Video and film are fundamentally different physical mediums. What was
necessary and appropriate for film is not necessarily
appropriate for video. But given the large investments that
libraries have made in video collections it is natural that they
should wish to protect their investments. This does not, however,
demonstrate the value of this equipment.
Magnetic tape is an inherently unstable medium. "Cleaning"
(removing loose oxide residue) and inspecting the videos
can help identify problem tapes, but the problems of an
aging tape collection will not go away. As readers will recall
from an earlier list topic regarding U-Matic tape, tapes that
were acquired a decade or mores ago are rapidly becoming
unusable. Older VHS tape will suffer the same fate.
May DVD come quickly.
Philip Fryer