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I was involved with two projects to digitise 20,000 hours each of analog audio and video: I built the database to select the tapes to digitise and manage their

by foobar1962 2y ago

I was involved with two projects to digitise 20,000 hours each of analog audio and video: I built the database to select the tapes to digitise and manage their destruction. One was in the late 2000s the other 2020s. One of the challenges for the project was finding working 1-inch analog video machines. The team scoured the world for machines, working or not, and managed to get several running. There is one particular part that fails, Sony only has a handful left and the machinery to make them is no longer available. When they are gone the media will be unplayable. The data complexity was due in part to there being multiple version of various quality, a program can be split across multiple tapes, and tapes can have multiple programs. So they need to ensure that all tapes of the best versions were selected, and also know what parts of other programs were on the tapes – bonus material. Finally, it was common to re-use video tapes to save money so it was possible that rare fragments of other material could be found at the end of the expected programs.

Scoundreller 2y ago
> The data complexity was due in part to there being multiple version of various quality Nonono, save it all! Only a matter of time before they can be merged together to make a supercopy. (But I get it: the practicality of saving even more data isn’t there)
- foobar1962 2y ago
  Archiving of broadcast material is rather difficult: should it be the final result that was shown over the air with all the overlays and graphics superimposed, or should it be the raw feeds? There is a board of people that make these decisions. For some program material there were low resolution copies, copies that were shortened for different purposes, copies that were edited for different markets... and so on. There was a decision tree to follow. There was also a "never to be shown again" list, usually where people that were involved in the program (either on-screen or part of the production team) were later associated with crimes or very unsavoury behaviour, or the material was in some other way extremely controversial.

Scoundreller 2y ago

> The data complexity was due in part to there being multiple version of various quality Nonono, save it all! Only a matter of time before they can be merged together to make a supercopy. (But I get it: the practicality of saving even more data isn’t there)

foobar1962 2y ago
Archiving of broadcast material is rather difficult: should it be the final result that was shown over the air with all the overlays and graphics superimposed, or should it be the raw feeds? There is a board of people that make these decisions. For some program material there were low resolution copies, copies that were shortened for different purposes, copies that were edited for different markets... and so on. There was a decision tree to follow. There was also a "never to be shown again" list, usually where people that were involved in the program (either on-screen or part of the production team) were later associated with crimes or very unsavoury behaviour, or the material was in some other way extremely controversial.