X-Message-Number: 2656
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 08:34:22 EST
From:  
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Message-ID: <>
Subject: Videotape Longevity



I7>    ------------ CryoNet Message Auto-Forwarded by -------------
I7>    ----------- Kevin Q. Brown <> -----------

I7>> Date: 18 Mar 94 22:14:13 EST
I7>> From: Mike Darwin <>
I7>> Message-Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Videotape Longevity

I7>Tim Freeman writes that videotape looses its "readability" within a
I7>decade or less.  This is not so.  It takes longer but it does happen.  It
I7>happens primarily because the magnetic material is bound to or "glued" to
I7>the terpthlate substrate with a urethane adhesive.  In fact in some tapes
I7>there may be five or six layers of material attached to the substrate.
I7>The substrate is more or less indefinitely stable, its the other part of
I7>the tape that aren't.

[Deleted]

I7>Mike Darwin

You might also want to store a PLAYER.  A friend has had a very
difficult time trying to read NASA data tapes from the early lunar
exploration days, it seems there aren't any working tape machines left
that can read them!  The last I heard, he was trying to get someone to
custom build a machine to read them.  This appears to be a big problem
with any achival storage of data, I have some data tapes I made 20 years
ago that I can't read now (how many of us have 9-track tape drives?).
Also, when HDTV comes in around 2000, regular TV broadcasts will be
dropped, obsoleting ALL current TV recorders and sets.

Just someting to think about.

Jerry Durand

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Durand              |   tel: +1 408 356-3886   | Standing on the edge
Durand Interstellar, Inc. |   fax: +1 408 356-4659   | of reality.
Los Gatos, California     |  |



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