I know there have been similar questions posted below but...

Just looking for advice on transferring my miniDV tapes to my PC. Not looking for tech advice... Just maybe some thoughts on how to organize all the data files that I'll end up with.

My source is 40+ miniDV tapes and a Canon 950 camcorder. Path is firewire through a PC running Adobe Premiere Elements. The target is a 1TB WD MyBook USB external drive. I plan to transfer 1 or 2 tapes per night until its done.

I'm not really looking to edit the video during this process. I just want to capture each 60 min tape onto the disk and have some organization to it so that when I decide to view or edit I can get back to the data easily.

I assume that I'll be creating AVI files. Can a 60 min tape fit into 1 AVI file? Should I want AVI files that big? What type of dir or folder structure should I create on the target drive? What about file naming conventions? Just Tape001, etc. Maybe some other info coded into the name, like date, etc?

Am I missing some great s/w app that will help with this?

Why am I doing this? I want to archive the content on these miniDV tapes and have a decent back up as well. Right now all I have is the tape. One tape per DVD disk recorded directly on my standalone recorder would create a backup but I want it on the PC for future editing and ease of playback.

Also, I've gone through a couple of JVC camcorders in the past few years. They don't seem to last too long. So I want to get all my previous recordings off the miniDV format so I don't have to rely on a miniDV camcorder for future playback. I'm also looking forward to an HD camcorder and I don't think that will be a miniDV.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated!