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http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/last-vhs-manufacture-funai-to-halt-production/
This item refers to VHS, obviously. But I wonder if professional-format tape players are still being made. I'm sure the world still has a vast amount of video trapped on tape, especially in TV news departments. And of course TV shows that were shot on video in the first place.
Will we get to a time when tape decks (and incidentally film projectors) just can't be repaired, and archived content is effectively lost?
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There's companies that keep and maintain old recording devices so old media can be transferred over to new media.
But in the article, it says even the company that makes VHS players has trouble getting parts now. Repair companies must have similar problems for various formats of tape decks.
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Posted: |
Jul 22, 2016 - 7:55 AM
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By: |
Rameau
(Member)
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http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/last-vhs-manufacture-funai-to-halt-production/
This item refers to VHS, obviously. But I wonder if professional-format tape players are still being made. I'm sure the world still has a vast amount of video trapped on tape, especially in TV news departments. And of course TV shows that were shot on video in the first place.
Will we get to a time when tape decks (and incidentally film projectors) just can't be repaired, and archived content is effectively lost?
The last professional tape format I used was the Sony HDcam SR, I was told at the time that it would be the last of the tape formats, & it looks like it was. I know some companies archiving tape programs are having trouble finding some machines in working order, esp. U-matics, but it's the same with film kit. As far as I know, the mag followers that play the rolls of mag tape (the soundtrack, music/dialogue/effects/combined) aren't being supported anymore, it's up to the engineers to keep them going, & when the heads wear out, I don't know what they do then.
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Damn!
I still have lotsa classic porn on vhs!
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Posted: |
Jul 22, 2016 - 2:52 PM
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By: |
Metryq
(Member)
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It's like I said in the "Obsolete formats" thread: everything comes to an end. If you have content that you can't bear to lose, dub it over. This is not a matter of new format/old format fetishism. When the last machine goes, you're up the tree without a paddle. Ask the NASA archivists about that proprietary VTR used to record the first Moon landing.
My penultimate year in high school the first VHS deck showed up. I told all the teachers—all year long—"Get any must-keep programs to me so that I can dub them from reel-to-reel to the new format." They all sat on their butts. So I had to ask the librarian if I could borrow a pile of gear over the Summer when the teachers went into panic mode. "You're graduating next year?!"
One benefit of that Summer is when my dad asked if the color monitor could receive TV. I hooked it up for him—our own TV was still a black-and-white, if you can believe it. And he watched one of those old Hollywood, cast-of-thousands productions and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I remember him thinking out loud, "Gee, it would be great to have a color TV." I immediately ran to my siblings, "We're finally getting a color TV!" Around Christmas it arrived. I think we were the last on the block to get UHF, too.
It doesn't matter how many service bureaus exist to copy old formats to new. Eventually, their gear will reach its duct tape and bailing wire end of life too. (It's amazing how much old content is suddenly judged unworthy once the owners see the transfer prices. And the longer one waits, the higher those prices get.)
"I'll do something about my procrastination tomorrow."
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AS YOU WERE SAYING:
It's not mentioned in the reporting, but this probably also means the death of the VCR/DVD-recorder combo machines, which have been becoming more and more scare over the past 5 years.
UNQUOTE.
HOWEVER,
The link in the first post on this thread connects to a news item about the imminent death of VCRs, but there's a link on THAT page about how to convert VHS to DVD, and one of the ways they cover in their presentation is the self-same Combo device. Shall we presume that this instruction page will soon be revised to eliminate mention of the Combo?
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