Re: Digital Video format for archives.

From: Brook Hinton (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Sep 24 2008 - 18:07:56 PDT


My biased advice:

DVD is too lossy and unstable.
DV tape is somewhat lossy and somewhat unstable - ideally use two sets, and
clone at least every three years.
Digital Betacam is less lossy and unstable, but still should be cloned.
Files on hard drives in DV, Apple ProresHQ, or uncompressed formats also
need to be stored in double sets and cloned every few years, and
additionally need to be mounted on a computer every few months to avoid
mechanical failure and data loss.

Drives have become so cheap that they are a reasonable choice, but they have
to be maintained, just like any format. As we move away from film and tape,
they will be the only option anyway.

All drives die.
All tape loses signal.
All film changes when exposed to the elements.
Paper disintegrates.
Etc etc etc.

There is no true archival format for anything. That's just nature.
Redundancy and constant refreshing are the best strategy.

Brook
___________________________________________________
Brook Hinton
film/video/audio art
www.brookhinton.com
studio vlog/blog: www.brookhinton.com/temporalab

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.