Posted by David McCall on 01/11/01 11:45

"Charles Tomaras" <tomaras@tomaras.com> wrote in message
news:jrGdnRysEo1RCtjZ4p2dnA@comcast.com...
>
> "Richard Crowley" <rcrowley@xpr7t.net> wrote in message
> news:124b35qj1a14h19@corp.supernews.com...
>> "Steve Guidry" wrote ...
>>> You guys are missing the point of any serious effort to
>>> do archiving.
>>>
>>> The _REAL_ issue is not "how long does the media last ? "
>>> Tather, it's "How long can I keep an obsolete format player running ?"
>>
>> I still claim there are people who keep players running
>> for >90% of the tape formats ever made. Many services
>> can be found online who dub "obsolete formats".
>>
>>> P. S. Anyone have an 8-track player I can transfer my old McGinnis
>>> Flint and Badfinger tapes with ?
>>
>> Yes. And frequently available on eBay, also.
>
> I don't know but it seems to me that 0's and 1's are gonna stand the test
> of time better than oxide. They can be copied without degradation and
> oxide cannot.
I believe oxide, or something like it is used to record data just as it is
when recording analog. The oxide will get old and brittle, and flake off
on digital media just as it will with analog media.

One big difference, is that most analog media will still play even if
the media is in poor shape. It will just get noisy. With digital media
there is more tolerance to noise. That is to say your information stays
in tact even if the media has started to fail, UP TO A POINT. Some
things like DV video and CD audio have error correction which will
attempt to reconstruct an approximation of your data, If it can't find
enough information you get massive dropout. In some cases
(computers for instance) you get total failure once the data is corrupted.

David

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