Re:CBC is destroying its broadcast archives after they’re di...
by blattimwind on Saturday April 21, 2018 @10:48AM
(#16891608)
Digital storage needs sophisticated hard- and software to read, which thus needs to be archived as well (and how would you do that; no hardware has that shelf life), or, you re-archive everything every ~10-15 years (as is done today).
In contrast, I can read anything from the Barbarastollen with a magnifying glass and sunlight, today and in 500 years.
Re:CBC is destroying its broadcast archives after they’re di...
by justin66 on Saturday April 21, 2018 @01:26PM
(#16892302)
> Better than film
I bet in the very long term it's not. I suspect that error correction on digital tape is only meant to address the problem of magnetic spots flipping or fading over time, but the tapes are throwaways as soon as there's detectable physical degradation or disintegration. Contrast with analog tape (or to speak to your point, film) which can be handled in all kinds of crazy ways (cleaning, baking, coating, etc.) in order to get at least a partial or imperfect copy of the original made.
Digital data tapes have a nice layer of error correction on top.
Better than film, but still requires some care.