Total NOOB....Have DCH1000

What mini DV's are you using?
I purchased a couple Sony Excellence (non IC) and planned on recording over it. Storing the footage on DVD.

Is that common storage method or is everybody just keeping the archival in Mini DV format?

Also..what's your process to access and download onto computer...I will be doing my reading in the manual so....don't answer if too complex or irritating question!

With appreciation
conga

You'll want to keep your tapes and not record over them. Besides they are cheap. When you import your footage into your computer for editing, I'll assume you will be using an NLE. Modern NLEs (I use Premiere Pro), are smart enough to import the footage, and then when you're done delete from the system. If you want to later go back and make changes to your edit, the system will know where and on which tape to pull the appropriate clips. If you're on DVD you'll lose the offline management capabilities.

Furthermore, the quality of the footage on the tape is significantly higher than it will be on the DVD. You'll have generational loss by simply encoding for DVD, and NLEs typically work better (in my experience) with DV video over MPEG2 video. This is not a hard and fast statement, but is dependant on several factors. Anyway, keep your tapes, you'll be able to go back and recall that footage anytime you think, "I've got a great shot of X, it would be perfect for this project".