Videos are a challenging format to work with, especially
when it comes to reformatting video from analog to digital. In addition to staffing
this kind of a project, there are also hardware and software concerns: Is the
appropriate player available for this VHS (BETA, U-Matic, etc.)? Is there a way
to connect it to a computer for conversion? Do I have the appropriate software
for import and/or manipulating files?
Once you’ve addressed those concerns, then things get hard.
The output format must be addressed as well as long-term preservation concerns.
Let’s talk about the output first. Is your newly digitized item going to stay a
digital file? Does it need to be streamed? Will it be burned to a playable DVD?
All of these impact the output file format you will need…and may necessitate
multiple formats depending on your end goal(s). And to tie into preservation,
is the output format one that is sustainable over time?
To assist in making these decisions, the Federal Agencies
Digitization Guidelines Initiative, recently developed a guide for Digital
File Formats for Videotape Reformatting. This guide is made up of 5
documents that have table components for easy comparison among digital file
wrappers (more commonly known as formats/file extensions) and encodings. If you’d
like a more detailed description of the project’s parameters, check out Comparing
Formats for Video Digitization on The
Signal.
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