video

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