Re: [AV Media Matters] Tape to Film

[smolians@erols.com]

The belts-and-braces idea is what I still recommend to audio
preservation clients when the tell me they want their stuff on CDs.
I suggest they also have a reel-to-reel madel, perhaps storing it
off-site as additional protection.  This follows the recomended
practice of the AES, since only analog recording tape is recognized
and a long-term preservation medium by them, and that all other
organizations known to me with an interest in this issue follow AES.

One implication, however, is that the client has a reel-to-reel
playback device in working order and is committed to keep it that
way.  Many do not, and some wil not.

CD disasters do not leave the visible residue of failure that the
audio cassette does, streaming audio rippling in the roadside wind.

Another is that, as a project works its way through the planning
stages to that of being funded, a one year or longer cycle, that
reel-to-reel tape will continue to be available.  I'm not saying it
won't be, only that it might not be, and that it would then be
impossible to meet the terms under which the funds were given.   A
caveat covering this issue should now be written into every audio
grant proposal.

Steve Smolian

-----Original Message-----
From: amsden@btinternet.com <amsden@btinternet.com>
To: AV-Media-Matters@topica.com <AV-Media-Matters@topica.com>
Date: Thursday, March 09, 2000 8:14 PM
Subject: Re: [AV Media Matters] Tape to Film

>Jim Lindner wrote:
>>
>>So while you most
>>certainly CAN record video to film, please do not confuse that process
>>with preserving video because you most certainly are not preserving it.
>
>I agree with almost everything that Jim has to say on this issue, except
>perhaps this last statement. Is it possible that the enquirer was not
>interested in preserving a video? I know that this is a much argued subject,
>but there seems to be two aspects to it. Usually it is an argument dominated
>by the purist, who will have nothing but the original or an exact copy.
>
>However, video holds images, and it may be more important to preserve them,
>than worry about which media they are on. There are all kinds of question
>marks hanging over the life expectancy of magnetic media at this time, but
>with film stock we have a fair idea about its future. It seems to me that a
>degraded image on film would be better than no image on video. Perhaps we
>should go for a belt and braces approach, and preserve on both types of
>media
>if the images are unique and the cash is available. Dismissing film in this
>issue has always made me feel uneasy.
>--
>Peter Amsden,
>ASAT Productions
>Argyll, Scotland