This reply does not seem to be getting through - resending again...
Hello Tom:
Sorry for the delay in answering. We have a newborn so my time checking
the list-serve is limited to a couple of days each week.
The project I wrote about was for a local cable access station in
Upstate New York. It was done about eight years ago. They had over 2,000
programs on VHS they wanted archived. They contracted me for the job.
Since they were DVD based for playout, had a very small budget, and
storage servers were still quite expensive, it made perfect sense to
convert and archive their old VHS programming to DVD. After the initial
bad experience with TDK, we switched to Taiyo Yuden brand for the master
disks, with a backup on Verbatim brand stored off-site.
Since working with this station as a contractor eight years ago, I've
volunteered with them for the past seven years and recently took over as
the Director (my other "part-time" job). We are still DVD based. To most
people, DVD might seem archaic, but it is still the main means to
distribute content to all cable access stations as cable access channels
broadcast in standard def. Most local cable access stations get content
from other stations, local and regional government, even two branches of
the military (DIVDS and Soldier's Journal) in DVD format. It's cheep to
copy and distribute. For our station, DVD still makes sense for many
reasons. We produce over 250 original programs a year that are very
centric to our viewership. Many people want copies of our programs, so
we simply make a copy of the master DVD for them. We have 8 different
producers and they shoot, edit and master at home. DVD is easy for them
to make and drop off to the station. If the disk is made properly, it
plays. I don't have to concern myself with files that were not formatted
properly. It also gives us a "hard copy" which is a more tangible asset
than a file.
Our disks have been used on a regular basis over the pasty eight years
and handled by inexperienced volunteers. Over the past eight years there
have been no failures or problems with the disks except for the
occasional scratch. We use an RTI disk resurfacing machine if the disk
requires scratch repair or deep cleaning, with the backup DVD off-site
and the original camera footage on tape to go to, if all else fails. We
have never "lost" any content to disk failure.
Regards,
John Schroth
Media Transfer Service
On 6/20/2013 5:02 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> Hi John:
>
> Thanks for this interesting information.
>
> I'm curious -- what sort of project includes a large-scale CDR or
> DVD-R component these days? Do people still want hundreds or thousands
> of optical discs as backup to hard drives?
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
|