Posted by Charles Tomaras on 01/11/43 11:45

"David McCall" <david.mccall@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:B%h1g.3066$UK5.34@trndny01...
>
> "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.

Well, one can make copies of digital media before the degradation occurs but
every copy of analog tape is degraded. Heck, if you had the patience you
could print out the digital information to paper and that would probably be
readable by something far into the future. I wonder how my 8.5 x 11" pieces
of paper it would take to print a CD?

[Back to original message]