I have a company telling me that they want to archive my mini-dv tapes into an avi file format!! That just sounds so wrong to me. I told them I would rather a DV25 codec with a QuickTime wrapper. Does that sound reasonable for future editing use? 

One of the things to consider for archive is an open format that has been standardized. DPX for example is an open standard defined by SMPTE. This assures at least someone in the faraway future has instructions on how to open and decode the file. DPX also support timecode, so the metadata can be archived as well. QuickTime is not an open format, although widely used and mostly documented. But any vendor who owns their own format may one day not have it available - maliciously or not. Some people use sequential TIFF, an uncompressed file based format, but is lacking on metadata.

If you are happy with a QT wrapped of a Dv25 codec, then is it really just a batch capture this company is doing? One file per tape? What metadata? etc. are all things to discuss for you to properly archive and retrieve if and when needed.

Of course the ugly side of file based archive is what it is being archived on; FireWire drive (nooo!), optical, LTO, etc. And then make sure that the format itself is something that can be connected to and accessed in the future (depending on how long you expect the archive to last). I have a feature I cut in 1994 on Phase Change Optical discs... I can't do anything with those - much less have the system, drivers, etc. to even mount the optical disc reader.

Michael