Does anyone have a workflow or suggestions on how they manage and organize legacy home video files (birthdays, vacations, etc.)?
Most of these are files either digitized from videotape or recorded via a digital camcorder or DSLR.
Overall, the files tend to be large, in the 1GB range. I currently have them on an 8TB hard drive (backed up to another 8TB hard drive) and to Backblaze. Storage and backup is not the problem, organization is the problem.
When Aperture was an active app, I managed them in Aperture. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. I’ve tried uploading a couple of video files to Photos, and it works Ok for a few, but it won’t work for several TBs of video.
I’ve tried iMovie, but iMovie is more of an editing app, not a great app for cataloging video files (unless I’m missing something). Moreover, I don’t have a lot of confidence that iMovie will still be around in five years.
Like you, back in the day, I used Aperture for this. While photo content management was my primary use of Aperture, it was adequate for video management. With the demise of Aperture, I switched to Lightroom and continued my tradition of using that type of app for videos too.
I find Lightroom no better/worse than Aperture. I have a separate LR library that I use for videos. Works ok for storage and metadata management. I’ve contemplated more use of Plex, but I have too much time and organization invested in LR to be motivated to make the switch. “Improving management of home videos” is on my future/someday list, but just not a priority. LR is good enough for me. — jay