[ARSCLIST] File formats for analogue video

[Jeppe Christensen <jchr@xxxxxxxx>]

Dear subscribers,

I've recently been joined the ARSCLIST, therefore I apologise is this
subject have been discussed before.

I work for the Danish National Archive with digital archives. We have a
smaller collection of audio visual items (films, videos, reel tapes and
cassettes) that we want to digitize. We want to new digitizes version to be
of very high quality preferable lossless and in a file format. So that it
can replace the original analogue carrier which eventually will deteriorate.
We have for the sound items chosen WAVE 96 KHz 24 bit as IASA recommends. We
have chosen not to digitize the polyester and acetate films, but to secure
their storage conditions at low temperatures and humidity and wait for
cheaper storage and a standard for the target format. As goes for the VHS
and U-matic video cassettes we can not wait because they are obsolete and
threaten by deterioration.  We have problems finding a suitable target
format for these, Motion JPEG2000 Lossless is a prime candidate, but
supplies that digitize to this format is not common available in Denmark.

My questions are:
Are there any cons regarding Motion JPEG2000 Lossless?
Are there any other formats that would be suitable for digitizing video?

Does anybody know of suppliers (other than Media Matters) that work with
this format?

On the lossy side we have considered using MPEG2 at a very high
resolution/bitrate e.g. 422P@H-14 or 422P@HL to reduce storage demands
compared to the lossless strategy.
Does anybody know if this strategy has been used by other archives?

Any answers and comments are most welcome.

Best wishes and have a pleasant day.

Jeppe Christensen
Danish National Archive
Copenhagen
Tel: +45 3392 2359
E-mail: jchr@xxxxxxxx