I did some research, but it seems to be woefully lacking in the area of how to backup large video files - 10-20gig in size to multiple DVD's. I was thinking of RAR'ing them, but I wonder if there is a better option when it comes to burning software?

Thanks

What format are they in? Most video file formats are already
compressed, so you won't be able to compress them by any
significant amount.

You can split them into DVD sized chunks or re-encode them
at a lower bitrate and/or lower resolution. I use avisplit to split
avi files and ffmpeg to encode to DVD compatible MPEG-2.
Both programs run on Linux. I'm sure there are similar programs
for Mac/Win.

Ok, I don't want to compress them, just back-them-up for later use.

That leaves you with the splitting option. What format are they
in now?

They are in m2t - high def codec from a sony camera.

I'm not familiar with that format, but I guess it is some form of MPEG
video.

You could use any standard file splitting utility to split them
into DVD sized chunks. Be aware that splitting/archiving/compression
programs like RAR and tar/gzip will probably take a long time to
work with multi-GB files.

You might be able to split or edit the video files using
something like this:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HDVSplit
Disclaimer: I haven't tried this myself.

It looks like that is for CAPTURING only and not RAW files already on the system. Thanks though...

Transferring to CD Freaks' 'Video Edit Software' forum...

You can use WinRar: select Store method, volume size 1493m (a couple mb in reserve). It won't take long since you don't compress at all.

You should be able to merge your files at a later time. Each volume can be verified for errors (if you use RAR 3). If that is MPEG-2 video you have, software players will playback those uncompressed rar volumes.

The fastest, and certainly most reliable method will be a hard drive. 500GB drives are cheap and plentiful, internal or external. If you split a file to 5 discs, your odds of a disc failure increase by 5x.