We ❤ Retro Media: Vinyl, VHS, Tapes & Film

[Diapositivo]

If you use the programs on those tapes, you'll want to think about transferring them off magnetic media and onto something with more longevity.

Video tapes have a tendency to self destruct over time. As I understand, their life span is 10 to 20 years under average conditions.
Even a home-burned DVD has an expected lifetime of 50 years or more if stored properly.

Secondarily, rewind the tapes every once in a while. Leave them "heads out" or "tails out" at alternating intervals.
As the revolutions of tape lie together on the reel, the magnetic signature tends to "print through" onto the adjacent layers, thus degrading the data on the tape.
Rewinding the tape and leaving it in the opposite orientation helps to randomize the positions of the layers of tape that lay together, thus preventing print-through.

Also, the tape should be stored flat on the surface so that each coil rests on the next coil. For a VHS or a Compact Cassette tape that would mean keeping them vertical on the short side. Failure to do so, as far as I know, can produce a damage to the tape (physical damage to the tape, regardless of the information on it).

[m1tch]

Lol vinyl, thats quite a new form of musical format, I use 78rpm Shellac records - ACOUSTICALLY recorded records, none of this electronically recorded records :P

[RPC]

If you use the programs on those tapes, you'll want to think about transferring them off magnetic media and onto something with more longevity.

Video tapes have a tendency to self destruct over time. As I understand, their life span is 10 to 20 years under average conditions.
Even a home-burned DVD has an expected lifetime of 50 years or more if stored properly.

Secondarily, rewind the tapes every once in a while. Leave them "heads out" or "tails out" at alternating intervals.
As the revolutions of tape lie together on the reel, the magnetic signature tends to "print through" onto the adjacent layers, thus degrading the data on the tape.
Rewinding the tape and leaving it in the opposite orientation helps to randomize the positions of the layers of tape that lay together, thus preventing print-through.

I have heard that recordings keep better if the tape is stored slow wound, such as after playing, instead of fast wound, such as after rewinding, but don't know how true it is.

[E. von Hoegh]

Lol vinyl, thats quite a new form of musical format, I use 78rpm Shellac records - ACOUSTICALLY recorded records, none of this electronically recorded records :P

Hah. I'm still using ca 1450 print technology, aka "books".

[BetterSense]

I still don't think codex is going to catch on. Scrolls are far superior!

[E. von Hoegh]

I still don't think codex is going to catch on. Scrolls are far superior!

Scrolls are so last-millenium.

[lxdude]

Here's a place in Kansas that markets about 22,000 new and used vinyl albums: http://store.acousticsounds.com/c/5/Vinyl_Record

Not sure it has any bearing on photography, but I'm glad there are folks that appreciate these things still (so that I may continue buying them too).

If you're in the SF Bay Area, Arhoolie Records on San Pablo Ave. in El Cerrito is fantastic.

They're also on that new thing called the internet at www.arhoolie.com

But browsing their store is a delight.

[Andy K]

So new the Beatles have just released a remastered vinyl box set.

[Diapositivo]

I still don't think codex is going to catch on. Scrolls are far superior!

Both scrolls and books are very perishable media. Clay tablets is the way to go.

[Andy K]

Carved stone stele have much better longevity than these new-fangled clay tablet contraptions.