Re: arsclist DAT Longevity (a question)

["Richard L. Hess" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:19 AM 07/16/2001 -0500, you wrote:


> On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Richard L. Hess wrote:
>
> > At 03:18 PM 07/09/2001 -0500, Karl Miller wrote:
> >
> > >Does anyone have a source for information on the longevity of DAT tapes?
> >
> > Karl,
> >
> > The short answer is I have less faith that I'll be able to play the DATs of
> > the old tapes I've transferred 55 years from now than my ability to play
> > the original 55-year old tapes.
> >
> > The narrow track width and the long-term availability of machines are my
> > major concerns. Some are also concerned about the thinness of the tape and
> > the type of coating.
> >
> > If you noticed Parker Dinkins's post about the tape wandering--my transfers
> > of 55-year old tapes had the tape doing a bobsled run on the heads. That
> > kind of deformation would be pretty hard to track on a DAT!
>
> I have had problems with new DATs. The slightest alignment problem seems
> to cause significant problems.
>
> My main concern has to do with the density of the oxide and the nature of
> the scan. Since the recording process is similar to the VHS, are DATs not
> just as likely to suffer the same fate as VHS and have a similar life
> expectancy?
>
> Karl

Karl, I'm not sure what kind of life expectancy you're seeing with VHS, but 
I would suspect that DAT would be at least as bad as VHS, and being 
digital, it has the "cliff effect" of being completely unusable after a 
certain error rate.

I don't think anyone considers DAT to be an archival format, although I 
know of archives that are replete with them!

Cheers,

Richard


Richard L. Hess                           email: rlh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vignettes Media                           web:   http://marielynnhammond.com
Glendale, California, USA