Cheapest way to store digital video?

Question

I have a camcorder that uses Mini-DV cassettes. I take a lot of video, so these cassettes fill up rather quickly. I'm looking for a permanent video storing solution that is both cost effective and not prone to failing (thus losing my video).

Here are my options.
1. Leave them on the cassette.
2. Transfer them to an external HD (assuming I'd be using a fairly high resolution transfer)
3. Transfer them to DVD.

Which would be most cost effective? 10 points to the best answer. Please describe how you reached your conclusion.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Cheap is relative.

I would not leave them on the cassette, since technology is always improving. When your camcorder dies, you may not want to buy another DV camcorder just to view your videos.

So, definitely transfer them to a PC digitally using i.Link to preserve the original resolution.

At that point you have multiple choices.
a) Buy a NAS (network attached storage) for backups. Some of them have RAID built-in for redundancy. A good one in the HP Mediavault or Mediasmart server, but Seagate and others offer them as well. They usually offer the best price/Gigabyte

b) Burn DVDs. Rather inefficient, but good backup.
c) Get an on-line storage account and transfer them there.

For extra protection, use a combination of these.