Re: [ARSCLIST] CD-R question

[Scott Phillips <scottp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One might also point out that unless the data is compromised already,
migration to different media once it is already digitized is a *lot*
simpler and faster. It can be completely automated easily. If you wait
too long and the data is corrupt, then it is the worst of all possible
worlds. In other words, if you are migrating (as we are with analog
tape) because the original media is falling apart, everything is
difficult and time consuming. If the data is in the form of non-tape
based digital data already and you are migrating simply because storage
devices are becoming outmoded, then the action is far simpler and
requires much less human hands on it.

Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 7:36 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] CD-R question

At 08:11 PM 2008-01-05, John Spencer wrote:
>Richard (and more so to Mr. Friedman),
>
>Do we have any concrete expectations that CD drives will be available 
>in 50 years? Please point me to the information that guarantees that, I

>would be happy to be reassured that CD drives will be available then. I

>tend to be much more pessimistic about hardware/ software availability 
>given the 50-year target mentioned.

Hi, John,

Happy New Year!

I think we'll be in as good or better shape playing back CDs in 50 years
as we will be playing back reel tapes in 35-40 years which is approx the
50-year time frame that LoC was still advocating transfers to 2-track
tapes.

There are just too many, and they're not going to all break.

As with any media, as the supply of machines dries up it's the archive's
responsibility to migrate/reformat before they cannot. I think we've had
this discussion before <smile>.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information:
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.