The oldest tape we have received at the Greatbear is a spool of paper backed magnetic tape, c.1948-1950. It’s pretty rare to be sent paper-backed tape, and we have been on a bit of adventure trying to find more about its history. On our trail we found a tale of war, economics, industry and invention… Continue reading Paper-backed Soundmirror ‘magnetic ribbon’ – early domestic magnetic tape recorders
Tag: electronics
How sustainable is digitisation?
Often when we think about the reasons to digitise magnetic tape collections we are considering the future. We digitise to make material accessible so it can be used again, or to preserve it so subsequent generations can benefit or learn from it. But how sustainable is digitisation and digital technology? What is the ecological impact… Continue reading How sustainable is digitisation?
Repairing obsolete media – remembering how to fix things
A recent news report on the BBC website about recycling and repairing ‘old’ technology resonates strongly with the work of Greatbear. The story focused on the work of Restart Project, a charity organisation who are encouraging positive behavioural change by empowering people to use their electronics for longer. Their website states, the time has come… Continue reading Repairing obsolete media – remembering how to fix things
Sony PCM 7030 DAT repair
We have several of these large, wonderful machines. It’s not often we need or want to get involved in DAT machine repair as generally they are not easy to service machines and many key transport parts are becoming unavailable. The Sony 7030 DAT though has been designed with easy servicing in mind. There’s alot of… Continue reading Sony PCM 7030 DAT repair
Video time base corrector self destructing mains socket
We have several time base correctors and frame synchronisers at our disposal. One recent addition is a new old stock (NOS) CEL Tetra. This is an early 1990s motion adaptive Standards Converter for PAL, SECAM, NTSC 3.58 and NTSC 4.43 systems. A very flexible unit with composite, Y/C (S-Video), U-matic DUB High Band/Low Band and… Continue reading Video time base corrector self destructing mains socket
Switch mode power supply (SMPSU) repair in For-a FA-310P time base corrector
We use time base correctors and frame synchronizers all the time in the transfer and digitising of analogue video tape. One of our more flexible and high quality units had recently developed an annoying and very obvious fault on its video outputs. While the unit was working there were faint but distinct horizontal lines on… Continue reading Switch mode power supply (SMPSU) repair in For-a FA-310P time base corrector
Video Tape Transfer, Copy to DVD, DV or uncompressed AVI
Over the last 12 months we’ve seen this side of our business grow and adapt to the range of transfer needs that individuals, businesses and media creation organisations have. We are able to support a wide range analogue and digital, consumer and professional video formats from the late 1970s onwards such as: Betamax, VHS, SVHS,… Continue reading Video Tape Transfer, Copy to DVD, DV or uncompressed AVI