on 2/19/07 6:50 AM US/Central, Jerry Hartke at jhartke@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
DAT and 8 mm tapes use in-contact helical scan heads that actually deform the tape and penetrate the plane of the tape. This can cause excessive tape wear. Build-up of the residue on the head can result in a redeposit of the previously-removed coating, scratching the tape. Powerful error correction built into the formats usually recover the information, but there is a significant risk for the archivist.
Yes, and leaving a machine in pause at one location can eventually cause significant problems. BBC DATs were often accompanied by error printouts; some DAT machines have playback condition warning lamps.
on 2/19/07 6:11 AM US/Central, Tom Fine at tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Don't you think that, no matter what the problems or challenges, one with a collection of valuable material on DATs should transfer the material sooner rather than later, whether or not the DATs may or may not have whatever alleged shelf life?
Yes, absolutely. But I wonder how many have blamed the DAT format in general when it's often only an issue of selecting the correct DAT player.