Every day, priceless original videotapes are self-destructing. The tape stock is disintegrating and playback machines have gone the way of 2-inch tape ? disappearing, too, says Elizabeth Palese-Sweeney, Global Video’s archiving expert.
Consider: Videotape was introduced more than 40 years ago. Even under the best of circumstances, it has an average 30-year life span.
Some old stock, 1-inch and three-quarter-inch being the worst, are notorious for becoming unplayable, because the adhesive that holds the tape together fails over time.
Since Global Video is retire the last working MII machine in the Midwest, followed by 1-inch and three-quarter-inch machines, “It will be very costly and difficult to convert tapes of these formats to something that can be used now and in the years ahead,” says Palese-Sweeney.
The solution, she posits, is archival restoration to preserve the most valuable portions of these video libraries. Global Video handled several archival restoration projects involving more than 300 tapes this year.
Palese-Sweeney, who heads Global Video’s sales/customer service department and has spent her career in the broadcast duplication business, recommends three components to the archival restoration:
- Copy the old tapes onto a stable format (like Betacam SP or DigitalBetacam) that’s expected to be around for many years to come.
- Digitize the tapes into editable files and store the resulting files on hard drives, your servers, or on LTO tapes for very large libraries.
- Copy the tapes onto archival grade DVDs. “Global’s are guaranteed to have a 100-year shelf life,” Palese-Sweeney says. Not recommended are DVD-Rs, which have projected life of only five to seven years. “There’s a drawback to this approach; DVDs are not editable files, so this option should be used in conjunction with the digitizing step,” she notes.
When the restoration is completed, the old tapes can be disposed of in an ecologically acceptable manner. In some situations, where the content of the tapes is especially sensitive or valuable, Global Video can degauss the tapes to keep their content from being misused.
The end of the year is good time to take stock of tapes and preserve the valuable ones through digitizing and storage. “We will review your tape library and provide you with a restoration proposal at no charge,” she states.
Global Video is located at 230 E. Ohio, phone, 312/475-9200. See
