SURVEY
Archival-Quality Digital Video Medium
Survey results are now available here. This is a pdf file and requires Adobe Acrobat to view it. If needed, Adobe Acrobat can be downloaded free at this site.
The digital video recorder market is primarily driven by the needs of Broadcast TV. The needs of the Archival community are not considered—primarily because it is an unknown market. The archival market has a lot of potential for equipment manufacturers because so many old videotapes must be copied and reformatted. It is up to the archival community to show that there is a large market for archival-quality digital media.
Presently, the only archival-quality digital video media are the D5 and the D6. The problem with these two is that they are very expensive—about $40,000-$70,000 U.S. each.
If there was a reasonably priced archival-quality digital system available, how many would you buy over the next 20 years? What price would you consider “affordable”? This survey also addresses the size of the videotape collections that institutions are currently seeking to preserve.
Please be sure to include the amount of video, such as instructional collections, held by your institution that may be copied for preservation purposes under copyright law.
This survey is for video/TV--NOT film. Film requires a much higher resolution.
This information is being collected by Jim Wheeler (JimWheeler@aol.com), with the assistance of Sara J. Holmes (sjholmes@worldnet.att.net). All data collected will be compiled in order to demonstrate the market size of institutions archiving tape. There is no commitment to purchase any equipment or media, nor will addresses and contact names be distributed to any salesmen.