Interesting article on the preservation or lack there of of digital media

[Joe Whip]

Similiar problems with the preservation of film.

“It’s a Silent Fire”: Decaying Digital Movie and TV Show Files Are a Hollywood Crisis

Industry pros sweat the possibility that many digital files will eventually become unusable — an archival tragedy reminiscent of the celluloid era.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[tmallin]

This problem dates back to the earliest days of digital recording back in the 1980s. The problem then was that digital master tapes at that time were often being done on VCR tapes and these recordings tended to self-erase over time. Unlike analog master tapes, however, rather than just losing a bit of highs or adding a bit of noise, at some point such digital master tapes become totally unplayable. At that time the expected playable life of such masters was thought to be only about 10 years. Analog master tapes, if carefully stored, historically have been shown to capable of producing fine copies well over a half century later. Solid state digital drives and optical media can also be used for digital master storage, but as we all know, those media can also be suddenly lost due to hard drive malfunctions or physical damage.

 

[Joe Whip]

Which is why all my music and any movie rips have several backups. Storage today is so cheap.