Ok, I'm currently running out of storage space for my premiere exported movies.I usually export them as standard DV format. But, 13 Gigs an hour seems to be too much to me. My 200 GB harddisk that I usually used in storing those DV movies is getting really low on space. I'm thinking of transcoding all my movies into DivX. But I wonder if I can use them back with my Premiere (in a very minimum loss of quality).
Any suggestions?

You'll have problems editing any format that compresses your video by any significant amount.

If you are going to be editing it again you could export it to tape, or just keep the original source tapes and export it to DVD.

See FAQ no. 14 for some more info: http://www.videoforums.co.uk/reviews/faq

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P4 1GB Ram 50+160GB, Win XP, Premiere 6, Encore+Photoshop, Lite-on 4x dvd rw.
Sony TRV-250, Panasonic NVGS-75, Canon MV600i

Here is what I do and it works perfectly!

I use a file compression program called Winrar, you must have heard of it. http://www.rarlab.com/ It can compress, and or, cut a video file into any size and as many pieces as you need. I take a finished dv-avi, or project pieces for that matter and use the store setting to cut it into DVD size files. Then burn the files. When you want the files back you just put all the pieces on the hard drive and click the first one. All of them will extract and you have your full quality video back. (this is a no compression setting)

If you want to save some space you can use the Fastest, Fast, or Normal compression setting which will compress your video but not produce any artifacts. from compression. (Fastest has very little compression) It is quite good. If you go up to the 'best' compression setting it wil compress even more and while I have never seen any artifacts using this setting it is possible in theory that some may exsist.

Thank's.I just checked the FAQ, i guess that explains. But what u meant by DVD is the media to store right?But what about the compression (as in MPEG2,DivX,etc)?.Do I have to still store them as DV avi format as well?But that means the file size will still be the same right?Is there any way I can cost the least in file size, with very very minimum loss of quality?

Thank's for the WinRAR use suggestion as well, I do have the program installed, and I may be using it for later DVD burning in case my harddisk really runs out of space (although I'm currently thinking of buying another 200GB of harddisk if it costs more cheap than buying DVDs)

If you want to keep the quality of the footage don't use video copmpression like mp2 or divx since it will loose a lot of the original quality and make it hard to recover the footage in a format you can edit. Turning a divx or mp2 back into avi can take some time and never edits as well.

I still think the Winrar works the best and can save you 30% with no discernable loss. Splitting the file lengths this way is also a huge bonus. A lot of my video editor friends think this is the best way to archive and still have the quality of the original. I just took a 364 meg dv-avi and comressed it to 264 meg using winrar. About 30%.

DVD storage is a lot cheaper than hard drives but takes more work. If you need to watch labor costs then hard drives might still be the best. Hard drives may also last longer if you don't use it but if you use the hard drive a lot and it eventually crashes then a whole big bunch of your stuff is gone!

For me I archive everything on Digital 8 tape, I have something like 70 + D8 tapes, when I need to retrieve anything for reworking or stock footage to use in films, its there in its original form, the tapes are so cheap to buy, I only use STD8 tapes, they record Digital OK you don't have to use D8 tapes that are more expensive. I went this way because I already had a D8 machine and didn't want to get rid of it, works for me.

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Alan Hodkinson
at
Viking Video

3.2 Ghz P4 800FSB CPU, 1Gb DDR400 PC3200 memory, 128Mb AGP ATI Radeon 9200 DDR Graphics, 40 Gb H/D, 250 Gb H/D, NEC ND-2510 dual layer DVD 8X, LG Gsa-4081B DVD, Creative soundblaster live, Windows XP SP1, Premiere 6, Premiere Elements, Dv500.

Compressing to Rar can save up to 30%? That's cool.Exporting to D8 tapes?Good idea since they really are cheap (compared to miniDV tapes). But I guess I'll go with the DVD solution for the long-lasting advantage.

I guess in the end, there are no good compression that can really be used for decent re-editing.

Again, I would like to say thank you for all of you who have given me good suggestions. They were all useful to me. Thank's guys!