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RE: [AV Media Matters] Long-term preservation: digital



Hello, Dale.

Up to date I've seen no digital video format regarded as long term, although
some data recorders --mark my words: data, not video-- might serve, if the
recording standard becomes a real world-wide accepted standard.

All video formats are market driven, and so their obsolescence and demise is
most of the time planned from day one.

Market demand has made Betacam-SP last longer than Sony expected, and it
amazes even their own marketing Dept. (so they admit). On the other hand,
Sony has discontinued its line of S-VHS decks, because it couldn't get a
profitable share of a dwindling market...

Regarding digital audio, different audio formats are still appearing, like
the new DVD-Audio standard with a 96 kHz sampling frequency and 32 bit
quantizing depth (compared to 44.1 kHz / 16 bit for CDs). DAT uses 48 kHz /
16 bit, and a lot of applications use 48 kHz / 20 bit...

There is no digital audio "standard" that has the punch and world-wide
diffusion to even pretend to last for 50 years...

This is still a moving target. Keep your eyes wide open for all the
interesting discussions that take place in this list and AMIA-L, for
example.

Just my 2 cents worth of information...

José E. Llufrío
<llufrio@icaic.inf.cu>


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