On 23 Jun 2002 14:51:40 -0700, fanticy@aol.com (Angie) wrote:

>I just bought the Sony TRV27 and I really love it. I was wondering
>though, with the Mini DV tapes being so expensive, if people are
>dubbing it onto another format and then just reusing their tapes? I
>was wondering if I could get this converted onto a DVD burner?
>Anybody have experience with such, brand names that are good, and what
>a DVD burner costs now days? How long will a DVD last.. longevity..
>as good as storing it onto a VHS tape? Or do most people just leave
>the format on their Mini DV tapes? Again that seems expensive to
>do... but would appreciate some feedback.

At under $5/hour for tape (www.taperesources.com,
www.tapeguys.com, and other good discounters), keep
the original on Mini-DV tape - the quality is noticeably
higher than it is on any other "dubbing" medium except
with FireWire transfer to another equal DV medium like
DVCam. Do not further compress the video to put it on
disks, or copy it to lower-quality analogue formats if
you wish to retain the original quality level...