Can I use a Camcorder to backup data?

imac davidimac david
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi all,



again, all in the title. I have a digital camcorder, Canon MV450i, attached to the Mac with firewire. Surely it would be possible to use it to create backups?



Any ideas anybody?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Huh??? :confused:



    To backup what? Video or actual data? I suppose it would be possible to encode data into a video stream, but I would certainly not trust the integrity of a regular video cam tape.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    imac davidimac david Posts: 286member
    sorry, should have been clear. Yes, to backup data.



    Why wouldn't you trust the integity of a camcorder? Surely the reliability of recording (or file transfer?) should be enough for backing up photos, documents and spreadsheets? or am I missing something?



    Thanks



    David
  • Reply 3 of 4
    low-filow-fi Posts: 357member
    IIRC, this has been done a while back. It was *really* interesting to read the UNIX script through, and it used iMovie to output the data.



    It worked well, and data integrity was pretty good.



    I'll do a google search, but it was AGES ago that i read about this. Macosxhints.com might have it too.



    low-fi
  • Reply 4 of 4
    bluesignsbluesigns Posts: 315member
    i looked for the link but couldn't find it;



    there is a working group that is trying to standardize a proceedure for backing up data to mini-DV tapes.



    i'll look again on my othere machine later.



    i would be more than happy to have that functionality.



    you would think that the camera manufacturers would be doing something about it to try and sell the device as a removeable storage device.
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