Long term storage of digital stuff

[orpheum]

I would always rely on VHS.In my experience the only thing you can rely on with DVDs is their unreliability.I have often come home to find that the dvd has not recorded and just come up with "error".

[essaljay]

VHS is good but it is a fact that for all the time that the tape is in contact with the head then there is going to be deteriation. The change is probably so gradual you won't even notice it. DVD's in themselves will maintain a higher quality as no physical contact is made. A failure to record is a fault of the machine and not the concept. But, saying that I also have had failures with discs and I still use a tape to record something I want to see later but will always use a disc to record a film that I want to keep.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by essaljay VHS is good but it is a fact that for all the time that the tape is in contact with the head then there is going to be deteriation. The change is probably so gradual you won't even notice it. DVD's in themselves will maintain a higher quality as no physical contact is made. A failure to record is a fault of the machine and not the concept. But, saying that I also have had failures with discs and I still use a tape to record something I want to see later but will always use a disc to record a film that I want to keep.

Try the Primary / Secondary technique with tapes.
Record it to one tape which will be your Primary tape.
Copy from that to another tape which will be your Secondary tape.
Watch it again and again on the Secondary tape until that wears out (or gets chewed by the VCR transport mechanism)
Then make another Secondary from the Primary tape

The only trouble is that you need even more storage space

Steve

[David Brent]

Talking of disc storage but from another angle.

For my own convenience I often record programs/films to DVD on longplay giving me 3-4 hours per disc.
I was once told that quality of picture can diminish using LP.
So far I have not noticed any decrease in picture quality between SP and LP recordings.

I'm wondering whether anyone has noticed quality differences between LP and SP recordings showing up after any length of time? Is there any data to say that a LP recording will deteriorate quicker in time than a normal SP recording?

Dave.

[Wolfgang]

Theoretically it will only give you half as much resolution. If you copy from VHS to DVD there is nothing to gain from recording in SP, but since full DVD resolution and broadcast resolution are roughly similar then LP will lose some resolution. If it is something I really want for my collection then I record in SP otherwise I find LP adequate - it is probably not even that noticeable unless your TV is 40" and upwards.

[essaljay]

There is a definite loss of quality using LP. But if I were to record, say, an episode of Q.I. or any other chat show I would use LP as there isn't much movement. That is when it is most noticable. I would only record a film to keep on SP. If the film is longer than 2 hours then I will buy a pre-recorded disc.

[Dave Edwards]

Me personally, i have a 1.5 Terrabyte external HD which when full, i go thru and delete stuff i don't want.
Anything left over goes onto DVD, put in a leather case, and locked away.
It can take forever and a day to fill a 1.5TB drive, so by the time you actually do fill it, then go thru it, you will know that what is left over is really worth keeping.

Originally Posted by Tony Pendrey I was browsing through a photography mag the other day and was reading an article about the storage of digital images. It would seem that CD-R and DVD-R get an emphatic no in the photographic world. Just deemed too unreliable. The same applies to the new generation of high density flash memories. They, (Amatuer Photographer) recommend a hard drive, on the basis that a 500gb hard drive is very cost effective. Now, as an old computer geek that seems to go against all that I have ever known in the world of data processing. That hard drive is a little magnetic disk spinning at 7200rpm, and rest assured it WILL fail one day. 500gb is an awful lot of stuff to lose. It seems that as current technology stands there is no way to guarantee long term archiving of digital data. And the sheer volume of data that we now all produce just exacerbates the matter. I myself am getting more and more CDs and DVDs failing big time. And they are not that old.