What is the best video/audio file format for preserving DV/HDV home video for the future?

Question

I've been faithfully putting my DV video on DVD's, but I've already had a couple of DVD's go bad just sitting on the shelf. Therefore, I want a hard disk based format. Now that I have an HDV camera, DVD just doesn't provide the quality I want either (I use Mac's iMovie/iDVD). I have experimented with the Apple TV format which is supposed to be a HD format and the results are good, but I want to stay with open, future-proof formats that preserve as much quality as possible while having a reasonable disk space footprint.

Thanks to lare for the answer, but I disagree that hard disks are not the best choice. I keep at least two copies on disk and will easily migrate them to new disks when necessary. Therefore, I consider that the only way to keep the videos and all the work I've put into them alive. I can also enjoy them when they're on disk.

Therefore, I am still looking for an answer about what's the best high definition format for the future.

Answer 1

the life expectancy of any hard drive is 3 to 5 years. stick with the DVD, being optical it should hold up longer than any magnetic based media. simply protect from heat and mechanical damage. another alternative is use the print-to-tape to create a miniDV copy of the program, that should be good for 10 years with proper storage. Standard DV and DVD formats should be readable by future computers and not be obsolete anytime soon. Hard disk storage technology is constantly changing so that drive mechanics are becoming obsolete from one generation of computer to the next. The drive is not expected to outlive the computer to which it was originally attached. Not a good solution for long term archiving.