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Jul

2015

Audio Cassette Parallel Ingests

The scale of digitisation jobs we do at Greatbear often varies. We are asked by our customers to reformat single items to large quantities of tape and everything else inbetween.

Reformatting magnetic tape-based media always takes time and care.

Transfers have to be done in real time; if you want a good quality recording there is no way to reformat tape-based media quickly.

Some jobs are so big, however, that you need to find ways of speeding up the process. This is known as a parallel ingest – when you transfer a batch of tapes at the same time.

Realistically, parallel ingest is not possible with all formats.

An obvious issue is machine scarcity. To playback tapes at the same time you need multiple playback machines that are in fairly good condition. This becomes difficult with rarer formats like early digital video tape, such as D1 or D2, where you are extremely lucky if you have two machines working at any given time.

Audio Cassettes

Audio cassette tapes are one of few formats where archival standard parallel ingest is possible if tapes are in good condition and the equipment is working well.

Stack of professional tape machines, including Marantz PMD 502 and Tascam 322

Great Bear Parallel Ingest Stack

We were recently approached by Jim Shields of the Zion, Sovereign Grace Baptists Church in Glasgow to do a large scale transfer of 5000 audio cassettes and over 100 open reels.

Jim explains that these ‘tapes represent the ministry of Pastor Jack Glass, who was the founder of Zion, Sovereign Grace Baptists Church, located at Calder St.Polmadie, Glasgow. The church was founded in 1965. All early recordings are on reel but the audio tapes represent his ministry dating from the beginning of 1977 through to the end of 2003. The Pastor passed away on the 24th Feb 2004 [you can read obituaries here and here]. It is estimated there are in the region of 5,000 ministry tapes varying in length from 60 mins to 120 mins, with many of the sermons being across 2 tapes as the Pastor’s messages tended to be in the region of 90 minutes plus.’

Sermons were recorded using ‘semi domestic to professional cassette decks. From late Sept 1990 a TEAC X-2000 reel recorder was used [to make master copies] on 10 inch reels then transposed onto various length cassettes [when ordered by people]’ chief recordist Mike Hawkins explains.

Although a udio cassettes were a common consumer format it is still possible to get high quality digital transfers from them, even when transferred en masse. Recordings of speech, particularly of male voices which have a lower frequency range, are easier to manage.

Hugh Robjohns, writing in 1997 for the audio technology magazine Sound on Sound, explains that lower frequency recordings are mechanically more compatible with the chemical composition of magnetic tape: ‘high-frequency signals tend to be retained by the top surface of the magnetic layer, whilst lower-frequency components tend to be recorded throughout its full depth. This has a bearing on the requirements of the recording heads and the longevity of recordings.'[1]

Preparation

In order to manage a large scale job we had to increase our operational capacity.

We acquired several professional quality cassette machines with auto reverse functions, such as the Marantz PMD 502 and the Tascam 322.

Although these were the high end audio cassette recorders of their time, we found that important components, such as the tape transport which is ‘critical to the performance of the entire tape recorder'[2], were in poor shape across all the models. Pitch and timing errors, or wow (low speed variations) and flutter (high speed variations), were frequently evident during test playbacks.

Because of irregular machine specifications, a lot of time was spent going through all the tape decks ensuring they were working in a standardised manner.

In some cases it was necessary to rebuild the tape transport using spares or even buying a new tape transport. Both of these restoration methods will become increasingly difficult in years to come as parts become more and more scarce.

Assessing the options

There are certainly good reasons to do parallel ingests if you have a large collection of tapes. Nevertheless it is important to go into large scale transfers with your eyes open.

There is no quick fix and there are only so many hours in the working day to do the transfers, even if you do have eight tapes playing back simultaneously.

To assess the viability of a large scale parallel ingest you may want to consider the following issues: condition of tapes, how they were originally recorded and the material stored on them.

It may well be that parts of your collection can be reformatted via parallel ingest, but other elements need to be selected for more specialist attention.

As ever we can help with discussing the options so do contact us if you want some specific advice.

Notes

[1] The gendered implications of this statement are briefly worth reflecting on here. Robjohns suggests that voices which command the higher frequencies, i.e., female or feminine voices, are apparently incompatible with the chemical composition of magnetic tape. If higher frequencies are retained by the top layer of magnetic tape only, but do not penetrate its full depth, does this make high frequencies more vulnerable in a preservation context because they never were never substantially captured in the first place? What does this say about how technical conditions, whose design has often been authored by people with low frequency voices (i.e., men), privilege the transmission of particular frequencies over others, at least in terms of ‘depth’?

[2] Hugh Robjohns ‘Analogue Tape Recorders: Exploration’ Sound on Sound, May 1997. Available: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/may97/analysinganalogue.html.

*** Many thanks to Jim Shields, Martyn Glass and Mike Hawkins for sharing their tape stories***

Feb

2015

Digitising small audiovisual collections: making decisions and taking action

Deciding when to digitise your magnetic tape collections can be daunting.

The Presto Centre, an advocacy organisation working to help ‘keep audiovisual content alive,’ have a graphic on their website which asks: ‘how digital are our members?’

They chart the different stages of ‘uncertainty,’ ‘awakening’, ‘enlightenment’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘certainty’ that organisations move through as they appraise their collections and decide when to re-format to digital files.

Similarly, the folks at AV Preserve offer their opinion on the ‘Cost of Inaction‘ (COI), arguing that ‘incorporating the COI model and analyses into the decision making process around digitization of legacy physical audiovisual media helps organizations understand the implications and make well-informed decisions.’

They have even developed a COI calculator tool that organisations can use to analyse their collections. Their message is clear: ‘the cost of digitization may be great, but the cost of inaction may be greater.’

Digitising small-medium audiovisual collections

For small to medium size archives, digitising collections may provoke worries about a lack of specialist support or technical infrastructure. It may be felt that resources could be better used elsewhere in the organisation. Yet as we, and many other people working with audiovisual archives often stress, the decision to transfer material stored on magnetic tape has to be made sooner or later. With smaller archives, where funding is limited, the question of ‘later’ is not really a practical option.

Furthermore, the financial cost of re-formatting audiovisual archives is likely to increase significantly in the next five-ten years; machine obsolescence will become an aggravated problem and it is likely to take longer to restore tapes prior to transfer if the condition of carriers has dramatically deteriorated. The question has to be asked: can you afford not to take action now?

If this describes your situation, you might want to hear about other small to medium sized archives facing similar problems. We asked one of our customers who recently sent in a comparatively small collection of magnetic tapes to share their experience of deciding to take the digital plunge.

We are extremely grateful for Annaig from the Medical Mission Sisters for answering the questions below. We hope that it will be useful for other archives with similar issues.

1. First off, please tell us a little bit about the Medical Mission Sisters Archive, what kind of materials are in the collection?

The Medical Mission Sisters General Archives include the central archives of the congregation. They gather all the documents relating to the foundation and history of the congregation and also documents relating to the life of the foundress, Anna Dengel. The documents are mainly paper but there is a good collection of photographs, slides, films and audio documents. Some born digital documents are starting to enter the archives but they are still few.

2. As an archive with a modest collection of magnetic tapes, why did you decide to get the materials digitised now? Was it a question of resources, preservation concerns, access request (or a mixture of all these things!)

The main reason was accessibility. The documents on video tapes or audio tapes were the only usable ones because we still had machines to read them but all the older ones, or those with specific formats, where lost to the archives as there was no way to read them and know what was really on the tapes. Plus the Medical Mission Sisters is a congregation where Sisters are spread out on 5 continents and most of the time readers don’t come to the archives but send me queries by emails where I have to respond with scanned documents or digital files. Plus it was obvious that some of the tapes were degrading as that we’d better have the digitisation sooner than later if we wanted to still be able to read what was on them. Space and preservation was another issue. With a small collection but varied in formats, I had no resources to properly preserve every tape and some of the older formats had huge boxes and were consuming a lot of space on the shelves. Now, we have a reasonably sized collection of CDs and DVDs, which is easy to store in good conditions and is accessible everywhere as we can read them on computer here and I can send them to readers via email.

3. Digital preservation is a notoriously complex, and rapidly evolving field. As a small archive, how do you plan to manage your digital assets in the long term? What kinds of support, services and systems are your drawing on to design a system which is robust and resilient?

At the moment the digital collection is so small that it cannot justify any support service or system. So I have to build up my own home made system. I am using the archives management software (CALM) to enter data relating to the conservation of the CDs or DVDs, dates of creation, dates to check them and I plan to have regular checks on them and migrations or copies made when it will prove necessary.

4. Aside from the preservation issue, what are your plans to use the digitised material that Greatbear recently transferred?

It all depends on the content of the tapes. But I’ve already spotted a few documents of interest, and I haven’t been through everything yet. My main concern now is to make the documents known and used for their content. I was already able to deliver a file to one of the Sisters who was working on a person related to the foundation of the congregation, the most important document on her was an audio file that I had just received from Greatbear, I was able to send it to her. The document would have been unusable a few weeks before. I’ve come across small treasures, like a film, probably made by the foundress herself, which nobody was aware of. The Sisters are celebrating this year the 90th anniversary of their foundation. I plan to use as many audio or video documents as I can to support the events the archives are going to be involved into.

***

What is illuminating about Annaig’s answers is that her archive has no high tech plan in place to manage the collection – her solutions for managing the material very much draw on non-digital information management practices.

The main issues driving the decision to migrate the materials are fairly common to all archives: limited storage space and accessibility for the user-community.

What lesson can be learnt from this? Largely, that if you are trained as an archivist, you are likely to already have the skills you need to manage your digital collection.

So don’t let the more bewildering aspects of digital preservation put you off. But do take note of the changing conditions for playing back and accessing material stored on magnetic tape. There will come a time when it will be too costly to preserve recordings on a wide variety of formats – many of such formats we can help you with today.

If you want to discuss how Greatbear can help you re-format your audiovisual collections, get in touch and we can explore the options.

If you are a small-medium size archive and want to share your experiences of deciding to digitise, please do so in the comment box below.

Apr

2014

Significant properties – technical challenges for digital preservation

A consistent focus of our blog is the technical and theoretical issues that emerge in the world of digital preservation. For example, we have explored the challenges archivists face when they have to appraise collections in order to select what materials are kept, and what are thrown away. Such complex questions take on specific dimensions within the world of digital preservation.

If you work in digital preservation then the term ‘significant properties’ will no doubt be familiar to you. The concept has been viewed as a hindrance due to being shrouded by foggy terminology, as well as a distinct impossibility because of the diversity of digital objects in the world which, like their analogue counterparts, cannot be universally generalised or reduced to a series of measurable characteristics.

In a technical sense, establishing a set of core characteristics for file formats has been important for initiatives like Archivematica, ‘a free and open-source digital preservation system that is designed to maintain standards-based, long-term access to collections of digital objects.’ Archivematica implement ‘default format policies based on an analysis of the significant characteristics of file formats.’ These systems manage digital information using an ‘agile software development methodology’ which ‘is focused on rapid, iterative release cycles, each of which improves upon the system’s architecture, requirements, tools, documentation, and development resources.’

Such a philosophy may elicit groans of frustration from information managers who may well want to leave their digital collections alone, and practice a culture of non-intervention. Yet this adaptive-style of project management, which is designed to respond rapidly to change, is often contrasted with predictive development that focuses on risk assessment and the planning of long-term projects. The argument against predictive methodologies is that, as a management model, it can be unwieldy and unresponsive to change. This can have damaging financial consequences, particularly when investing in expensive, risky and large scale digital preservation projects, as the BBC’s failed DMI initiative demonstrates.

Indeed, agile software development methodology may well be an important key to the sustainability of digital preservation systems which need to find practical ways of maneuvering technological innovations and the culture of perpetual upgrade. Agility in this context is synonymous with resilience, and the practical application of significant properties as a means to align file format interoperability offers a welcome anchor for a technological environment structured by persistent change.

Significant properties vs the authentic digital object

What significant properties imply, as archival concept and practice, is that desiring authenticity for the digitised and born-digital objects we create is likely to end in frustration. Simply put, preserving all the information that makes up a digital object is a hugely complex affair, and is a procedure that will require numerous and context-specific technical infrastructures.

As Trevor Owens explains: ‘you can’t just “preserve it” because the essence of what matters about “it” is something that is contextually dependent on the way of being and seeing in the world that you have decided to privilege.’ Owens uses the example of the Geocites web archiving project to demonstrate that if you don’t have the correct, let’s say ‘authentic’ tools to interpret a digital object (in this case, a website that is only discernible on certain browsers), you simply cannot see the information accurately. Part of the signal is always missing, even if something ‘significant’ remains (the text or parts of the graphics).

It may be desirable ‘to preserve all aspects of the platform in order to get at the historicity of the media practice’, Jonathan Sterne, author of MP3: Meaning of a Format suggests, but in a world that constantly displaces old technological knowledge with new, settling for the preservation of significant properties may be a pragmatic rather than ideal solution.

Analogue to digital issues

To bring these issues back to the tape we work we with at Great Bear, there are of course times when it is important to use the appropriate hardware to play the tapes back, and there is a certain amount of historically specific technical knowledge required to make the machines work in the first place. We often wonder what will happen to the specialised knowledge learnt by media engineers in the 70s, 80s and 90s, who operated tape machines that are now obsolete. There is the risk that when those people die, the knowledge will die with them. Of course it is possible to get hold of operating manuals, but this is by no means a guarantee that the mechanical techniques will be understood within a historical context that is increasingly tape-less and software-based. By keeping our wide selection of audio and video tape machines purring, we are sustaining a machinic-industrial folk knowledge which ultimately helps to keep our customer’s magnetic tape-based, media memories, alive.

Of course a certain degree of historical accuracy is required in the transfers because, very obviously, you can’t play a V2000 tape on a VHS machine, no matter how hard you try!

Yet the need to play back tapes on exactly the same machine becomes less important in instances where the original tape was recorded on a domestic reel-to-reel recorder, such as the Grundig TK series, which may not have been of the greatest quality in the first place. To get the best digital transfer it is desirable to play back tapes on a machine with higher specifications that can read the magnetic information on the tape as fully as possible. This is because you don’t want to add any more errors to the tape in the transfer process by playing it back on a lower quality machine, which would then of course become part of the digitised signal.

It is actually very difficult to remove things like wow and flutter after a tape has been digitised, so it is far better to ensure machines are calibrated appropriately before the tape is migrated, even if the tape was not originally recorded on a machine with professional specifications. What is ultimately at stake in transferring analogue tape to digital formats is the quality of the signal. Absolute authenticity is incidental here, particularly if things sound bad.

The moral of this story, if there can be one, is that with any act of transmission, the recorded signal is liable to change. These can be slight alterations or huge drop-outs and everything in-between. The agile software developers know that given the technological conditions in which current knowledge is produced and preserved, transformation is inevitable and must be responded to. Perhaps it is realistic to assume this is the norm in society today, and creating digital preservation systems that are adaptive is key to the survival of information, as well as accepting that preserving the ‘full picture’ cannot always be guaranteed.

Jan

2014

Digital Preservation – Establishing Standards and Challenges for 2014

2014 will no doubt present a year of new challenges for those involved in digital preservation. A key issue remains the sustainability of digitisation practices within a world yet to establish firm standards and guidelines. Creating lasting procedures capable of working across varied and international institutions would bring some much needed stability to a profession often characterized by permanent change and innovation.

In 1969 The EIAJ-1 video tape was developed by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan. It was the first standardized format for industrial/non-broadcast video tape recording. Once implemented it enabled video tapes to be played on machines made by different manufacturers and it helped to make video use cheaper and more widespread, particularly within a domestic context.

The introduction of standards in the digitisation world would of course have very little impact on the widespread use of digital technologies which are, in the west, largely ubiquitous. It would however make the business of digital preservation economically more efficient, simply because organisations would not be constantly adapting to change. For example, think of the costs involved in keeping up with rapid waves of technological transformation: updating equipment, migrating data and ensuring file integrity and operability are maintained are a few costly and time consuming examples of what this would entail.

Although increasingly sophisticated digital forensic technology can help to manage some of these processes, highly trained (real life!) people will still be needed to oversee any large-scale preservation project. Within such a context resource allocation will always have to account for these processes of adaptation. It has to be asked then: could this money, time and energy be practically harnessed in other, more efficient ways? The costs of non-standardisation becomes ever more pressing when we consider the amount of the digital data preserved by large institutions such as the British Library, whose digital collection is estimated to amass up to 5 petabytes (5000 terabytes) by 2020. This is not a simple case of updating your iphone to the next model, but an extremely complex and risky venture where the stakes are high. Do we really want to jeopardise rich forms cultural heritage in the name of technological progress?

The US-based National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) National Agenda for Digital Stewardship 2014 echoes such a sentiment. They argue that ‘the need for integration, interoperability, portability, and related standards and protocols stands out as a theme across all of these areas of infrastructure development’ (3). The executive summary also stresses the negative impact rapid technological change can create, and the need to ‘coordinate to develop comprehensive coverage on critical standards bodies, and promote systematic community monitoring of technology changes relevant to digital preservation.’ (2)

File Format Action Plans

One step on the way to more secure standards is the establishment of File Format Action Plans, a practice which is being increasingly recommended by US institutions. The idea behind developing a file format action plan is to create a directory of file types that are in regular use by people in their day to day lives and by institutions. Getting it all down on paper can help us track what may be described as the implicit user-standards of digital culture. This is the basic idea behind Parsimonious Preservation, discussed on the blog last year: that through observing trends in file use we may come to the conclusion that the best preservation policy is to leave data well alone since in practice files don’t seem to change that much, rather than risk the integrity of information via constant intervention.

As Lee Nilsson, who is currently working as a National Digital Stewardship Resident at the US Library of Congress writes, ‘specific file format action plans are not very common’, and when created are often subject to constant revision. Nevertheless he argues that devising action plans can ‘be more than just an “analysis of risk.” It could contain actionable information about software and formats which could be a major resource for the busy data manager.’

Other Preservation Challenges

What are the other main challenges facing ‘digital stewards’ in 2014? In a world of exponential information growth, making decisions about what we keep and what we don’t becomes ever more pressing. When whole collections cannot be preserved digital curators are increasingly called upon to select material deemed representative and relevant. How is it possible to know now what material needs to be preserve for posterity? What values inform our decision making?

To take an example from our work at Great Bear: we often receive tapes from artists who have achieved little or no commercial success in their life times, but whose work is often of great quality and can tell us volumes about a particular community or musical style. How does such work stand up against commercially successful recordings? Which one is more valuable? The music that millions of people bought and enjoyed or the music that no one has ever heard?

Ultimately these questions will come to occupy a central concern for digital stewards of audio data, particularly with the explosion of born-digital music cultures which have enabled communities of informal and often non-commercial music makers to proliferate. How is it possible to know in advance what material will be valuable for people 20, 50 or 100 years from now? These are very difficult, if not impossible questions for large institutions to grapple with, and take responsibility for. Which is why, as members of a digital information management society, it is necessary to empower ourselves with relevant information so we can make considered decisions about our own personal archives.

A final point to stress is that among the ‘areas of concern’ for digital preservation cited by the NDSA, moving image and recorded sound figure highly, alongside other born-digital content such as electronic records, web and social media. Magnetic tape collections remain high risk and it is highly recommended that you migrate this content to a digital format as soon as possible. While digitisation certainly creates many problems as detailed above, magnetic tape is also threatened by physical deterioration and its own obsolescence challenges, in particular finding working machines to play back tape on. The simple truth is, if you want to access material in your tape collections it needs now to be stored in a resilient digital format. We can help, and offer other advice relating to digital information management, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Nov

2013

Paul Roche recordings & preservation challenges with acetate reel-to-reel magnetic tape

We were recently sent a very interesting collection of recordings of the late poet, novelist and acclaimed translator Paul Roche. During his colourful and creative life Roche published two novels, O Pale Gallellean and Vessel of Dishonour, and several poetry collections, and brushed shoulders with some of the 20th century’s most captivating avant-garde artistic and literary figures. His faculty colleague when he worked at Smith College, MA in the late 1950s was none other than Sylvia Plath, who pithily described Roche’s ‘professional dewy blue-eyed look and his commercially gilded and curled blond hair on his erect, dainty bored aristocratic head’.

His intense 30 year friendship with painter Duncan Grant was immortalised in the book With Duncan Grant in Southern Turkey, which documented a holiday the friends took together shortly before Grant’s death. The relationship with Grant has often eclipsed Roche’s own achievements, and he is often mistakenly identified as a member of the Bloomsbury group. Roche also achieved success beyond the literary and scholarly world when his translation of Oedipus the King became the screenplay for the 1968 film starring Christopher Plummer and Orson Welles.

The recordings we were sent were made between 1960-1967 when Roche worked at universities in America. Roche experienced greater professional success in America, and his translations of Ancient Greek are still used in US schools and universities. His son Martin, who sent us the tapes, is planning to use the digitised recordings on a commemorative website that will introduce contemporary audiences to his father’s creative legacy.

The Great Bear Studio has been pleasantly awash today with the sound of Roche reading poetry and his dramatic renditions of Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus the King’, ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ and ‘Antigone’. The readings communicate his emphatic pleasure performing language via the spoken word, and an unique talent to immerse listeners in images, rhythm and phrases.

Listen to Paul Roche reading his translation of ‘Antigone’.

Our own pleasure listening to the recordings has however been disrupted because of frequent snaps in the tape. The tapes are covered in splices, which suggests they had been edited previously. Over time the adhesive glue has dried out, breaking the tape as it moves through the transport. The collection of tapes as a whole are fairly brittle because the base film, which forms the structural integrity of the tape, is made of acetate.

Canadian-based digitisation expert Richard Hess explains that

‘Acetate was the first widely used base film, with Scotch 111 being in production from 1948 through 1972/73, a total of 24-25 years. Acetate tape is generally robust and has the advantage of breaking cleanly rather than stretching substantially prior to breaking when overstressed. Acetate tapes residing in collections are over 30-years-old, with the oldest being over 60-years-old.’

The big downside to acetate is that when it degrades it loses its flexibility and becomes a bit like an extended tape measure. This means it is harder to pass the tape consistently through the tape transport. This is colloquially known in the digitisation world as ‘country-laning’, when the tape changes shape in all dimensions and becomes wiggly, like a country lane. To extend the metaphor, a well functioning tape should be flat, like, one supposes, a motorway.

When a tape is ‘country-laning’ it means tracks of recorded material are moving slightly so they shift in and out of phase, dis-aligning the angle between the tape head(s) and tape, or azimuth. This has a detrimental effect on the quality of the playback because the machine reading the recorded material on the tape is at odds with surface area from which the information is being read.

If you are reading this and wondering if the base film in your tape is made of acetate, or is made of another substance such as paper or polyester, you can perform a simple test. If you hold the tape against the light and it appears translucent then the tape is acetate. There may also be a slightly odd, vinegar smell coming from the tape. If so, this is bad news for you because the tape is probably suffering from ‘Vinegar Syndrome’. Richard Hess explains that

‘Vinegar syndrome occurs as acetate decomposes and forms acetic acid. This is a well-known degradation mode for acetate film. High temperature and humidity levels, the presence of iron oxide, and the lack of ventilation all accelerate the process. Once it has started it can only be slowed down, not reversed.’

Acetate tape is also particularly vulnerable to excessive heat exposure, which makes it shrink in size. This is why you should never bake acetate tape! When acetate tape is exposed to heat it reaches what is known as the liquid-glass transition phase, the temperature where the material composition starts to change shape from a hard and relatively brittle state into a molten or rubber-like state. Although glass transition is reversible, it certainly is destructive. In other words, you can change the tape back from molten to a hard substance again but the tape would be unplayable.

While acetate backed tape has certain advantages over polyester tape in the migration process, namely it is easier to cleanly splice together tape that has broken as it has moved through the transport, unfortunately acetate tape is more fragile, and can get extremely stiff which makes it difficult to play back the tape at all. Even if you can pass the tape through the machine it may snap regularly, and will therefore require a lot of treatment in the transfer process. So if you have a valuable tape collection stored predominantly on acetate tape, we strongly recommend getting it migrated to digital format as soon as possible due to the fragility of the format. And if that whiff of vinegar is present, you need to move even more quickly!

Sep

2013

Measuring signals – challenges for the digitisation of sound and video

In a 2012 report entitled ‘Preserving Sound and Moving Pictures’ for the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Technology Watch Report series, Richard Wright outlines the unique challenges involved in digitising audio and audiovisual material. ‘Preserving the quality of the digitized signal’ across a range of migration processes that can negotiate ‘cycles of lossy encoding, decoding and reformatting is one major digital preservation challenge for audiovisual files’ (1).

Wright highlights a key issue: understanding how data changes as it is played back, or moved from location to location, is important for thinking about digitisation as a long term project. When data is encoded, decoded or reformatted it alters shape, therefore potentially leading to a compromise in quality. This is a technical way of describing how elements of a data object are added to, taken away or otherwise transformed when they are played back across a range of systems and software that are different from the original data object.

To think about this in terms which will be familiar to people today, imagine converting an uncompressed WAV into an MP3 file. You then burn your MP3s onto a CD as a WAV file so it will play back on your friend’s CD player. The WAV file you started off with is not the same as the WAV file you end up with – its been squished and squashed, and in terms of data storage, is far smaller. While smaller file size may be a bonus, the loss of quality isn’t. But this is what happens when files are encoded, decoded and reformatted.

Subjecting data to multiple layers of encoding and decoding does not only apply to digital data. Take Betacam video for instance, a component analogue video format introduced by SONY in 1982. If your video was played back using composite output, the circuity within the Betacam video machine would have needed to encode it. The difference may have looked subtle, and you may not have even noticed any change, but the structure of the signal would be altered in a ‘lossy’ way and can not be recovered to it’s original form. The encoding of a component signal, which is split into two or more channels, to a composite signal, which essentially squashes the channels together, is comparable to the lossy compression applied to digital formats such as mp3 audio, mpeg2 video, etc.

A central part of the work we do at Greatbear is to understand the changes that may have occurred to the signal over time, and try to minimise further losses in the digitisation process. We use a range of specialist equipment so we can carefully measure the quality of the analogue signal, including external time based correctors and wave form monitors. We also make educated decisions about which machine to play back tapes in line with what we expect the original recording was made on.

If we take for granted that any kind of data file, whether analogue or digital, will have been altered in its lifetime in some way, either through changes to the signal, file structure or because of poor storage, an important question arises from an archival point of view. What do we do with the quality of the data customers send us to digitise? If the signal of a video tape is fuzzy, should we try to stabilise the image? If there is hiss and other forms of noise on tape, should we reduce it? Should we apply the same conservation values to audio and film as we do to historic buildings, such as ruins, or great works of art? Should we practice minimal intervention, use appropriate materials and methods that aim to be reversible, while ensuring that full documentation of all work undertaken is made, creating a trail of endless metadata as we go along?

Do we need to preserve the ways magnetic tape, optical media and digital files degrade and deteriorate over time, or are the rules different for media objects that store information which is not necessarily exclusive to them (the same recording can be played back on a vinyl record, a cassette tape, a CD player, an 8 track cartridge or a MP3 file, for example)? Or should we ensure that we can hear and see clearly, and risk altering the original recording so we can watch a digitised VHS on a flat screen HD television, in line with our current expectations of media quality?

Richard Wright suggests it is the data, rather than operating facility, which is the important thing about the digital preservation of audio and audiovisual media.

‘These patterns (for film) and signals (for video and audio) are more like data than like artefacts. The preservation requirement is not to keep the original recording media, but to keep the data, the information, recovered from that media’ (3).

Yet it is not always easy to understand what parts of the data should be discarded, and which parts should kept. Audiovisual and audio data are a production of both form and content, and it is worth taking care over the practices we use to preserve our collections in case we overlook the significance of this point and lose something valuable – culturally, historically and technologically.

Jan

2025

Brian Eno Archive Video

As I write, just before 17.00 GMT / 12.00 EST, 24th January 2025, Anamorph.com are about to go live with the 24hour global streaming premiere of creative film maker Gary Hustwit's unique documentary feature 'Eno'.

Echoing Brian Eno's long-running explorations of generative technology in composition, Hustwit and digital artist Brendan Hawes have created Brain One - a generative software system to make and re-make a feature film that's different every time it screens.

Each unique iteration of 'Eno' is assembled dynamically from a pool of scenes (c. 10 hours-worth in total) edited by Gary and his team from over 500 hours of Brian Eno's personal video archive and 30+ hours of in-depth interview footage.

Greatbear became involved in summer 2022 when, working with independent archivist Alex Wilson, Gary delivered to us by hand the boxes containing 118 video tapes from Brian Eno’s personal archive, mostly in U-matic format.

U-matic was an early, ¾ inch analogue videocassette format, primarily used in industrial, educational and news-gathering contexts in the 1970s – '80s.

To view these early works, tv monitors would need to be turned through 90 degrees and rested on their side, so that the image would appear vertically, rather than in traditional landscape format. With the advent of mobile phone video, we are now much more used to viewing moving images in portrait format. Back in the late ‘70s & early ‘80s, when Eno was making these pieces, it was his intention to sidestep the theatricality of the widescreen in an attempt to remove the expectation that something dramatic should happen.

In the age of 8K Ultra-HD, why do we still get excited about making authentic, accurate new transfers of grainy, distorted, distinctly lo-fi U-matic video footage? In his Wired essay The Revenge of the Intuitive, Eno finds depth and personality in what he describes as

“the revenge of traditional media. Even the "weaknesses" or the limits of these tools become part of the vocabulary of culture.
…These limitations tell you something about the context of the work, where it sits in time, and by invoking that world they deepen the resonances of the work itself.

Since so much of our experience is mediated in some way or another, we have deep sensitivities to the signatures of different media. Artists play with these sensitivities, digesting the new and shifting the old. In the end, the characteristic forms of a tool's or medium's distortion, of its weakness and limitations, become sources of emotional meaning and intimacy.”

Owing to their age, each of the U-matic tapes from Eno’s archive that we digitised at Greatbear came with some form of deterioration and challenge to transfer.

Firstly, the Ampex 187 KCA-30 and KCA-60 tapes all needed controlled dehydration treatment (‘baking’) in the incubator at 52 degrees centigrade for up to 48hours to reverse the effects of binder hydrolysis, which is an inevitable consequence of age in this particular formulation of tape.

Binder hydrolysis leads to “sticky shed syndrome”, where tape will stick to itself as it is unwound or played, causing irreparable damage to the magnetic information.

The Sony KCS-10 and KCS-20 tapes, and the Sony KCA-30 and KCA-60 tapes, (while less prone to typical binder hydrolysis that can be treated by ‘baking’), had fallen prey to their own peculiar chemical degradation, emitting the familiar smell of wax crayons from the breakdown of medium chain fatty acids in their formulation.

This breakdown can lead to low RF from the tape and frequent head clogs in the playback machine, causing visual artefacts and potential damage to the tape’s surface. Multiple cleaning passes were needed before these could be digitised.

Several of the Sony U-matics arrived stuck at the end or part-way through the tape. This is often due to excess friction in the tape path through the cassette, caused by gradual loss of lubricant. Attempting to play these could have led to stretching or other damage, and so we needed to gently rewind these by hand before we could play them at all.

A similar issue had befallen the some of Scotch 3M MBU tapes in the collection, so they got the manual rewind treatment too. As they degrade, Scotch 3M U-matics tend to exude a white crystalline powder. We didn’t find RF so severely affected in these tapes, but the exudate can clog playback heads and potentially scratch the tape. As with the Sony tapes, we treated these with multiple cleaning passes, while vacuuming the residue.

Additionally a minority of tapes exhibited some mould growth along the edge of the tape pack, which had affected the control track, leading to image instability.

None of these issues were unique to this collection of tapes. While Eno is well-known for being more interested in his next project than his past work, it is almost impossible to avoid some deterioration in tapes of this age. Carefully tending to fragile tape is all part of our conservation process. Thanks to Hustwit and Eno for entrusting this precious audio-visual heritage to us in the creation of their forward-looking project.

Look out for new performances of Eno is cinemas: as an endlessly re-configured and re-configurable piece, it can never grow old!

Sep

2021

XDCAM / XDCAM HD

XDCAM is a series of products for digital recording to Professional Disc, an optical disc format introduced by Sony in 2003.

We offer a range of delivery formats for our video transfers. Following International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives TC-06 guidelines, we deliver FFV1 lossless files or 10-bit uncompressed video files in .mkv or .mov containers for archives. We can also produce Apple ProRes mezzanine files for ease of editing. We provide smaller viewing files as H.264 encoded .mp4 files or on DVD. We're happy to create any other digital video files, according to your needs.

We can provide the appropriately-sized USB delivery media for your files, or use media supplied by you, or deliver your files online. Files delivered on hard drive can be for any operating system MacOS, Windows or GNU/Linux and filesystems (HFS+, NTFS or EXT3).

Due to variation in media duration and physical degradation, it’s not always appropriate to create fixed prices for our services. We’ve found that assessing media prior to confirming costs is a more accurate and fair method.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

Apr

2021

Philips VCR – the first home video cassette recorder

For thegreatbear.co.uk, I get to photograph and document racks and racks of beautiful 'obsolete' tape machines in the Greatbear studio. From time to time pictures of our machines pop up elsewhere online (I'm convinced our machines are the best-looking on the internet), and this month one of our Philips N1500 VCRs is featured in Australian electronics magazine Silicon Chip (May 2021).

The siliconchip.com.au article describes Philips' development of VCR: the first cassette-based video tape recording system designed for domestic use, following the success of their revolutionary Compact Cassette audio tapes, recorders and players (1962 onwards). This is set in the context of U-matic, the Panasonic Video Cartridge, Betamax and VHS.

The article is part 3 of a well-researched and illustrated feature series on The History of Video Tape. Scroll down for a text extract from the article - we recommend subscribing to the whole series.

"Philips [had] entered the domestic open-reel market with half-inch VTRs beginning with their 1969 release of the desktop LDL-1000. Although easy to use, it lacked a tuner, forcing users to have existing TV receivers modified to supply video and audio signals for the VTR. Such modified sets were known as receiver monitors.

The LDL-1000 achieved some success, but recalling the success of their audio Compact Cassette system (siliconchip.com.au July 2018), Philips began development of a cassette system for video recording.

Their N1500, released in 1972 (just one year after Sony’s U-matic), offered an integrated design. Containing a tuner and a timer and able to supply a standard television signal output, the N1500 hit the spot with consumers, except for the problem of tape length. The N1500 can claim to be the world’s first domestic VCR (video cassette recorder).

Philips’ VCR system mechanism, like their compact cassette mechanism, was offered royalty-free to manufacturers who agreed to maintain the design standard and use the VCR logo. You can see a video of a VCR tape loading at https://youtu.be/9-Bw8m65mVY

The VCR cassette stacked the supply and [take-up]reels above each other in a coaxial design. At only 125 x 145 x 40mm, it was much more compact than the standard U-matic cassette.

Its width (under 60% that of U-matic) helped moderate the size of the entire tape drive mechanism. While this elegant solution offered a genuinely compact medium, the complexity of its threading mechanism meant that its reliability was only fair.

Using a half-inch tape with a conventional 180° degree omega wrap, the Philips VCR was able to offer 60-minute record/play times at the CCIR/PAL speed of 14.29cm/s (5.63ips).

Philips attempted to market to the United States in mid-1977, but NTSC’s higher field rate (60Hz vs CCIR/PAL’s 50Hz) forced an increase in tape speed to around 17.2cm/s (6.8ips), giving only 50 minutes for a cassette. A thinner tape, offering the full 60 minutes for NTSC, proved unreliable in use.

Other compromises finally made their VCR unsuitable for the American and other NTSC markets, while the introduction of VHS in 1977 convinced Philips to abandon the US market. As a result, their VCR was only marketed to the UK, Europe, Australia and South Africa.

Philips tape loading is simpler than that of the U-matic. Sony had put every interaction (transport, heads and guides) in the external tape path. Philips cleverly used two cassette doors: an upwards-hinging one at the front for tape extraction, and a sliding one at the right, allowing the audio/control track head and the pinch roller to intrude into the cassette.

Video entry and exit guides, and the capstan, also intruded vertically into the cassette as it was loaded downwards, giving much a more compact tape transport than that of U-matic. The pinch roller and audio/control heads, mounted on a pivoted arm, were swung into place for playback and recording.

Where the U-matic head drum was designed with slip-ring contacts from the heads to the VCR electronics, Philips used a rotary transformer design that had already been used in Ampex 1-inch open-reel VTRs. Although more difficult to design and manufacture, the rotary transformer overcame noise and signal loss caused by slip-ring corrosion or misalignment. It would become the design of choice in Beta, VHS and following formats.

The N1500 was developed as far as the N1520 production model. Dispensing with the inbuilt tuner, the N1520 offered record/playback and full electronic assembly/insert video and audio editing. Released in 1973, it beat Sony’s VO-2850 workalike U-matic editor to market by a full year.

Regrettably, the Philips VCR format suffered from unreliable tape loading/handling, and that dreaded one-hour time limit.

Philips did develop a long-play VCR, the N1700 series, by halving the tape speed. Not released until 1977, when the Sony-JVC/Beta-VHS melee was well underway, the Philips VCR lapsed into obscurity. "

.................................................................

Extract from The History of Videotape – part 3 Cassette Systems by Ian Batty, Andre Switzer & Rod Humphris, Silicon Chip, May 2021

Aug

2020

DAT restoration: The High – Martin Hannett Sessions

Record Store Day is usually 'the one day each year when over 200 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day, in what’s become one of the biggest annual events on the music calendar.' This year, due to COVID-19, Record Store Day is being split across 3 dates: 29th August, 26th September and 24th October.

This Record Store Day, Saturday 29th August 2020, is particularly exciting for Greatbear as it sees the release on Vinyl Revival, Manchester of The High - Martin Hannett Sessions, a restoration and digitisation project we worked on earlier this year.

The High were formed in 1989 by former Turning Blue singer John Matthews and former Buzzcocks F.O.C. members Andy Couzens (guitar, also formerly of The Stone Roses and pre-Roses bands The Patrol and Waterfront), Simon Davies (bass), and drummer Chris Goodwin (also formerly of the Waterfront as well as the Inspiral Carpets). They were signed by London Records and had three UK Singles Chart hits in 1990 before breaking into the top 30 in 1991 with a revamped version of their debut single, the Martin Hannett-produced "Box Set Go".

From the Nigel Couzens footage (see video clip below), it looks like the Strawberry Studios sessions were recorded to 2 inch analogue tape, on a 24 track Studer A80. This was quite an old machine at that time as there would have been the A800 and possibly the A820 available too - but maybe they just loved the sound on the A80.

DAT, introduced by Sony in 1987, became popular in the audio and recording industry for mastering during the 1990s. The initial recordings would be made to 2" (or other width) analogue tape, but the mixed and produced final versions would be recorded to DAT - allowing the benefits of lossless encoding and avoiding the addition of further analogue tape hiss at the mastering stage. This process could be seen as a stepping stone towards an emerging all-digital production chain, and the development of hard disk recording.

fragile tape

At 3.81mm wide and 0.013mm thick, DAT is more fragile than other cassette-based digital tape formats such as DTRS/DA-88, ADAT and PCM digital audio, or any of the reel-to-reel formats (analogue or digital).

This makes it vulnerable to ripping. The High - Martin Hannett Sessions DAT masters arrived at Greatbear with visible signs of mould growth along the edges of the tape. (See the fuzzy white threads along the surface of the tape pack in the pictures above and below.) When this happens, the mould sticks the layers of the tape together - particularly along the edges - which inevitably leads to the tape ripping under the high tension of playback.

A ripped tape is especially problematic because DAT uses a helical scan recording system, based on a miniature video transport, and so cannot be spliced for clean edits. (Splices also risk irreparable damage to heads on the drum of the playback machine.) A ripped DAT tape - the helically-imprinted signal being bisected - results in irreversible signal loss.

We've found the safest way to restore mould-stricken DAT cassettes to a playable state and avoid ripping is to:

Acclimatise the tape to the controlled temperature and humidity of the Greatbear studio, driving the mould spores to dormancy
Disassemble the cassette shell
Very slowly and carefully unwind and rewind the tape by hand, dislodging the 'sticky' mould
Re-house the spools in a new, clean shell
Digitise via multiple passes, cleaning the DAT machine between plays. For these tapes we used our Sony PCM 7040

Sony ceased production of new DAT machines in 2005, and working, professional machines are becoming rare. We spend a considerable (and usually enjoyable) amount of time and resources keeping our machines in good condition. The Sony PCM 7040 is one of the better DAT machines in terms of the robustness of the tape transport and machine parts availability, as the same transport system was used in many Sony DDS DAT drives used in computer backup.

The problem of mould growth on DATs is not unique to these precious Hannett / The High recordings.

Most DATs are now between 20 - 30 years old, and it only takes one period of storage at high temperature and/or relative humidity (RH) for mould to set in. To avoid damage, magnetic tape must be stored consistently at levels of 18 - 21 °C, and at 45 - 50% RH - something which no garage, attic or back room can guarantee...

We regularly receive mouldy DATs at the Greatbear studio. So much important material was mastered to DAT in the 1990s, and its vulnerabilities make it a priority for digitisation.

Jan

2020

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Greatbear Audio & Video Digitising, Unit 26, The Coach House, 2 Upper York Street, Bristol, BS2 8QN, U.K.

tel. +441179850500

Dec

2019

Video Art & Machine Obsolescence

At Greatbear we have many, many machines. A small selection of our analogue video players, CRT monitors, cameras, cables and tapes recently found work as props (both functional and decorative) in the BBC documentary “Kill Your TV: Jim Moir’s Weird World of Video Art”, on BBC iPlayer here.

From the BBC website: “Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, explores video art, revealing how different generations hacked the tools of television to pioneer new ways of creating art."

Our obsession with collecting and restoring rare video equipment is vital for our work. As technology developed through the latter half of the 20th century, dozens of different formats of video tape were created - each requiring specialist equipment to play it back: equipment which is now obsolete. The machines have not been manufactured for decades and the vast majority of them have been scrapped.

Those that remain are wearing out - the rotating head drums that read video tape have a finite number of working hours before they need replacement. Wear to the head drum tips is irrevocable, and the remaining few in existence are highly sought-after.

Even TV companies, where U-matic, Betacam and countless other formats of VTR machine were once ubiquitous, no longer have access to the machines and monitors we provided for “Kill Your TV”.

It is a similar conundrum for the artists who produced work with older video technology, and for the galleries and museums who hold collections of their work. We have recently been working on a fascinating project with specialist art conservator for time-based media, Brian Castriota and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, transferring important video artworks produced between 1972 - 2013 from multiple video tape formats, by artists including Isaac Julien, Gillian Wearing and Willie Doherty - more on this in a future blog post!

conceptual immateriality & the material device

In "Kill Your TV", Jim Moir describes a demonstration of David Hall’s "Vidicon Inscriptions" (1973) as “an electronic image that doesn’t really exist in a physical space” which nevertheless relies on the quirks of (very physical) vintage video equipment for its enactment.

Artist Peter Donebauer refers specifically to immateriality inherent to his 1974 video art piece “Entering” (broadcast via the BBC’s arts programme “2nd House”). PD: "Technically, the real core of this is the signal. It made me think about what this medium was, because it’s not material in the same way as painting, sculpture or even performance, dance, film - almost anything that has physicality.”

But for a signal to be perceived, it needs to be reproduced by a physical device capable of reading it. The dangers facing video artwork preservation lie not only in the fragility of the tape itself, but in the disappearance of rare playback machines and the specialist tools for their maintenance and repair; of the service manuals, calibration tapes and the expertise needed to set them up.

The 'tools of television' relished in "Kill Your TV" are the material devices we are striving to save, repair and maintain.

links & further reading:

Read about our facilities to transfer video made with the Sony Portapak system featured in the documentary: Sony 1/2 inch Portapak (EIAJ) / CV2100 / CV2000 open reel video tape

Our work with Videokunstarkivet, an exciting archival project mapping all the works of video art that have been made in Norway since the mid-1960s, funded by the Norwegian Arts Council.

“Kill Your TV: Jim Moir’s Weird World of Video Art” was made for BBC4 by Academy 7 Productions

Sep

2019

CRVdisc

CRVdiscs (recordable LaserDiscs) were an early optical videodisc technology developed by Sony, and are seemingly rare. They resemble giant floppy discs - they are in fact a 12 inch laser disc held inside a plastic caddy.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

Sep

2019

DVD

Storing video on optical media became very popular in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) being the most flexible and cheapest way to distribute content ranging from movies to video games and data back ups.

To preserve the integrity of the original authored disc, such as its menu structure and other metadata, we would usually create an ISO disc image. This disc image can then be played as the original DVD was intended on any computer and doesn't require a DVD player.

We can also transcode to FFV1 lossless files or 10-bit uncompressed video files in .mkv or .mov containers for archives. We can also produce Apple ProRes mezzanine files for ease of editing. We provide smaller viewing files as H.264 encoded .mp4 files or on DVD. We're happy to create any other digital video files, according to your needs.

Due to the complexity of digital video and the varying needs of our clients, it’s not always appropriate to create fixed prices for our services. We’ve found that assessing projects prior to confirming costs is a more accurate and fair method.

Sep

2019

Video 2000

Video 2000 video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

Sep

2019

Philips N1500 / N1700 VCR

The Philips N1500 VCR (1972), was the world's first domestic video cassette recorder. The VCR format used large square cassettes, recording analogue video to half inch (12.7 mm) wide chrome dioxide magnetic tape.

At Greatbear we digitise all standards of VCR tape: VCR, VCR-LP and SVR.

N1500 and N1700 video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

In 1972, Philips released their N1500, the first successful consumer-level home videocassette recorder (VCR) system. Later variants included the N1700 VCR-LP (1977) and Grundig's Super Video (SVR) formats.

As with their revolutionary audio compact cassette mechanism, Philips offered the VCR system mechanism royalty-free to other manufacturers who agreed to maintain the design standard and use the VCR logo.

Read our blog articles: on the Philips N-1502 TV Recorder and Philips VCR – the first home video cassette recorder

Sep

2019

MII

MII was a professional analogue recording video cassette format developed by Panasonic in 1986, utilising component video recording on metal-formulated tape. There were 2 sizes of MII cassette produced, and at Greatbear we digitise both.

We offer a range of delivery formats for our video transfers. We use the International Association of Sound & Audiovisual Archives Guidelines for the Preservation of Video Recordings, delivering FFV1 lossless files or 10-bit uncompressed video files in .mkv or .mov containers. We create viewing files as H264 encoded .mp4 files or DVD. We can deliver any other digital video files, according to your needs.

MII video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

video standard	small MII cassette size supported	large MII cassette size supported	linear audio track supported	FM audio track supported	PCM audio track supported	preservation of LTC and VITC timecode supported

PAL	✓	✓	✓	✓	x	✓
NTSC	✓	✓	✓	✓	x	✓

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

Sep

2019

D-9 / Digital-S

Digital-S was a professional digital video cassette format introduced by JVC in 1995. Its name was changed to D-9 in 1999 by the SMPTE. D-9 tapes were available from both JVC and Fuji. As a format, it fell out of use in the early 2000s. At Greatbear we can produce archive-quality transfers from Digital-S / D-9 cassettes.

D-9 / Digital-S video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

This format, while high quality with easy-to-service machines, was not widely used and as a result, good, low-use, working machines can be hard to find now.

This is a born-digital format yet a digital audio / video output was always optional with these models. Given that they were often used as a cheaper alternative to Sony's competing Digital Betacam system, the digital options are rarely fitted.

We have the following D-9 / Digital-S machines:

JVC BR-D750 E - PAL
JVC BR-D85 E - PAL with SDI (digital output) boards fitted
JVC BR-D51 E - PAL D9 / SVHS playback facility

video standard	D-9 / S-VHS ouput supported	280 Mbit/s SDI digital transfer of audio & video	2 channel audio output supported	4 channel audio output supported	preservation of timecode supported

PAL	Digital-S / D-9	✓	✓	✗	✓
PAL	S-VHS	✓	✓	✗	✓
NTSC	Digital-S / D-9	✗	✗	✗	✗
NTSC	S-VHS	✗	✗	✗	✗

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

Sep

2019

D-3 / D-5 / D-5 HD

At Greatbear we transfer D-3, D-5 and D-5HD digital video tape. D-3 is an uncompressed composite digital videocassette format introduced commercially by Panasonic in 1991 to compete with Ampex's D-2. The D-3 format used ½" metal particle tape for recording PAL or NTSC signals sampled at 8 bits. The D-5 format (Panasonic 1994) used the same cassette as D-3 but recorded component signals sampled to CCIR 601 recommendations at 10-bit resolution (a development of Sony's D-1 format). D-5HD is the compressed HD-compatible version of D-5.

D-3, D-5 and D-5HD video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

The D-3 lossless composite digital video tape recorders made by Panasonic in the early '90s are rare now in the UK and have very little spares backup for key parts such as head drums. This rarity is in part due to the BBC's past heavy use of them and need for machines for their D-3 preservation project shown in the video below.

We have 4 working D-3 machines all with low head hours, so are in an excellent position long-term for preserving collections on this format.
Pansonic D-5 and D-5 HD are developments using the same 1/2" tape format of D-3 but recording a 10-bit uncompressed component digital video signal, and in its final incarnation component HD, in multiple standards.

Our machines include:

Panasonic AJ-D350E / JVC PR-D1000E
Panasonic AJ-HD3700A

video standard	D3 capture supported	D5 capture supported	D5 HD capture supported	preservation of LTC & VITC timecode supported
PAL	✓	✓	✓	✓
NTSC	✓	✓	✓	✓

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

In 2013 the BBC had thousands of D-3 recordings in its archive and had a large scale but difficult preservation project due to the fragility of the D-3 tapes and the obsolescence of the VTRs. Richard Wright from http://preservationguide.co.uk has commented earlier in 2019 on this site that:

The 100k D3 tapes were all that were necessary to transfer. One large chunk of D3s were copies (two or more D3s of the same programme), and another large chunk were redundant, from the years when digitisation of analogue formats had a mixed economy, and produced one D3 and one digibeta. A third small chunk were D3s that were deselected: they didn't belong in the permanent archive (2nd versions of programmes cut for US sales, for example).

The BBC even made a short video about this project that can be viewed below:

Sep

2019

D-1 / D-2

D-1 and D-2 video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

Sep

2019

U-matic

U-matic is an analogue recording videocassette format introduced in the early 1970s which became widely popular, particularly in media and news-gathering contexts. According the Preservation Self-Assessment Program, U-Matic video tape ‘should be considered at high preservation risk’ due to media and hardware obsolescence: in the long term there is likely to be far more undigitised U-matic tape in the world than working machines capable of playing it back.

At Greatbear we have a collection of U-matic machines, including the late model Sony BVU-950 with internal Time Base Corrector, and are able to offer preservation-quality U-matic transfer of all variations and standards of U-matic video tape. This includes, PAL, NTSC and SECAM, Low Band, High Band (BVU) and SP (Superior Performance) U-matic tape to any digital file format.

VHS video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

As the U-matic format has been around for such an unusually long period for a video tape format, there are a wide range of machines for replay and digitising and several variations of these. We have built up a range of the more reliable and flexible later models which give us an ability to convert and transfer all standards and tape variations of U-matic.

Sony BVU 950P x 3 (Hi Band SP built in TBC board)
Sony BVU 800 NTSC (Hi Band / Low Band) x 2
Sony BVU 850 NTSC (Hi Band / Low Band)
Sony VO-9600P (Hi and Low Band)
Sony VO-9850P (Hi and Low Band) x 2
Sony VO-9800P (Hi and Low Band) x 3
Sony VO-7630
Sony VO-7030

Certain Sony U-matic machines featured a ‘Dub’ connector that can offer a higher-quality than composite connection between machines, similar to the y/c connector. We have the correct cables and equipment to utilise this connection.

video standard	U-matic recording	composite transfer supported?	dub (y/c) transfer supported?	preservation of LTC & VITC timecode supported?
PAL	Low Band	✓	✓	✓ (LTC only)
PAL	High Band	✓	✓	✓
PAL	SP	✓	✓	✓
SECAM	Low Band	✓	✓	✓ (LTC only)
NTSC	Low Band	✓	✓	✓
NTSC	High Band	✓	✓	✓
NTSC	SP	✓	✓	✓

At ¾ inch / 19mm, U-matic video tape is wider than almost all other video cassette formats and has a reputation of being quite tough. The polyester or PET-based tape is relatively thick compared to later Betacam and early digital formats.

We can resolve most problems that occur with U-matic tape:

Given the age of U-matic tape, and its widespread use over the years, it can and does degrade. Certain brands such as Ampex 187 and 197 suffer from binder hydrolysis and need 'baking' before it's safe to replay these.
Mould can grow on the unflanged edges of the tape pack and will stick the layers of tape together, needing treatment and manual unwinding, and usually re-shelling.
The clear leader at the beginning of each tape can become separated from the rest of the tape as the glue in the splicing tape dries up. The process of unwinding and rewinding tape can cause / exacerbate the problem.
Some early Sony brands can degrade in a way where the RF (radio frequency) off tape is very low in level, causing severe visual artefacts. Tapes like this often have a distinctive smell of wax crayons.

The U-matic analogue recording videocassette format was first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, in contrast to the various reel-to-reel formats of the time.

When introduced by Sony they originally intended it to be a videocassette format oriented at the consumer market. This proved to be a failure because of the high manufacturing and retail costs. U-matic was however affordable for industrial and institutional customers, and it became very successful for business communication and educational television. As a result, Sony shifted U-matic’s marketing to the industrial, professional, and educational sectors.

U-matic is no longer used as a mainstream television production format, but it has found lasting appeal as a cheap, well specified, and hard-wearing format. The format permitted many broadcast and non-broadcast institutions to produce television programming on an accessible budget.

Keeping a U-matic machine running well will become more and more difficult in the near future. Sony in particular has discontinued or run out of many key spares, such as pinch rollers. Happily, Greatbear have a good supply of new spares and service items so are confident we can continue to offer high-quality U-matic transfer and restoration services for some time into the future.

Sep

2019

HDCAM / HDCAM SR

HDCAM and HDCAM SR video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

playback tape format / colour space	440 Mbit/s HD-SDI digital transfer of audio & video	2, 4, 8, 12 channels of audio supported	preservation of timecode supported	mastering of video files to tape

720 / 4:2:2 / 50P	✓	✓	✓	✓
720 / 4:2:2 / 59.94P	✓	✓	✓	✓

1080 / 4:2:2 / 50P	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 59.94P	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 60P	✓	✓	✓	✓

1080 / 4:2:2 / 23.98PsF	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 24PsF	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 25PsF	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 29.97PsF	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 30PsF	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 50i	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 59.94i	✓	✓	✓	✓
1080 / 4:2:2 / 60i	✓	✓	✓	✓

1080 / 4:4:4 / 23.98PsF	✗	✗	✗	✗
1080 / 4:4:4 / 24PsF	✗	✗	✗	✗
1080 / 4:4:4 / 25PsF	✗	✗	✗	✗
1080 / 4:4:4 / 30PsF	✗	✗	✗	✗
1080 / 4:4:4 / 50i	✗	✗	✗	✗
1080 / 4:4:4 / 59.94i	✗	✗	✗	✗
1080 / 4:4:4 / 60i	✗	✗	✗	✗

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

Sep

2019

Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX

Digital Betacam formats were widely used in television production in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, just prior to the adoption of high-definition (HD) video. As a consequence there are many tapes with valuable content at risk of deterioration and loss.

At Greatbear, we provide archival quality transfer of these 'born digital' Digital Betacam (aka DigiBeta or D-Beta), Betacam SX and MPEG IMX video tape recordings, in both PAL and NTSC standards.

We can transfer 2, 4 or 8 channel audio and preserve timecode.

DigiBeta, Betacam SX and MPEG IMX video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

Sony's range of Betacam video tape recorders have evolved using the same chassis and ergonomic layout from the BetaSP, BVW series through the DVW (Digital Betacam), DNW (Betacam SX), MSW (MPEG IMX) and HDW (HDCAM) series of machines. These machines are flexible, easy for engineers to service and offer high reliability and often tape and format interchangeability.
Sony also made the J range of smaller, more portable, desktop players that could play several formats and offer PAL / NTSC standards but with less connection flexibility and lower reliability and servicing ease.

These formats and machines were very popular with content creators and broadcasters and many still exist on the second hand market. Spares and parts are still available new from Sony but at very high cost with no guarantee of stocks in the future.

We have a range of DVW, DNW and J3 machines with supplies of key spares, including:

Sony J-3 SDI
Sony DVW A500
Sony DVW A510
Sony DNW-A65P (PAL / NTSC)

video standard	digital Betacam recording type	280 Mbit/s SDI digital transfer of audio & video	2, 4, 8 channels of audio supported	preservation of timecode supported
PAL	Digital Betacam	✓	✓	✓
PAL	Beta SX	✓	✓	✓
PAL	MPEG IMX	✓	✓	✓
NTSC	Digital Betacam	✓	✓	✓
NTSC	Beta SX	✓	✓	✓
NTSC	MPEG IMX	✓	✓	✓

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

The half inch wide metal particle tape used for these three formats is much thinner than earlier analogue formats and so much less robust when physical problems happen. Any mould growth on the edge of the tape pack can be catastrophic, sticking the top or bottom edge of the tape layers together and ripping the tape when wound or played. DigiBeta and BetaSX tape is 14µm thick while MPEG IMX tape is 12.65µm.

We've found some 1990s era Sony branded DigiBeta tapes to shed on playback and gradually increase errors or playback conditions until first the audio crackles and disappears then visual artefacts appear in the picture. Tapes like this can be replayed and captured perfectly but do need some work before this is possible.

Machine obsolescence isn't a huge issue at the moment and generally these machines are reliable and long-lasting but this won't always be the situation, and key spares must be sourced and preserved for the future.

Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX brands / models

Commonly-found tapes include:

BASF / EMTEC Digital Betacam Master range
- D6; D12; D22; D32; D40; D34L; D64L; D94L; D124L
Fujifilm D321 range
- Fuji D321-D6; Fuji D321-D12; Fuji D321-D22; Fuji D321-D32; Fuji D321-D40; Fuji D321-D34L; Fuji D321-D64L; Fuji D321-D94L; Fuji D321-D124L
Maxell
- Maxell B-D6; Maxell B-D12; Maxell B-D22; Maxell B-D32; Maxell B-D40; Maxell B-D34L; Maxell B-D64L; Maxell B-D94L; Maxell B-D124L
Sony
- Digital Betcam range: Sony BCT-D12CL; Sony BCT-D6; Sony BCT-D12; Sony BCT-D22; BCT-D32; Sony BCT-40;Sony BCT-34L; Sony BCT-64L; Sony BCT-94L; Sony BCT-124L.
- Betacam SX range: Sony BCT-194SXLA; Sony BCT-184SXLA; Sony BCT-124SXLA; Sony BCT-94SXLA; Sony BCT-64SXLA; Sony BCT-62SXA; Sony BCT-32SXA; Sony BCT-22SXA; Sony BCT-12SXA; Sony BCT-6SXA.
- MPEG IMX range: Sony BCT-184MXL; Sony BCT-124MLX; Sony BCT-94MXL; Sony BCT-64MXL; Sony BCT-60MX; Sony BCT-32MX; Sony BCT-22MX; Sony BCT-12M and Sony BCT-6MX.

Digital Betacam was launched by Sony in 1993, superseding the analogue Betacam and Betacam SP. As a ½ inch digital component video format, it was vastly cheaper and more accessible than the earlier, ¾ inch D1 format.

Betacam SX was introduced in 1996, as a digital version of the already popular Betacam SP, while being a cheaper alternative to Digital Betacam.

Both formats became popular with news-gathering and television production companies in the years prior to HD.

MPEG IMX was a 2001 development of the Digital Betacam format, encoding at a higher bitrate than Betacam SX.

Sep

2019

Betacam

Betacam (launched 1982) and Betacam SP 'Superior Performance' (1986) are the analogue versions of the Betacam component video format, on half inch cassette-based tape. The original Betacam tapes are often referred to as Betacam Oxide, due to their ferric oxide tape formulation. As with their digital successors (Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX), Betacam Oxide and Betacam SP (aka Beta SP) were particularly popular in broadcast contexts.

At Greatbear, we've the wide range of equipment and experience needed to make the best quality transfers from all variations of Betacam video tape.

Betacam and Betacam SP video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

Betacam tape type	video standard	BVW75 analogue replay & digitising	DVW D-Beta replay & SDI transfer	4 audio channels captured	preservation of LTC & VITC timecode supported
Betacam Oxide	PAL	✓	✓	n/a	✓
Betacam SP	PAL	✓	✓	✓	✓
Betacam Oxide	NTSC	✓	✓	n/a	✓
Betacam SP	NTSC	✓	✓	✓	✓

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

Betacam and Betacam SP used different tape formulations and not all machines are able to replay the earlier ferric oxide based recordings. Many of these earlier 'Oxide' tapes and some Betacam SP suffer from binder hydrolysis or 'sticky shed syndrome' and need treatment before they can be safely replayed and digitised.

The half inch wide tape used for these formats is thinner than earlier analogue formats at 14µm or 20µm thick. Any mould growth on the edge of the tape pack can be catastrophic, sticking the top or bottom edge of the tape layers together and ripping the tape when wound or played.

Betacam was a very successful and popular broadcast format and machine obsolescence isn't a huge issue at the moment. Generally these machines are reliable and long-lasting but this won't always be the situation, and key spares must be sourced and preserved for the future.

First developed by Sony in 1982, the Betacam component video format was aimed at the professional and broadcast market.

By recording luminance (Y) to one track and colour (R-Y/B-Y) to a separate track, Betacam was able to achieve 300 lines of horizontal luminance resolution and 120 lines chrominance resolution, on a relatively cheap cassette-based format (cf. 30 lines chrominance resolution for VHS, Betamax, U-matic and Video8 formats).

Betacam SP, which was introduced in 1986, replaced ferric oxide tape with denser, metal-formulated tape, allowing an increase in horizontal luminance resolution to 340 lines, and the development of larger cassettes, extending recording time to 90 minutes. Betacam SP also added FM audio recording to support four audio channels available for recording and playback.

Betacam SP became an industry standard in television acquisition and post-production in the 1990s.

Sep

2019

Betamax

Betamax was (aka Beta) was the first commercially successful, consumer-level, analogue videocassette recording format. It was developed by Sony and launched in 1975.

At Greatbear, we carefully restore and digitise all types of Betamax video cassette, recorded in PAL, NTSC, Beta-HiFi and Super Beta.

We also transfer PCM audio recorded to Betamax tape.

Betamax video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

Sep

2019

VHS

The Video Home System (VHS) cassette format dominated the domestic video tape market globally, from when it was launched in 1976 to its decline around 1996. Consequently there is a huge range of content stored on VHS tapes that is at risk of loss.

At Greatbear, we digitise VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C and D-VHS video tape recordings, in PAL, NTSC, and SECAM, at standard play (SP), long play (LP) and extra long play (ELP) speeds, where appropriate.

VHS video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

While VHS isn't as threatened by machine obsolescence as some formats, due to its worldwide popularity: not all machines were made equal. VHS video tape recorders were designed and built for all markets and prices - choosing the appropriate machines can make a significant difference to the stability and image quality for this format.

We use a combination of professional and domestic models chosen for their features, replay quality, ability to replay a range of recording variations and their ability to be repaired and serviced in the long term.

We use Sony SVO-5800 for PAL, standard play (SP) recordings and JVC S-VHS and D-VHS machines for LP and ELP recordings. We do have a wide range of VHS and S-VHS machines which can be used for larger projects / particular types or problematic tapes.

Our studio machines include:

VHS tape type	video standard	standard play (SP) speed supported	long play (LP) speed supported	extra long play (ELP) speed supported	12h / 24h timelapse security speed supported	parallel capture of longitudinal & hi-fi audio as separate stereo tracks
VHS	PAL	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
VHS-C	PAL	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
S-VHS	PAL	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓
D-VHS	PAL	✓	✓ (LS3 Mode)	✗	✗	✗
VHS	PAL-N	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗
VHS-C	PAL-N	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗
S-VHS	PAL-N	n/a	n/a	n/a	✗	✗
D-VHS	PAL-N	n/a	n/a	n/a	✗	✗
VHS	NTSC / M-PAL	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
VHS-C	NTSC / M-PAL	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
S-VHS	NTSC / M-PAL	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
D-VHS	NTSC / M-PAL	✓	✓ (LS3 Mode)	✓	✗	✗
VHS	SECAM / MESECAM	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗
VHS-C	SECAM / MESECAM	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗
S-VHS	SECAM / MESECAM	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
D-VHS	SECAM / MESECAM	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

VHS tapes can suffer from problems that affect other video tapes, but being a very common domestic format, they do tend to be mistreated in unusual ways more often.

Most domestic brands of VHS tape tend to not suffer from binder hydrolysis or sticky shed syndrome, so rarely need baking. Some brands aimed at the professional market, especially S-VHS types, have back-coating so can suffer, but this isn't that common in our experience.

Broken, smashed, mould-infested and water-damaged tapes are more common though, and careful re-shelling, cleaning and sometimes unsticking of the tape layers is necessary before replay can be attempted.

We have the VHS model of RTI Tapechek machine that's designed to clean and burnish the tape surface while also checking for damage. This can be useful occasionally but it's not appropriate for all tape problems and can, in some instances, cause more damage.

Given the worldwide popularity of the VHS format we can also replay and digitise TV standards less common in the UK and the slower recording speeds sometimes used too.

A common issue with VHS recordings is the soundtrack used. As the format evolved, a higher-quality, stereo soundtrack was possible in addition to the mono, linear soundtrack. Sometimes the HiFi soundtrack can suffer with noticeable audio dropouts. We can preserve both soundtracks in these cases so the linear soundtrack is still available and in sync when the HiFi soundtrack becomes problematic. Domestic VTRs will constantly switch between soundtracks which sounds odd and usually don't allow separated soundtracks.

VHS was developed by JVC in the early 1970s, and launched in Japan in 1976 and the US & UK in 1977. By the mid 1980s it had become the dominant system for domestic analogue video recording on tape cassettes.

S-VHS, launched in 1987, improved picture quality by increasing the horizontal luminance resolution to 420 lines per picture height (from 240 lines for VHS).

VHS-C was a compact form of VHS, launched by JVC in 1982 primarily for use in consumer-level analog recording camcorders.

D-VHS (Digital VHS, formerly Data VHS) was a digital video recording format developed by JVC, in collaboration with Hitachi, Matsushita, and Philips, and released in 1998.

Sep

2019

8mm video

8mm video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

video standard	8mm recording type	preservation analogue digitising supported	digital transfer supported	AFM audio soundtrack supported	PCM digital audio soundtrack supported	PCM multi audio: 6 digital tracks per tape supported

PAL	Video8	✓	n/a	✓	✓	✓
PAL	Hi8	✓	n/a	✓	✓	✗
PAL	Digital8	✓	✓	n/a	✓	n/a
NTSC	Video8	✓	n/a	✓	✓	✗
NTSC	Hi8	✓	n/a	✓	✓	✗
NTSC	Digital8	✓	✓	n/a	✓	n/a

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

Video8, Hi8 and Digital8 are all relatively threatened video formats due to machine obsolescence and the fragility of the tape.

8mm video recording didn't have the market penetration that VHS tape had, in part due to its smaller size and resultant lower recording durations and the lack of pre-recorded material available. Consequently, most of the VTRs produced and sold for the 8mm format were portable cameras. Full-sized VTR decks for domestic or editing use do exist, but in much smaller numbers.

8mm video tape is very thin compared to older analogue video tape, and as a result is fragile to physical damage and from issues with mould. When contaminated with mould it is very vulnerable to splitting longitudinally. We regularly see Video8, Hi8 and Digital8 tapes that have been left in damp environments with mould growth on the edge of the tape pack. Unless dealt with carefully, it will always result in damaged tapes and playback error if play is attempted in their mouldy state.

Audio tracks can also be problematic with 8mm video, as there is no separate, longitudinal analogue audio track. The AFM and PCM audio tracks are recorded with the video, so any issues with the tape path alignment or head tip wear will cause partial loss or full loss of audio. Other analogue formats such as VHS, U-matic, Betamax and Betacam all had longitudinal analogue audio tracks that would still be accessible and audible independently from the video signal.

Common brands / models of Hi8 tape include: Sony ProME / E5-90HMEX.

Video8 was developed by Eastman Kodak in 1984 and boosted by the launch of Sony's Handycam in 1985. It was an entirely analogue format, and became very popular in the consumer camcorder market.

Hi8 was introduced by Sony in 1989, and comprised analogue video and audio, with provision for digital audio. Hi8 was short for "High-band Video8" and used improved recorder electronics and media formulation to increase the bandwidth of the luminance signal to 2.0 MHz (from 1.2 MHz bandwidth for Video8).

Hi8 was succeeded in 1999 by Digital8, a combination of the older Hi8 tape transport, but with a DV (Digital Video) codec.

Video8/Hi8 was popular enough with small-budget and amateur videographers for Sony to produce equipment for video editing and production. At Greatbear we often see 8mm video formats having been used by artists and independent film makers - see tape blog post: The Great Hip Hop Hoax

Sep

2019

DVCPRO

Common brands / models of DVCPRO video tape include: Panasonic AJ-P12M; Panasonic AJ-P24M; Panasonic AJ-P33MP; Panasonic AJ-P66M; Panasonic AJ-P66L; Maxell DVP-24M; Maxell DVP-66L; Fujifilm DP121-46M and Fujifilm DP121-66L.

DVCPRO video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

Sep

2019

DVCAM

DVCAM is a variation of the DV (Digital Video) tape format, released by Sony in 1996 and aimed at the semi-professional and smaller-budget professional market.

DVCAM uses the same type of tape and compression as DV and MiniDV but at a higher speed (almost 50% faster). It was more robust, with the tape being housed in a larger cassette.

DVCAM video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

DVCAM was launched by Sony in 1996, as their professional extension of the DV format, in competition with Panasonic's DVCPRO (1995).

The DVCAM format used 8-bit digital component recording with a 5:1 compression ratio and a sampling rate of 4:2:0. DVCAM's wider track pitch of 15 µm (compared with 10 µm for DV) facilitated frame-accurate insert editing. It also offered superior digital audio performance: a two-channel mode with 48 kHz/16-bit recording or a four-channel mode with 32 kHz/12-bit recording.

Its relatively small size and weight made it versatile for film makers. As Sony boast in their 2002 catalogue, Michael Winterbottom's feature film story of Factory Records, 24 Hour Party People, was recorded entirely on DSR-PD150P DVCAM camcorders!

Sep

2019

Mouldy Tape

If the mould has damaged the record side of the tape then the magnetic tracks are usually damaged and signal loss will result. This will create audible and visual artefacts that cannot be resolved.

Mould develops on tapes that have been stored in less-than-optimum conditions. Institutional collections can exhibit mould growth if they have not been stored in a suitable temperature-controlled environment. For magnetic tape collections this is recommended at 15 +/- 3° C and 40% maximum relative humidity, although the British Library's Preservation Advisory Centre suggest 'the necessary conditions for [mould] germination are generally: temperatures of 10-35ºC with optima of 20ºC and above [and] relative humidities greater than 70%.'

For domestic and personal collections the mouldy tapes we receive are often the ones that have been stored in the shed, loft or basement, so be sure to check the condition of anything you think may be at risk.

We do come across cases where mould is not easily visble to the naked eye without dismantling a cassette shell - so unless you can be sure your tape has been kept in optimum storage conditions for its entire 'life', it's better to err on the side of caution. Playing a mould-affected tape in a domestic machine can very easily damage the tape.

It is important to remember that a mouldy tape is a hazard not just for the individual tape. If not handled carefully it can potentially spread to other parts of your collection, so must be treated immediately.

What can we do to help?

We have a lot of experience treating tapes suffering from mould infestation and getting great results!

There are several stages to our treatment of your mouldy tape.

Firstly, if the mould is still active it has to be driven into dormancy. You will be able to tell if there is active mould on your tape because it will be moist, smudging slightly if it is touched. If the tape is in this condition there is a high risk it will infect other parts of your collection. We strongly advise you to quarantine the tape (and of course wash your hands because active mould is nasty stuff).

When we receive mouldy tape we place it in a sealed bag filled with desiccating silica gel. The silica gel helps to absorb the tape's moisture and de-fertilises the mould's 'living environment'.

When the mould becomes dormant it will appear white and dusty, and is relatively easy to treat at this stage. We use brushes, vacuums with HEPA filters and cleaning solutions such as hydrogen peroxide to clean the tape.

Treatment should be conducted in a controlled environment using the appropriate health protections such as masks and gloves because mould can be very damaging for health.

All machines used to playback mouldy tape are cleaned thoroughly after use - even tapes with dormant mould still carry the risk of infection.

Most tapes-infested with mould are treatable and can be effectively played back following the appropriate treatment procedures. Occasionally mould growth is so extensive however that it damages the binder irreparably. Mould can also exacerbate other problems associated with impaired tape, such as binder hydrolysis.

Sep

2019

Binder Problems and ‘Sticky-Shed Syndrome’

reel-to-reel tape: extreme delamination

The binder is crucial part of the composition of audio and video magnetic tape. It holds the iron oxide magnetisable coating on to its plastic carrier and facilitates its transport through the playback mechanism. It is also, however, 'universally agreed that with modern PET-based tape the binder is the weak link, and is generally the part of the tape which creates the most problems,' according to a UNESCO report.

There is of course no 'one-size-fits-all' answer to treating problems with tape binder. Each tape will have a unique manufacturing, playback and storage history that will shape its current condition, so restoration solutions need to respond on a case-by-case basis.

Detailed below are some of the common and diverse things that can go wrong with the tape binder, and how Greatbear can help restore your tape to a playable condition.

Binder Hydrolysis aka Sticky Shed Syndrome and Tape Baking

Probably the most well-known fault that can occur with magnetic tape is binder hydrolysis.

As its name indicates, hydrolysis is a chemical process caused by the absorption of water present in the tape's storage environment. In certain brands of tape, most notably Ampex, the binder polymers used in magnetic tape construction are broken apart as they react with water, which causes damage to the tape.

There are other theories about what happens when tapes get sticky and shed. Dietrich Schüller conducted interviews with experts of former tape manufacturers based in Germany, and concluded that 'the chemical recipe is the basis, if not the guarantee, for tape quality and stability. The production process, is equally, if not more essential.'

Schüller's research explains how the manufacture of tapes required a delicate balance between speed and precision, encompassing issues such as coating speed, proper dispersion of components, temperature and pressure of calendars. Professional tapes were produced at a rate between 100-200 metres per second (m/s). In the final stage of tape manufacture 'production speed reached 1000 m/s. This required the cross linking of binder components during the coating process.' This uneven distribution, Schüller found, sometimes led to sticky areas. [1]

Tapes exhibiting sticky shed syndrome will stick to the tape pack as they are unwound. These tapes are extremely vulnerable and need effective treatment before they can be played back. Playing a sticky tape is likely to damage the tape. It will also result in head clogs, stick-slip playback and seizure of the tape transport. In extreme cases the tape may fall apart entirely.

Although a serious problem, binder hydrolysis can be treated. Tape baking at controlled temperatures can temporarily improve binder integrity, helping to restore tape to a playable condition. In our studios we use a Thermo Scientific Heraeus B20 laboratory incubator for this process.

Lubricant Loss

Lubricants are a crucial part of the tape binder's composition, required to help the tape move smoothly through the transport. 'The quantity of lubricant is greater for video than for audio because of the higher writing and reading speeds.' [2]

Over time, the level of lubricant in the tape decreases because lubricants are partially consumed every time the tape is played. Lubricant levels decrease over time even if they are unplayed, particularly if they have not been stored in appropriate conditions for passive preservation.

As you will imagine, playing a tape back that has lost its lubricant carries with it certain risks. The tape may seize in the transport as a result of high friction, and the magnetic coating may be torn off the tape backing as it moves at a high speed past the tape head.

In cases where there is extreme lubricant loss we can apply a lubricant to help ease the tape through the transport. On the whole we are keen to use treatment methods that are as non-intrusive as possible, so such measures are kept to a minimum: 're-lubrication [...] must be seen very critically, as it is impossible to restrict added lubricants to the small amounts actually needed. Superfluous lubricants are difficult to remove from the tape guides, heads, and capstan and may interact with other tapes played on those machines at a later date.' [3]

A lack of lubricant can often result in dry shedding. This produces a dusty (rather than sticky) residue that is deposited on the capstan belts and pinch rollers as the tape moves through the transport. Dry shedding can be treated by consistently cleaning the tape until it reaches a point where it can be played back without shedding again. You can read more about this method here.

[1] Dietrich Schüller, 'Magnetic Tape Stability: Talking to Experts of Former Tape Manufacturers.' IASA Journal, Vol. 42, Jan 2014, 32-37, 34.

[2] IASA-TC-05, 'Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers,' 20.

[3] IASA-TC-05, 'Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers,' 20.

Sep

2019

DV : MiniDV / HDV

DV (originally known as Digital Video Cassette or DVC) is a family of digital video tape cassettes and codecs, launched in the mid-'90s, of which MiniDV was the prevalant consumer-oriented version. The HDV development allowed high definition video to be recorded on DV tape (on both miniDV and the larger HDV-specific cassettes.)

At Greatbear, we carefully restore and transfer, at the highest quality, all variations of the DV video tape format, from MiniDV / HDV in PAL and NTSC. (See also our dedicated services for the related DVCPRO, DVCAM and Digital8 formats).

We offer a range of delivery formats for our video transfers. Following International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives TC-06 guidelines in digitising to uncompressed or lossless formats. We also recognise that for some born-digital recordings like MiniDV and HDV it is more appropriate to capture and preserve the direct DV stream with its associated metadata, and this is our preferred workflow with DV and HDV recordings.

MiniDV / HDV video cassette recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

DV VTRs are in some ways a rare transition between older analogue formats and a digital format used domestically and professionally.

Most of the Sony range of DV / DVCAM / HDV machines will replay tapes made on small, cheap, domestic MiniDV camcorders in addition to DVCAM tapes and the later High Definition, HDV recordings. This flexibilty can also be confusing and a range of machines are necessary for all format and standard variations.

The mechanical tape transports used in DV cameras and decks are also not all made equal and the cheapest are usually the least reliable long term, while being the most difficult to service. Some HDV decks also have tape burnishing and cleaning systems that can help to reduce the error rate on some tapes.
We have a range of professional and domestic DV video decks to reliably cater for the full range of transfer needs for this born-digital format.

Sony DSR 20 (PAL)
Sony DSR 25 (PAL / NTSC)
Sony DSR 1500 AP (PAL), Sony DSR 1500A (NTSC)
Sony DSR 2000P x 2 (PAL, LP capable)
Sony HVR M15E x 2 (PAL / NTSC, DV / HDV)
Sony HVR M35E (PAL / NTSC, DV / HDV)
Sony HVR-1500 (PAL / NTSC, DV / HDV)
JVC BR-DV600E x 2 (PAL)
JVC SR-VS20 x 2 (PAL, LP capable)

DV recording type	direct digital transfer to equivalent digital video file supported	SDI / HDSDI digital transfer of audio & video	2 / 4 channels of audio supported	preservation of timecode supported	preservation of DV stream metadata to logfile

DV SP 576i	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
DV LP 576i	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
DV SP 480i	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
DV LP 480i	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HDV 1080/50i	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HDV 1080/25p	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HDV 1080/60i	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HDV 1080/30p	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HDV 1080/24p	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

The main problems with MiniDV arise from the size of the tape. The tape is very thin and fragile, and there is little margin for error if things go wrong. MiniDV tapes were commonly used in domestic camcorders, which had less well-built tape transports that made tape damage more likely. The machines were also prone to make unaligned recordings, leading to interchange problems - the ability to record on one machine, and play back successfully on another.

MiniDV used metal evaporated tape formulation which had a problem with excessive drop outs (on DV recordings this means the image becomes pixelated). If you have a glitch on digital tape it is likely that when repaired, parts of the recording will be lost. Compare this with analogue tape which degrades more gracefully, and can be spliced together so that the majority of the recording can be saved.

Dramatic degradation can affect all digital tape, even when there are no visible defects, leading to tapes becoming unplayable. We therefore recommend that you migrate your digital tape to files as soon as possible.

Commonly-found MiniDV / HDV tapes include:

Canon
- Canon DVM-E30; Canon DVM-E60
- Canon HDVM63AMQ
JVC
- JVC M-DV30ME; JVC M-DV60ME; JVC DVM30; JVC DVM60; JVC DV30; JVC DV60
- JVC PRO-HD DVM63
Maxell
- Maxell DVM60SE; Maxell DV60ME
Panasonic
- DVC range: Panasonic AY-DVM60FE; Panasonic AY-DVM80EJ
- Advanced Master Quality range: Panasonic HDVM63AMQ
Sony
- Sony DV 60PR4; Sony DVM60PR4; Sony DVM60PR3; Sony DVM60PRL; Sony DVM60PRR
- Digital Master range: Sony DVM63; Sony HDM-63VG; Sony DVM-63HD
TDK
- TDK DV60; TDK DVM60

DV refers to a family of codecs and tape formats launched in 1995 by a consortium of video camera manufacturers, led by Sony and Panasonic.

MiniDV was introduced in 1998 and is the consumer version of DVCAM.

HDV, developed by JVC in 2003, used the same tape format as MiniDV with a different video codec, allowing high-definition video to be recorded in camera.

MiniDV and HDV capture video and audio on to S-size high-density cassette tapes. The format delivered sound and video that is sharper and higher-quality than earlier analogue recordings. Another benefit was its flexibility and ease of transfer to devices such as laptops, where material could be easily edited.

It is still possible to buy MiniDV tapes today, and relatively easy to acquire the camcorders second hand, but they have largely been superseded by tapeless digital camcorders that record to memory cards and solid-state drives.

Sep

2019

2 inch quadruplex

2 inch quadruplex video tape was the first practical and commercially successful analogue tape format for recording video. It was developed and released for the broadcast television industry in 1956 by Ampex.

At Greatbear we transfer 2" quadruplex (aka quad) video tape (PAL, SECAM & NTSC) to digital formats.

2 inch quad reel-to-reel recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

2” quad was a popular broadcast analogue video tape format whose halcyon period ran from the late 1950s to the 1970s. The first quad videotape recorder made by AMPEX in 1956 cost a modest $45,000 (that’s c.£325,880 in today’s money).

2” quad revolutionised TV broadcasting which previously had been reliant on film-based formats, known in the industry as ‘kinescope‘ recordings. Kinescope film required significant amounts of skilled labour as well as time to develop, and within the USA, which has six different time zones, it was difficult to transport the film in a timely fashion to ensure broadcasts were aired on schedule.

To counter these problems, broadcasters sought to develop magnetic recording methods, that had proved so successful for audio, for use in the television industry.

The first experiments directly adapted the longitudinal recording method used to record analogue audio. This however was not successful because video recordings require more bandwidth than audio. Recording a video signal with stationary tape heads (as they are in the longitudinal method), meant that the tape had to be recorded at a very high speed in order accommodate sufficient bandwidth to reproduce a good quality video image. A lot of tape was used!

Ampex, who at the time owned the trademark marketing name for ‘videotape’, then developed a method where the tape heads moved quickly across the tape, rather than the other way round. On the 2” quad machine, four magnetic record/reproduce heads are mounted on a headwheel spinning transversely (width-wise) across the tape, striking the tape at a 90° angle. The recording method was not without problems because, the Toshiba Science Museum write, it ‘combined the signal segments from these four heads into a single video image’ which meant that ‘some colour distortion arose from the characteristics of the individual heads, and joints were visible between signal segments.’

Sep

2019

1 inch type A / type B / type C

At Greatbear we transfer multiple variations of 1 inch analogue video tape on open reels - from the rare type A format (Ampex, 1965), to type B (Bosch 1976) which was standard in Europe, and type C video tape (Ampex / Sony 1976), which was widely adopted by the professional video and broadcast television industries, particularly in the US & UK between the mid '70s to early '90s.

We are able to digitise all standards of 1 inch type A, B and C open reel video tape from the US (NTSC), UK (PAL) and (SECAM) with appropriate noise reduction. 1" type A video is commonly monochrome, while types B and C are colour. We now have access to a machine uniquely modified to play very rare type A colour tapes.

1 inch reel-to-reel video recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

1” format	video standard	audio channels supported	Dolby A noise reduction	Telcom C4 noise reduction	Dolby SR noise reduction	PCM digital audio	14” / 3 hour spools
A	PAL	1	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
B	PAL	2	✓	✓	n/a	n/a	n/a
C	PAL	4	✓	n/a	✓	✓	✓
C	NTSC	4	✓	n/a	✓	✓	✓

Scroll to the right to view full table on smaller screens.

One inch open reel video tape is especially susceptible to risks associated with age, hardware, and equipment obsolescence. It is also prone to risks common to other types of magnetic media, such as mould growth, binder deterioration, physical damage, and signal drop-outs.

A significant problem for the transfer of 1 inch type A, type B and type C tape, is the rarity of machines capable of playing these formats. Their considerable weight (70 - 80 kg) made 1" video machines more difficult to transport and preserve than subsequent, smaller cassette-based machines.

Our 1" machines are arguably some of the more complex electro-mechanical machines we have at Greatbear, when compared with other professional broadcast formats.To fully recalibrate a 1 inch type C machine, for example, can take a few days because of its size and complexity.

Recalibration is complicated by machines having multiple components which all need to be aligned in a very careful way for the best quality transfer – it is not a simple case of adjusting the machine as a whole and everything works fine. Each separate transport mechanism requires attention. This is then checked against the other parts to ensure that the machine operates, and after that, the electronics. The recalibration process is complete when a machine plays back the tape in such a way that reflects the quality of the recording, rather inconsistencies in the machine.

Another major threat to the future of such analogue transfers is that the highly-skilled people who know how to maintain and fix these machines are disappearing, as are the spare parts needed to do so.

1 inch video tape brands / models

Common brands / models of 1 inch video tape include: 3M/Scotch 480; 3M/Scotch 480 XST; Ampex 196; BASF VT26; Fuji H621; Fuji H261E; Kodak EVT-1000; Sony V-16 SP and Sony V1-K.

The Ampex Corporation introduced 1” (SMPTE) type A videotape in 1965. It was one of the first standardised helical scan open reel video tape formats in the 1” width. It was mainly used in industrial and institutional contexts because it did not conform to existing broadcast standards.

A significant problem was that the type A system did not record the vertical blanking interval, i.e. the time between the end of the final line of a frame or field and the beginning of the first line of the next frame. It was also restricted to 350 lines, while the NTSC standard was 525 and PAL / SECAM were 625 lines. The compromised quality of type A video led ultimately to the development by Ampex & Sony of the SMPTE approved type C format in 1976.

Despite being a composite video format like U-matic or VHS, (where video information is encoded on one channel), 1 inch type C has very high video quality. It approaches the quality of component video formats (where the video signal has been split into two or more component channels), as used in Betacam videotapes and the Panasonic MII.

The quality and reliability of 1 inch type C made it a mainstay in television and video production in television studios for almost 20 years, before being supplanted by more compact videocassette formats like Betacam, DVCAM, D-1, D-2 and DVCPro.

Sep

2019

½ inch Sony / EIAJ reel-to-reel / Cartridge

Before Betamax and VHS, the main consumer video recording formats used half inch reel-to-reel tape with small suitcase-sized recorders. The relative affordability of the Sony Portapak (1967) camera plus VTR system, made it a popular tool for artists, experimenters, and social commentators.

The EIAJ format in type 1, black and white was the most common format and will account for the majority of recordings. Type 2, colour specification also exists, and we are able to transfer both types, having Sony CV machines, Shibaden and Hitachi EIAJ models and even a Panasonic time lapse machine.

We are able to transfer all standards of ½ inch (EIAJ & CV-2000 series) / Portapak open reel video from the UK (PAL) and US (NTSC).

The commonly-used Sony V30, V60, V30H, V60H or V62 tapes often suffer from sticky shed syndrome and require careful treatment before it’s safe to replay them. We can also digitise Panasonic EIAJ video cartridges that are usually labelled NV-xxxx

½ inch reel-to-reel video recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

½" format	video standard	Sony High Density 'sticky shed' tapes treated	colour recordings supported	405 lines supported
EIAJ	PAL	✓	✓	n/a
EIAJ Cartridge	PAL	✓	✓	n/a
EIAJ	NTSC	✓	✗	n/a
EIAJ Cartridge	NTSC	✓	✗
CV2100	PAL	n/a	n/a	✓
CV2000	PAL	n/a	n/a	✓

These ½ inch open reel video tapes can be particularly tricky to transfer well, due to the often deteriorated state the tapes can get into, the age and lack of availability of spares for the machines themselves and the inherent lack of tape interchangeability that this early non-broadcast format has.

In addition to the rarity of working machines and lack of spares, many of these ½ inch tapes have physically degraded over the years as they can be over 40 years old. Tapes which have binder problems, shedding oxide or tapes with mould growth must be treated before a successful transfer can be made. These types of problem are common with this format and Sony branded V60H, V62 and V30H Helical Scan tapes can sometimes be the worst. We have successfully restored and digitised a range of tapes, including part of a batch found at Bristol City Football Club.

While the quality is not high with this video format - which often has inherent visual issues such as dropouts, skew and head clogs due to shedding - the material recorded is sometimes of a very valuable nature and much less common than recordings made on later and often cheaper domestic equipment.

Introduced by Sony (1965), the CV-2000 series were among the earliest video tape recorders. They utilised ½" wide video tape on open reels, with tape being threaded manually around the helical scan video head drum., They were the first fully-transistorised VTRs

The Portapak system arrived in 1967, with the Sony DV-2400 Video Rover: a two-piece battery-powered set, consisting of a black-and-white composite video camera and a separate record-only helical scan ½" portable video tape recorder. It required a Sony CV series VTR (such as the CV-2000) to play back the video.

CV-2000 series machines lacked the capacity for tracking adjustment - meaning tapes were not easily interchangeable between different machines.

In 1969 EIAJ (Electronic Industries Association of Japan) developed standardisation for ½" video tape, which became the norm for many manufacturers, including Sony with their AV series machines (which included tracking adjustability).

The EIAJ standard widened the adoptability of ½" video tape, and as machines became more affordable, the format became popular the early 1970s for non-broadcast use by businesses, schools, government agencies, hospitals, artists and even some home-consumers.

Portapak became a term for a variety of two-piece camera-plus-recorder systems manufactured by Sony, JVC and others, prior to the advent of camcorders.

½" video tape was superseded by easier-to-use cassette-based formats, such as Sony’s U-matic (1971).

Sep

2019

¼ inch Akai b/w reel-to-reel

Quarter inch video tape is an unusual format, developed by Akai in 1967 with the aim of producing a light-weight portable VTR and camera system.

¼ inch reel-to-reel video recordings can vary both in duration and in the extent of physical tape degradation, so we always assess tapes before confirming the price of a transfer.

We offer free assessments - please contact us to discuss your project.

For an introduction to our assessment and treatment processes, please see our guide to "what happens to your video tape".

The Akai 1/4" video format is one of the most threatened formats for several reasons.

The VT100, 110 range of VTR's were never as common as the 1/2" CV2100 and EIAJ range of Sony VTR's. As a result there are less available spare machines now, around 50 years later.
The reduced width of tape the Akai VT range of machines used meant they are much smaller and lighter. An advantage for portability but this makes them tricky to work on and not very reliable long term.
The head tips are small and extremely fragile on this format too. Of the 6+ Akai VT machines we have half have one broken head tip from either wear or more likely previous rough head cleaning attempts.
The use of 1/4" tape often meant audio tape was used but the much rougher surface finish of audio 1/4" tape would wear the head tips very quicky. Specially made variations of Akai, BASF and Scotch tape were the only recommended tapes for this format.

Audio Cassettes

Preparation

Assessing the options

Digitising small-medium audiovisual collections

Significant properties vs the authentic digital object

Analogue to digital issues

File Format Action Plans

Other Preservation Challenges

Hustwit's Eno

Eno's Early Video Art

The Revenge of the Intuitive

Sticky Shed & Wax Crayons - working with 25 - 45 year old U-matic tape

further reading / viewing

introduction to XDCAM transfer

XDCAM HD machines

XDCAM / XDCAM HD format variation

XDCAM / XDCAM HD risks & vulnerabilities

XDCAM / XDCAM HD recording history

analogue to digital

fragile tape

restoration

conceptual immateriality & the material device

links & further reading:

introduction to CRVdisc transfer

CRVdisc machines

CRVdisc format variation

CRVdisc risks & vulnerabilities

CRVdisc recording history

introduction to DVD transfer

DVD machines

DVD format variation

DVD risks & vulnerabilities

DVD recording history

introduction to Video 2000 cassette transfer

Video 2000 machines

Video 2000 format variation

Video 2000 tape risks & vulnerabilities

Video 2000 recording history

introduction to Philips N1500 / N1700 video cassette transfer

Philips N1500 / N1700 video machines

Philips N1500 / N1700 format variation

Philips N1500 / N1700 video tape risks & vulnerabilities

VCR tape brands / models

Philips N1500 / N1700 video recording history

introduction to MII video cassette transfer

MII video machines

MII format variation

MII video tape risks & vulnerabilities

MII video recording history

introduction to D-9 / Digital-S video cassette transfer

D-9 / Digital-S video machines

D-9 / Digital-S format variation

D-9 / Digital-S video tape risks & vulnerabilities

D-9 / Digital-S video production & recording history

introduction to D-3 & D-5 video cassette transfer

D-3 & D-5 video machines

D-3 & D-5 format variation

D-3 & D-5 video tape risks & vulnerabilities

D-3 & D-5 video recording history

introduction to D-1 & D-2 video cassette transfer

D-1 & D-2 video machines

D-1 & D-2 format variation

D-1 & D-2 video tape risks & vulnerabilities

D-1 & D-2 video recording history

introduction to U-matic cassette transfer

U-matic video machines

U-matic format variation

U-matic tape risks & vulnerabilities

U-matic tape brands / models

U-matic recording history

introduction to HDCAM / HDCAM SR cassette transfer

HDCAM / HDCAM SR machines

HDCAM / HDCAM SR tape brands / models

HDCAM / HDCAM SR format variation

HDCAM / HDCAM SR tape risks & vulnerabilities

HDCAM / HDCAM SR recording history

introduction to Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX cassette transfer

Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX machines

Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX format variation

Digital Betacam / Betacam SX / MPEG IMX risks & vulnerabilities