Posted by TheFug. on 01/11/11 11:45

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:39:02 GMT, szekeres@pitt.edu (GregS) wrote:

>In article <B%h1g.3066$UK5.34@trndny01>, "David McCall" <david.mccall@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>"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.
>
>I have tried a bunch of old DD floppies and many of them no longer
>are any good. Reformatting only shows up with many errors.
>Many of these are old programs I no longer use but have kept
>the disks.
>
>greg
>
>
>
>>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
>>
>>

You also have to decode digital formats.... when the're out of
fashion, you can't decode...
-- The Fug

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