8mm Forum: Archive question

This is topic Archive question in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on December 30, 2017, 04:15 PM:

When film was the usual medium for capture, I gather the negatives were stored in temperature controlled facilities. But what happens now with digital media. Is the original stored and where and how? Is a film copy made and what is the present thinking on the lifespan of such a copy?

Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on December 31, 2017, 08:39 PM:

All digital files are transferred to film that is the only medium that garantize more than 200 years of preservation.

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on January 01, 2018, 07:00 AM:

Thanks Jose. I rather thought that would be the case. But do the film companies actually archive their originals in the hope that digital materials will survive, or is that already a dead loss?

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on January 01, 2018, 07:21 AM:

Haven't heard any more of these Millenium Discs that are supposed to be OK for 1,000 years.

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on January 01, 2018, 12:03 PM:

Robert, not familiar with them.

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on January 01, 2018, 01:22 PM:

Some new laptops accept them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on January 01, 2018, 03:31 PM:

Interesting Robert, but French tests under controlled conditions appear to suggest that the discs deteriorate in the same way as normal discs. Not sure where that leaves the makers claims to last 1000 years.

Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on January 01, 2018, 06:29 PM:

"Thanks Jose. I rather thought that would be the case. But do the film companies actually archive their originals in the hope that digital materials will survive, or is that already a dead loss?"

I work for the industry actually and i can assure you that all the digital files are transferred to film, all the serious people in the industry and some serious executive in Hollywood knows that digital files dont last. Film is the only way to go for preserving for centuries,actually we work with fuji eterna that can survive for more than 300 years,to record digital images on black and white film, the images are first separated into red, green, and blue signal data, which are then exposed and recorded onto three separate films. In other words, one digital master is saved onto three black and white films. The full-color images can be easily and precisely reproduced to the exact standards as the originals by scanning and digitally compositing the separate images or optically exposing them directly onto film.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on January 02, 2018, 02:28 AM:

Jose's interesting explanation almost takes us back to the days of Technicolor which was exposed on three separate black & white negatives.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on January 02, 2018, 03:03 AM:

Also the BBC experimenter with copying 625 line PAL videotape to B&W film with the luma and chroma signals separated. They didn't find it reliable at the time, but now someone has found it possible to recover colour pictures from normal PAL film recordings (kinescopes). It doesn't work with NTSC.

Perhaps they were just too early with the earlier tests.

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on January 02, 2018, 06:50 AM:

Thanks for that information David; saves wasting money on them. Maybe i'm lucky, but so far haven't experienced any problems with files more than 10 years old either burned to disc or still stored on the hard drive.

Posted by Dave Groves (Member # 4685) on January 03, 2018, 07:45 AM:

Thanks for the info folks. It's a question that's niggled for a while.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 03, 2018, 10:41 AM:

Celluloid, and nothing but - Sorry all you digital anode adhere-tos, film lasts when taken care of, just like a record, comic book or card

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