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Post by Natalie Sinead on Jan 15, 2023 20:55:57 GMT
Technology is always advancing swiftly and working machines able to play obsolete formats are getting rare - even a lot of old audio-visual file formats from the early days of the world wide web may not be playable going forward.
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John Wall
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Post by John Wall on Jan 15, 2023 21:46:00 GMT
Technology is always advancing swiftly and working machines able to play obsolete formats are getting rare - even a lot of old audio-visual file formats from the early days of the world wide web may not be playable going forward. Bodies such as the BFI maintain old equipment so that they can retrieve material in old formats. |
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Post by Sue Butcher on Jan 16, 2023 0:48:37 GMT
I've heard that no-one is making replay heads for audio or video recorders any more, and there's far more recorded material than could possibly be played back given the limited wear life of the heads in the remaining machines. Before you bin a VHS or Beta machine, save the heads! I'd say the same for U-Matic machines, but you'd be crazy to dump one at all now, they're worth a few hundred even if they don't work.
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John Wall
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Post by John Wall on Jan 16, 2023 9:49:21 GMT
I've heard that no-one is making replay heads for audio or video recorders any more, and there's far more recorded material than could possibly be played back given the limited wear life of the heads in the remaining machines. Before you bin a VHS or Beta machine, save the heads! I'd say the same for U-Matic machines, but you'd be crazy to dump one at all now, they're worth a few hundred even if they don't work. That’s good advice but remember that no-one is looking to use these machines every day. |
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Post by Sue Butcher on Jan 19, 2023 1:45:40 GMT
There are some people who've stuck with VHS, but I'll admit there's not many of them. A friend of mine met one a couple of weeks ago who was happy to take about a hundred VHS movies, not rare stuff either.
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Post by George D on Jan 19, 2023 5:07:58 GMT
4 years ago while i kept the tapes i didn't keep the machines:(
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Post by markperry on Jan 19, 2023 20:56:18 GMT
Interesting how a few year's ago Australia's NFSA were announced they were in a bit of a struggle to transfer their video based material before the machines they had would wear out or the parts expired, I mentioned this to someone who said it seems the USA is not as in dire straights but then again the US is larger and would have heaps of machines to fall back on.
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Post by frankymole on Feb 5, 2023 18:11:00 GMT
A happy missing who year to everyone, and I have a question for 2023... and beyond? How much time have we got left now, realistically, in terms of ever seeing any more missing Doctor Who? I don't necessarily mean in terms of our respective ages and surving to the day of another recovery (if any), but the state of whatever film elements might still be out there, as yet undiscovered. Can that material survive for many more years? Are we at the eleventh hour now, or has the eleventh hour long passed us? The missing scenes of Metropolis find in 2008 was over 80 years after the film was made. So no, we're not there yet. |
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Post by frankymole on Feb 5, 2023 18:13:32 GMT
I've heard that no-one is making replay heads for audio or video recorders any more, and there's far more recorded material than could possibly be played back given the limited wear life of the heads in the remaining machines. Before you bin a VHS or Beta machine, save the heads! I'd say the same for U-Matic machines, but you'd be crazy to dump one at all now, they're worth a few hundred even if they don't work. Isn't there still some stuff released by the BBC on Doctor Who VHSs's which hasn't come out on DVD or BluRay? One of the Saturday Superstore segments (on the Attack of the Cybermen VHS) for instance? Also the Stonesof Blood episode with the missing scene reinserted into the body of the episode? There may be more, like the full versions of the "Years" tapes. |
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Post by stevegerald on Feb 6, 2023 1:56:03 GMT
A happy missing who year to everyone, and I have a question for 2023... and beyond? How much time have we got left now, realistically, in terms of ever seeing any more missing Doctor Who? I don't necessarily mean in terms of our respective ages and surving to the day of another recovery (if any), but the state of whatever film elements might still be out there, as yet undiscovered. Can that material survive for many more years? Are we at the eleventh hour now, or has the eleventh hour long passed us? The missing scenes of Metropolis find in 2008 was over 80 years after the film was made. So no, we're not there yet. Even more impressive, a 1916 film called The Net was found last year in pristine condition, that is 106 YEARS later! vimeo.com/ondemand/thanhouserthenet |
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Post by George D on Feb 6, 2023 21:52:45 GMT
The time we're too late is when the film becomes damaged or people dispose of it.
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