Converting videotapes to DVD-video guarantees that videos will be viewable long after the life of a videotape.....in excess of 100 years!
If you're saving videotapes to pass on to future generations, it's time to take action. Videotapes degrade much faster than most people realize. As the video camera increasingly replaces the photo camera, more and more families jeopardize the long-term survivability of their cherished family visual recordings by continuing to keep them on traditional videotapes. Transferring videotapes to DVD-video, before they lose the quality of their video image, is a permanent and cost effective way to guarantee a future for those irreplaceable memories.
With over 68 million video cameras in the United States today, we have become the most recorded generation ever. Ease of use and realism of playback has made the video camera the essential accessory for special events, such as weddings, children's milestones, anniversaries and reunions. Passing on the family `video album' to future generations provides individuals with a clearer vision of who they are and where they come from. An accurate personal historical perspective is important in shaping a better future for our families and ourselves. With numerous events recorded every day, we expect that future generations will inherit a highly vivid and realistic record of our times. Ironically, the opposite is true since the magnetic media on which those videos are recorded will not survive a single generation.
Videotapes actually begin to degrade the moment they are made. That is why new videotapes are stored in plastic wrappers and are removed from shelves after 6 months. Environmental humidity causes the binder, which is the glue that holds the magnetic information particles to the tape material, to continually weaken and eventually fail. This means the magnetic particles, which hold the video and audio information in place, will end up in the bottom of the tape case. To make things worse, a videotape ages faster as it gets older. That's because as the binder absorbs water, it swells, and exposes more surface area to absorb even more moisture. Playing a videotape always results in wear and a loss of magnetic particles. Playing an older, aged videotape results in significantly more wear. You know a videotape is in an advanced stage of degradation when it clogs the playback heads of the VCR when it is played. In just 5 years of storage, a videotape will have an observable loss in picture crispness. If a tape experiences high humidity and elevated temperature conditions, it will degrade faster. Most tapes will not be playable after 15 years.
Videotapes are also vulnerable to sudden loss of data resulting from static shock or common electric fields due to their magnetic makeup. Unfortunately, some of the strongest sources of electric fields, created from VCRs, TVs, speakers, and stereo components, are found around home entertainment centers where videotapes are commonly stored. The vulnerability of videotapes, along with their unavoidable loss of quality over a relatively short period of time, make videotapes the most unsuitable, long-term storage media.
Although video quality will inevitably deteriorate over time, simple measures can be taken to prolong the life of a videotape.
For the long run, however, important videotapes should be converted as soon as possible onto a media that is long lasting and into a format that has wide acceptance.
Durability, capacity and marketplace acceptance make DVD-video the most appropriate long term choice for preserving videos. Video CDs, which are viewable on DVD players as well as computers with CD players, are also a viable option, but provide lower resolution and crispness.
The DVD-video format solves the problems we have with videotape as a long-term storage medium. With a minimum life expectancy of at least 100 years, DVDs are the best surviving media ever available.
Where a videotape wears a bit each time it’s played, DVDs can be played as often as desired without any wear at all. The information on a videotape can be wiped-out in the blink of an eye by a magnetic field produced by almost any component in the average stereo cabinet. In contrast, the data on a DVD consists of an optical layer that’s protected by a polycarbonate protective surface. Most normal scratches caused by a lifetime of handling are compensated for by built-in error correction that recognizes read errors and automatically corrects them. A 100-year-old DVD disc will play as well as a 2-day-old DVD disc. Additionally, when a copy of a videotape is made it always results in a generational loss of quality. But, when you copy a non-copyright protected DVD, you get a perfect copy.
Inevitably, even under ideal conditions, your videotape's destiny is to be unplayable in less than 20 years, most likely 10 to 15 years. For a vivid and lasting video album, select the DVD-video as the storage medium to preserve your home videos. The sooner they're transferred to DVD, the better the quality of the finished video.
One company with a long successful track record of converting family videos is CRISP Video (800) 211-3171, www.crispcd.com. With a significant portion of their business being done by mail, Crisp Video provides very high quality transfers to DVD-video and video-CD with a quick 2-week turn-around time, and guarantees the quality to be equal to that of the source tape. Whichever company you choose be sure they have a track record of several years and they are using professional equipment. It’s important to get it right the first time.