[78-L] fwd: Videotape challenge is in the machinery

[Steven C. Barr]

From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
>  On 8/5/2010 10:53 PM, David Lennick wrote:
>> A bit OT, but worth noting..it's not just audio (analog and digital) 
>> that's endangered. This is from Variety.
> This is an old story but it does need to be retold.  LC has a large room
> at Culpepper where automated cassette changers are digitizing videotapes
> 24 hours a day.  They have been amassing as many players of all types as
> they can, and have a dedicated repair service for them.  Whenever
> someone says that a TV show isn't around because it was on before there
> was videotape, I tell them that in many cases programs survive because
> they WERE on before videotape.  Videotape was the enemy of archival
> survival of TV untill we get to modern consumer formats -- but you can't
> just collect the programs, you also have to collect the machines.
> When IASA (International Association of Sound Archives, now
> International Assoc of Sound and Audio-Visual Archives) wanted to add
> the video component, I campaigned fiercely against the move and did
> delay it at least five years.  I reminded them there already is FIAT,
> the Federation International of TV, and IASA should stick to audio
> because it couldn't do video justice because it is too complicated a
> problem.  We'll see how things are going when we meet in Phila this fall.
> I have about five 3/4-inch U-matic machines in my warehouse but I don't
> trust them.  Our school might have one working machine left and I am
> going to try to get the others.  These can still be fixed but it is
> becoming costly.  And there are so many minor video formats where
> machines have almost totally disappeared.  Believe me, audio is so
> simple compared to video.
>
What we all too often forget is the simple fact that we are, like it or 
else.
livinvg in the renaissance of the "baby boomers!" These folks grew up
with TV sets as "cheap child care"...and spent ALL their "formative
years" in front of a TV set (cheapest way to "look after" one's
offspring! This in turn means that they learned their intrinsic
values from that source (remember that "Sesame Street" was
yet to arrive...?!) rather than from their parents...!

"Thinking"...?! Why bother...just see what the "tube" tells you...?!
To this group, copies (of whatever sort?!) of vintage TV programs
serve essentially the same function that did "the Dead Sea
Scrolls" for Christians...?!

They live by "If I didn't see it on TV, it didn't happen...?!"

Steven C. Barr