DVDs are excellent for viewing on a television, but do not preserve the full resolution of the transferred material and thus are unacceptable for archival purposes. Proper digital transfer is therefore a two step process. First, your old film or tape is transferred to an external hard drive to create a full resolution archival master, which can be viewed on a computer and, if desired, edited. When the master has been completed, the material can then be compressed and burned to a DVD. Finally, the external hard drive shoud be stored in a seciure place, such as a safe deposit box.