Re: [ARSCLIST] Video degeneration

["Copeland, Peter" <Peter.Copeland@xxxxx>]

Dear Brandon,
    Sorry so much time has passed before I answer your very reasonable
question.
    The main problem is that video requires very much more "information" to
be packed in a comparable space. In (uncompressed) analogue formats, we have
to store frequencies up to 6 megahertz (in Europe), while audio rarely goes
above 20 kilohertz, and we still have to store that on the same piece of
tape!
    A number of technologies are used to manage the "quart-into-a-pint-pot"
syndrome, and the results when you don't get a quart back, themselves need
loving care-and-attention. And the same applies to virtually all digital
formats. Their subliminal advantage is that, with digital error-correction,
small faults on the tape may be corrected; but big ones result in
catastrophic failure, and you don't know when this is going to happen.
    So you will see why understanding all the advantages and disadvantages
of a particular video recording format is *not* "just magnetic tape."
Peter Copeland

-----Original Message-----
From: Brandon Burke [mailto:bburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 11 December 2003 17:46
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Video degeneration

Can someone please explain to me how video tape degradation differs from
audio
tape degradation? Seems like the only differences would be binders (more a
product of the era in which it was created than anything else) and casing.
Otherwise, there should be very little difference at all.

In other words, isn't magnetic tape just....magnetic tape? Period.
Regardless of
the playback medium or material that one can capture over the other? Again,
this is with respect to whether or not they have a cellulose acetate
backing,
etc.

Thanks,

Brandon Burke

Brandon Burke
Graduate Research Assistant
Digital Library Services
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
phone: (512) 495-4439
email: bburke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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