Preserving VHS Recordings For Another 20 Years? 605
efedora asks: "I have about 650 hours of VHS tape going back about 20 years (no, not my porn collection) and the tape is starting to deteriorate. What are the best options for preserving the contents? Quality is important but not critical, so long as it's close to the original. Very low labor cost/time and simple operation. are important. Is there an easy way to do this?"
"Some of the ideas I've had so far are:
- VHS to VHS tape with an analog 'clean up' box between the VHS machines. This would give me the same number of tapes but should last another 20 years. Quality will degrade.
- Burn DVD's direct from VHS tape. I have software that will do this. Expensive and the DVD's won't even hold a VHS tape if it's 2 hours long. Good quality with no degradation.
- Burn VCD's. I don't know of any simple direct-to-VCD software that will do this so there would be a large labor overhead. Good quality with some degradation. Cheap.
- VHS direct to cheap IDE drives. Good quality with no degradation. Relatively cheap. Probably could use the same technique as burn-to-dvd."
DVD (Score:5, Informative)
ATI All In Wonder (Score:5, Informative)
You can pick up an 80 gig drive for very little money these days, so just divx the video up.
Should cost less than 200 bucks, maybe more if you really want to preserve every pixel of visual integrity.
Kinda simple eh? (Score:3, Informative)
Grab a capture card that can capture to divx format. Since it is vhs, I don't think you would notice much of a problem.
It doesn't take a studeo genious to use that technology and all that is really required is to choose which medium you want to store it on. Divx solves the basic problem of getting it managable.
You can toss it on cdr, dvdr, or create a HD storage solution with protections and capacities for your needs.
Transfering (Score:5, Informative)
good luck
DV (Score:5, Informative)
Ars Technica has a guide on this (Score:5, Informative)
For that much, send it out. (Score:5, Informative)
Sure its not cheap.. but your time is worth something and 650 hours of stuff would take forever...
don't get TV Wonder VE (Score:3, Informative)
Otherwise this is a really good idea, I thought about doing it myself. I was trying to record the simpsons but my whole system just froze up. Tried all the drivers, different video cards, not worth it.
My boss purchased a unit which has VHS and a DVD burner on it for around $600. Very high quality recordings too. He found it in an electronics catalog or something, he talks a lot though so I don't remember the specifics.
Nothing I'm sure Google can't help you with.
Tricky decision.. (Score:5, Informative)
DIVX, XVID etc.. could easily be forgotten in 20 years time, DVD and MPEG2 probably won't be.
Terapin Video Recorder (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.terapintech.com/
dvd recorder (Score:5, Informative)
352 x 240, not a good idea (Score:5, Informative)
What I did. (Score:4, Informative)
This is not the BEST solution, but it is a very cost-effective solution, especially if you have an aversion to ATI produtcs like I do.
I did try using my Hauppauge Tuner card for recording, but results were less than what I liked and you had to convert to MPEG2 on your own.
DVD (Score:3, Informative)
Time Base Corrector (Score:5, Informative)
Between the VCR and the capture card, second deck, etc, make sure you use a time base corrector. Don't trust the TBC supposedly built in to the VCR or capture card, get an external unit. Otherwise, audio sync problems will haunt you forever.
The broadcast video processor [elitevideo.com] (also from b&h) [bhphotovideo.com] is also useful for this application. I like to put it before the TBC.
Regards,
Mark
markrages@mlug.missouri.edu
Re:DVD (Score:4, Informative)
hook it up to your VCR. Most people are suggesting stupid solutions with Video cards and Video editing software which end up costing around the 600$ mark anyway so for this extra ease of use you cant go wrong. Hey and its Phillips a cool electronics company.
Re:Ars Technica has a guide on this (Score:4, Informative)
Dazzle has a $99 Bridge that works great. Composite in, DV out or DV in, Composite!
http://www.dazzle.com/products/hw_bridge.html [dazzle.com]
And, no I do not work for Dazzle.
ReplayTV (Score:4, Informative)
If you picked low labour and time, try a ReplayTV [sonicblue.com]. Hook up your vcr to your replay, click record on the replay, start vcr playback, come back 2 hours later. Then get DvArchive [sourceforge.net] and stream the recorded show off the Replay onto your pc. The stream is an MPG2 format. Use VideoLan Client to view the stream. Archive as desired.
Have fun!
DVD Recoding Deck (Score:3, Informative)
Re:352 x 240, not a good idea (Score:5, Informative)
"Typically VHS and 8 mm tape are rated at a vertical resolution of 240 lines, 3/4 inch SP at 325 lines, S-VHS and Hi8 at approximately 400 lines, Betacam SP and MII at close to 400 lines, and DVC at 500 lines (although some tests point to effective resolutions of around 400 lines)."
Re:2 hour DV tapes? (Score:2, Informative)
If you want more reliability than DV, you could use DVCAM (or heck even BetaSP), but that's a LOT more expensive.
The story sounded like this person doesn't think magnetic tape is the right way to go, but in my experience tape has been a lot more dependable than any digital format. (I've lost countless hard disks but I've only lost one or two tapes, and those were mostly my fault
VHS to DVD and Sonic MyDVD (Score:5, Informative)
* Relatively fast PC - Athlon XP1800+ or faster roughly.
* Decent video in card - ATI All-In-Wonder Card (even the non-Radeon AIWs are good for this).
* Good DVD Burner - Pioneer DVR-105 or DVR-A05 that burns DVD-R. Don't worry about the +/- debate, -R media is cheaper and has virtually the same compatibility as +R.
* Easy software - Sonic MyDVD is great software that you can capture from and burn to DVD in one app. Plus, if you buy the A05 above it usually comes with this software in a bundle.
* (the trick) Solid long-lasting archival media - Mitsui Gold Archive DVD-R for longevity.
I cannot stress the last one enough. It's so easy to get a great system only to flounder on the choice of media because the goal is to keep the videos. The best DVD-R media generally are Mitsui, Verbatim, and TDK. I wouldn't trust anything else. Just capture in 640x480, and you can burn up to two hours at a time. If you want to get really fancy, you can delve into more advanced software, cut bitrates to get additional time, and do ultra slick menus.
You CAN store more than 2 hours... (Score:3, Informative)
in VCD format (MPEG-1 video), and store them on a DVD disk. This will give
you around 7 and a half hours of video per DVD.
As you are converting from VHS, the quality has probably already degraded to
the point where using a codec that captures the full PAL or NTSC signal is not
really warranted.
One of the new VIVO capable ATI or NVidia graphics cards will suffice for
capturing the video files (they usuaully come with simple video capture software).
Then I'd recommend using TMPG Enc http://www.tmpgenc.net/ to encode the files.
Re:ATI All In Wonder (Score:3, Informative)
OTOH, my phono record collection dates back to 1949.
Re:For that much, send it out. (Score:3, Informative)
What I'm doing with my 900 tapes ;) (Score:5, Informative)
You DO need a good deck. I use an upper-end JVC S-VHS deck with integrated comb, genlock, and digital buffer to stabilize. The importance of a clean incoming signal CANNOT be overstated. Garbage in, garbage out and bandwidth wasted. S-Video is important because it delivers a far higher quality image. Composite video mushes parts of the signal together.
For the bulk of my straight archival I use an Athlon-based system with USB2 connected to an ADS USB Instant DVD MPEG-2 encoder and an iMic USB sounde device.
USB2 is important because you need lots of available bandwidth. The iMic uses the same AD/DA chip as some of teh pro Roland devices. Doing the sound grab outside the computer's case helps cut down on noise. (Yes, I use a USB extension and the iMic is "housed" near the VCR.
Some people prefer the Snazzi USB encoders. I found the ADS, factory refurbished, at TigerDirect for $150. hard to find a hardware capture at that price.
I've also got a Canon DV camcorder with passthrough and an ATi All-in-Wonder. Neither is a good solution. DV is HUGE compared to the quality of the source and any cheap capture card has poor performance. If you want to spend $1K for a Canopus, well, that's a different story...
For plain-vanilla VHS and S-VHS you're going to be just fine if you use CVD which is half DVD resolution and is compatible with the DVD spec.
Which leads to storage medium. You can burn CVDs to CDR if you want. It's cheap because, at least in the U.S., you can find CDRs for full rebate a lot and the drives also. Right now, if you're lucky, you'll find both at OfficeMax.com. Alternately, got to DVD.
Now, a word about bitrates: Your comment that a DVD can't hold 2 hours is incorrect. Sounds like you tried and captured at too high a data rate for your source.
If you're willing to re-compress, you can easily use various clean-up filters and get at least as good an image as you have on tape, putting 3.5-4 hours per disc in CVD format on a DVDR. That's not a typo. If you properly use filters the result of cleanup on onld VHS source can be better than the raw version. There are filters specifically to deal with the various colorswim and dropouts of magnetic tape.
For a list of links and info on hacking the ADS capture device:
utils@mindspring.com
A/V Utils for the Masses!!!
Curator of links at
http://shelob.mordor.net/dgraft/
For info on the iMic:
http://griffintechnology.com
Re:352 x 240, not a good idea (Score:3, Informative)
vertical resolution is 240 lines, interlaced ergo 480 lines.
Re:VHS may last only 20 years... (Score:1, Informative)
Better choice: DMR-HS2 (Score:3, Informative)
4 Seconds of Googling results (Score:5, Informative)
With this DVD recorder, you can record using video-in (RCA), s-video, or firewire (lEEE1394) connections. It also has a built-in TV tuner for your convenience.
The most compatible of all recorders, the recorded discs (DVD+R and DVD+RW) can be played on more than 90% of all DVD players and on DVD-ROM computer drives. Also, with DVD+RW, you can erase the recorded disc and re-record onto it again for thousands of times.
There are four recording modes: DV quality (1hr ), DVD (2hr), S-Video (3hr), and VHS (4hr).
As an added feature, the DVDR-985 will also play play CD-R, CD-RW, SVCD, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD, and VCDs.
And like most stand-alone DVD recorders, the Philips DVDR-985 is as easy to use as a VCR."
Easy , just not as cheap as you would like to go, bout 700 bucks but i'm sure you can find a better deal as i spent only 4 seconds looking.
Archival Mediums (Score:3, Informative)
Outsource? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Transfering (Score:3, Informative)
Tierce
Things not to get (Score:5, Informative)
-Any Dazzle products. Especially the DVC-80. The price is right but this piece of trash is so terrible that it does not even belong in the trash. The FireWire DV Bridge is decent, but it has severe problems with slightly unregulated power source. And the only thing worse than dazzle products is dazzle tech support.
-Pinnacle Products. Sometimes they work with excellent results. But they are very unpredictable, with often buggy software and whacked out compatibility problems. If you are starting out and don't have an existing video conversion infrastructure, avoid these things!
-Adaptec VideOh. It looks good in the surface but I have heard reports of these things acting in a very whacked out fashion.
So what do you get? Check out the card list at www.vcdhelp.com which has a huge list of products with many user ratings which tend to be quite reliable. The best products for converting your VHS to digital format in the lower price range that actually work tend to be the Matrox devices as well as the Canopus ADVC-100. From personal experience, I can say that the canopus (~US$300) kicks serious ass, and I have converted several VHS tapes to VCD with its help. The output from these into the computer can be sent to VCD, SVCD, DVD, etc.
Also check out rec.video.desktop which is a low-spam, well populated newsgroup with people who deal with this kind of stuff a lot. I read it regularly.
You are not insane. (Score:5, Informative)
As I recall the processing technique did contrast and edge definition enhancement based upon movement within the frame. Items that moved frame to frame became clearer and sharper. Stationary objects did not improve, making this ideal for surveillance cameras.
Re:mpeg 4 - harddrive (Score:4, Informative)
The biggest problem with the analog to digital conversion is that most units do not convert the interlaced input into a progressive format before recording. Because of this the effective resolution of the digital copy is much degraded. If you want a semi-reasonable dub, you need to perform progressive conversion before downsampling the resolution. You will notice that many PVRs do this, I know that my Replay does.
The other problem with encoding to digital is the loss of the interframe data. There are 21 lines of information that contains things like captions and program data. These are not preserved by the traditional conversion process. This is where the PVRs get it right again. They will store the data in the interframe area.
The bottom line is that 1GB per hour of video is the bare minimum quality. 3GB per hour is better, realtime is closer to 4.5GB per hour. You need about 5-6Mbps encoding rate in MPEG to get decent video. 9Mbps is what Superbit is IIRC.
I'll step off my soapbox now...
Re:DVD (Score:5, Informative)
There's plenty of DVD players on the market that don't support it, besides
DVD-R is a nice development, but it's yet to prove itself as a viable archival format, IMHO.
Re:You still need to spend time to copy them (Score:2, Informative)
You can even have someone else [perfectpopcorn.com] do it for you. There are dozens of examples of computer software and computer hardware and things of that nature, but it is probably most convenient to take a dedicated device to the task and just let it do it.
Most solutions provide several hours of recording time for better than standard VHS quality. The names I offer are merely the big name players. Your local phone book (assuming you are in the US) will have listing of local film shops that will do this for you. You can probably dig around and find less popular brands of hardware similar to the ones I provided.
Re:Time Base Corrector (Score:2, Informative)
Re:DVD (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DVD (Score:2, Informative)
You could also spend $15 on a WinTV TV Capture card, and use something like (mencoder [mplayerhq.hu] to create DiVX4/5 videos which can be put on 700MB data CDs. Coming from VHS would be about the same quality as coming from Cable TV, and I am able to create avi videos with quite acceptible framerates and quality. I have used this method both to record from TV and to archive my DVDs.
Using a method similar to this has the advantage of low startup costs. The only disadvantage wrt VCD/SVCD is that few console DVD players will play avi formatted data CDs, though this seems to be changing.
Don't count on your Princo discs lasting... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:DVD (Score:2, Informative)
Funny as hell, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Leadtek WinFast Video Capture (Score:3, Informative)
The main thing is getting the VHS tapes converted in some fashion to your hard drive. Then, you really have many choices on how to proceed. I bought a Plextor DVD+R/W drive because I wanted the maximum compatibility with home DVD players. DVD-R is OK, but not quite as reliable as DVD+R, in my experience.
But a DVD burner is not an absolute requirement if you decide to burn SVCD or VCDs. You can use regular CD-R's which play in most home DVD players. I choose DVD+R just to cut down on the number of discs necessary to transfer a standard VHS tape.
Will DVD Be Around In 20 Years? (Score:5, Informative)
Most people are suggesting stupid solutions with Video cards and Video editing software
I agree.
Okay. I used to work in a TV station.
DVD is the big thing right now, but history has proven that formats with meteoric rises (as in, DVD went from nowhere to everywhere in four years) is that they have meteoric falls. Case in point: 8-Track tape.
Every day, someone builds a shorter wavelength blue laser, and someone else builds a better compression algorithm, or even a better copy-prevention scheme. How long until the DVD format is revamped or replaced? Will the new players play the old discs?
VHS was introduced in about 1977, and home VCRs didn't achieve anywhere near the market penetration of the DVD player for 15 years. CD players took almost 10 years to achieve ubiquity.
Here's what's done at TV stations. We store the tape carefully. That's it, that's all. Now, TV stations buy good tape and use good video formats (ie. no crap like VHS with its ridiculous tape wear). The average VTR in a TV station is in the range of $10,000.
The video is saved in a tape format which will be around in 20 years. You can still find an Ampex Quad machine to play nearly 50 year old tape; almost every large city will have at least one in a video production house or tape archive.
Local stations tend to run Betacam SP or Digital Betacam. The investment in video formats is huge, most TV stations will stick with whatever format they chose for years after it became obsolete.
As recently as 1993, I was carrying around an Ikegami camera and a 40 pound Sony BVU-110 3/4" VTR handing off my shoulder. The battery belt for the VTR and the sun gun was another 20 pounds. Meanwhile, the bigger stations in my area were all running around with single-piece Sony Betacam ENG setups.
Interestingly, there's one video format that you can take anywhere in the world, and any TV station or production house can use it: 3/4". Razor sharp analog pictures, very little generational loss, good and fast tape speed. It's Beta's big brother, but it's old now, so the tape and the machines can be found used all over the place.
Why not pick up a 3/4" deck? You don't need anything fancy, just make sure it will take the full-size (not just portable) 3/4" cassettes. The tape is cheap enough, the machine will last forever, and you won't be able to visibly see any image degredation from VHS. Hell, if the stuff was recorded 20 years ago, the VTRs at the TV station you were recording were probably 3/4". Look for a 25-year-old "U-Matic" machine, preferably from Sony (popular enough to be easy to service), top-loading is fine. Record a couple of DVDs to it - if it's working properly, most people could never tell the difference. Newer U-Matic SP machines are even better. Watch out for the machines which are player-only, and for the ENG machines which only take the small cassettes. (3/4" cassettes come in two physical sizes, but the full-size machines will play both sizes.)
Tape storage - this applies for all formats, including the lowly VHS:
Re: Things not to get (Score:3, Informative)
Just to be helpful: here's the dvdrhelp.com capture card list with ratings [dvdrhelp.com], and questions to ask to work out a good capture method [dvdrhelp.com].
Incidentally, if you're looking at ripping music videos, [mvrip.com] is dedicated to it.
Re:Will DVD Be Around In 20 Years? (Score:5, Informative)
What works for a studio does not work for everybody else (not to mention that the way television studios currently work, with all of the details mentioned above, is incredibly antiquated.) This is a situation perpetuated by seasoned producers who can still edit a mean tape-to-tape session but have no clue what to do with a non-linear editor. I respect their ability, and the necessity for something that works reliably every time five minutes ago, but that's when your job depends on it. In the home user arena, there are already far better options that are just as reliable, they just require an investment of time to get everything set up.
Once you know what you're doing, you can just zip on through faster than the conventional methods will allow. Just as reliable, way faster, and with access to your video catalog using search functions built right into your operating system. It also requires a fraction of the physical storage space and is far more attractive to look at.
To summarize: DVD sky-rocketed because it filled a void. You're far more likely to find a DVD player with backwards compatibility than you are a VCR. Also, a lot more can go wrong with a video tape stored properly than a DVD stored properly.
I'd suggest making the software investment (with the exception of the hardware needed to import the movies, most of this can be done with freeware, shareware, or open source software if you're using something like OSX.)
VHS is going to be poorer quality already compared with a lossy format such as, say, a MPEG-2 compressed movie, or even a high-quality Divx. You could also use the DV format for good compression, and it's already compatible with modern DV video cameras. I had a lot of success with it when working on a spot for ESPN last fall, and had no trouble passing it on to my producer for use in an Avid editing system.
MPEG-2 is the same format as used on commercial DVDs. It gives you the option of burning a DVD that can be dropped straight into a standard DVD player.
If you use some other format that gives better compression but requires a computer for playback, consider video mirroring to a TV and playing back on your computer (again, on the Mac, this is ridiculously easy, and there are video cards for the PC that offer similar capabilities.)
If you want to dedicate a hard drive to storing these movies, go for it, but consider a tape backup (not the VHS kind
If the tapes are worth it to keep around for another twenty years, I'd go with the hardware investment and go the DVD or hard drive route myself.
Not much talk about tape (Score:3, Informative)
There's one thing I think that history has show us is that rotational media go obsolete quite quickly, and when they do the technologies to play them quickly disappear from the marketplace. If you go this route, you will also need to archive the entire playing system, not just the media. In that vein, the TiVo idea is perhaps your best bet. Ex: if you performed this project 15 years ago, you would likely have used MFM or RLL drives, now you can't buy them, their controllers or cables, and I don't think modern hardware or OSes would even know what to do with them.
Tape has a much longer life-span in the consumer marketplace. Without too much difficulty, one can still purchase an open reel tape deck, an 8 track or cassette player. Try finding a phonograph that plays 78rpm records though. It's damned near impossible.
I fear CDs and DVDs will get the same treatment. Once the next thing replaces them, their players will disappear from the market. and locating one in 15 years may prove difficult. For instance, once we get enough bandwidth, video on demand may get us to all toss out our DVD players and disks.
I think the best compromise you can make is to use MiniDV. Especially if you have a compatible camcorder or deck already.
The benefits are:
1. No problems dealing with time-code transcoding or creep
2. No audio sync problems
3. Digital storage on tape. Later generations will not suffer degradation
4. Easily imported to computer for duplication or storage on other media (back to VHS for example)
5. If similar to other tape formats, will endure longer than most rotational media of its generation
6. You can fit two hours of VHS tape on to an 80 minute MiniDV if you use EP; which on MOST devices yields no degradation of video or audio. I personally have not encountered any more dropouts from EP than from SP on any of four devices I've used.
I might even import the video from MiniDV to computer, perform some enhancements (sharpness, color, contrast) then write it back out to MiniDV. Then write back out to VHS so you can watch the video on a regular basis. You don't want to use your digital master tape for regular viewing.
Re:mpeg 4 - harddrive (Score:5, Informative)
Oh for fucks sake would you freaking idiots stop it with this "infinite analog" bullshit. The NTSC standard allocates 4.2Mhz of bandwidth for the colour signal which works out to 450 "pixels" of horizontal resolution.
Read this [maxim-ic.com].
Re:Will DVD Be Around In 20 Years? (Score:4, Informative)
I can't agree about the old machine. Most older/cheaper models of v.c.r. run the tape at high speed until the optics detect the clear header tape at each end, then slam on the brakes (with that painful sounding thump). Modern, (higher cost) recorders user the relative spool rotation speed to identify position and slow the tape down as it reaches the end of a wind/rewind. Hell, our latest unit rewinds at 750x play speed! It can completely rewind a E180 in under a minute, you hear it decelerate from a high speed whine to a crawl before a gentle click.
The result is that older units tend to stretch the start/end of tapes far worse than modern ones and may also tighten the outer winds of tape due to the braking action, potentially rucking/rippling the inner winds slightly. You should also avoid tapes longer than E180 (3 hr.) as the tape thickness is reduced significantly beyond this length to fit them on the spool, which can lead to more stretching.
Try to keep the tapes in a dry and cool (but not cold) constant environment. If there is enough moisture around and the temp. varies enough you'll get condensation which can lead to mould between the tape layers.
Finally, obvious though it may sound, check the walls and floors with one of those wire/pipe/stud detectors the electricians use to ensure there are no live mains cables within about 0.5m of the storage area. I lost a heap of audio tapes some years ago when I didn't know there was a lightswitch on the far side of a wall behind the storage case.
Re:Will DVD Be Around In 20 Years? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Will DVD Be Around In 20 Years? (Score:4, Informative)
My father recently re-discovered some musical recordings on reel-to-reel mag. He brought it to a technician who specializes in doing transfers to DAT. What amazes me about this process is that he bakes the tape in a specialized oven he built.
I have heard of baking tape before, but I've never heard a good explaination of why this is done. I think it is an attempt to get moisture out of the binder to prevent the tape from sticking, but I don't understand how this does not rapidly degrade the quality of the recording...
Just thought I would ask if you knew...
Thanks for your excellent write-ups,
-AP
To everybody complaining about DivX etc. (Score:2, Informative)
I put this to you: DivX 5.03, 3ivx D4 and above, XviD, Apple MPEG-4 and most of the other MPEG-4 variants are actually fully MPEG-4 compliant, and MPEG-4 is as much of a standard as MPEG-1 or 2 is. MS-MPEG is another thing all together, as is DivX 3.11. Avoid these.
The worst part of this MPEG-4 hodge podge is that everybody stuffs them into
Basically if it's MPEG-4 compliant, there will be some way to play it in the future, as surely as you can play MPEG-1 or 2.
Transfer this stuff NOW! (Score:5, Informative)
The question of format type for software (MPEG 2/4, DiVX, whatever), is a good point, but starting with the most lossless format possible will help maintain maximum quality with any needed conversions later.
Besides, your average MPEG2, even at a medium bitrate, is overkill for old VHS material. We're not talking about anything more than 240 lines of resolution (on a good day), after all.
Ah, but what about the media itself? Well... So what if that DVD-R doesn't store beyond 5-10 years? If the digital transfer process has been done at a point where the VHS is still viable, this won't matter much. A few years after the transfer, go ahead and copy your DVD-R
s to your new Blu-Ray discs. You should be able to fit about 10 DVD-Rs each, if I remember correctly.
Then 10 years later transfer ALL of it to Holocube or whatever.
I do video archiving for the school I work for, and this is my stated plan. We use DVD-R because it's cheap, and when properly stored should last until the 'Next Big Thing'.
I would be more worried about VHS analog degradation than digital format obsolesence for one reason: time of transfer. How long will it take to transfer a two hour VHS tape? Yup. 2 hours. How many tapes does this guy have? How long will this take? How long should he wait - this material is DYING in front of him!
How long will it take to copy a DVD? Hmmm. Depends on what year you're talking about doesn't it? 10 years from now, you'll probably be able to copy your entire library of material in mere minutes! You can have copies of the copies; no loss in quality, plenty of redundancy.
That's a very real advantage. With analog there is continual loss (more if the tapes are actually played). the longer you wait to convert the material, the more video will be distorted. With digital, it's already converted and then it's just a factor of time for file copying.
more about UV (Score:2, Informative)
1.) Yes, true, UV damages dies.
2.) The solar spectrum is a blackbody curve that peaks in the green, visible; incandesceng light will typically peak in the red, visible--so yes the sun will send more UV.
3.) Most hard UV is absorbed by the atmosphere, we only get UV-A, UV-B, UV-C on earth, which are closest to visible light;this is why UV telescopes are in space.
4.) Some windows are specifically designed to stop UV, but most windows will let UV through (most of it anyways).
baking tapes? don't try this at home (Score:4, Informative)
Let's not forget that tapes are a magnetic medium. All magnetic media have a temperature (the Curie point) at which they will suddenly demagnetize. Now I don't know what that temperature is for tapes, but it's often not that high.
Additionally information on magnetic media degrades faster at a higher temperature. This is because the way information is stored is basically as an alternating sequence of magnetic domains (areas of the same polarity). With time, large domains grow at the expense of small domains, basically smoothing out the information. Turning up the heat just makes this happen faster.
You can't beat entropy.
Re:Make sure you use a good Time Base Corrector! (Score:2, Informative)
As in perhaps a "Kitchen Sync" found for the amiga video toaster circa late 1980s?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&i
I honestly don't know the cost of time base correctors, but this was a spiffy option in the 20th century.