"david.mccall" <david.mccallUNDERLINE@comcast.net> wrote in message news:s7ajc.41339$IW1.1965750@attbi_s52...

[....]

> I don't think I've ever heard anybody extolling the virtues

> of tape being more reliable than anything but my memory :-)

>

> I'm looking towards the day when the very last tape jams,

> and the final tube burns out.

>

> David

Have a look at this....:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=513486 .

The problem is that most people assume that computer-written

CD and DVD disks have the permanence of commercially-produced

pre-recorded disks. They don't. These disks we write to are dye images,

with all the problems these are subject to (remember the old Kodak

disclaimer, "Dye images may in time...." ?). HD data is also not very

permanent, as I understand it, especially if it is recorded high-density,

as it is in the newer large-capacity or physically very small HDs. Tapes,

properly handled and stored, may still offer some archival advantages,

hard as that is to believe about this obviously fragile and inadequate

medium. And, when was the last time you preferred to color-correct

material using a flat-panel display instead of a CRT...?;-)

Not that good/reliable non-tape/non-CRT solutions will not arrive,

but........;-)

--

David Ruether

d_ruether@hotmail.com

http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com