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09-08-2018, 03:30 AM
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Myths piss me off, especially when it comes to video.

I was shown this item tonight, and it's mostly hogwash.

Quote:
Originally Posted by http://www.ikenvideo.com/Facts-About-Video-Tape-Deterioration
Facts About Video Tape Deterioration

Why You Should Transfer and Convert Now
Somewhere in your house is a drawer full of videotapes — aging home movies shot with a camcorder that may not even work anymore. You have not watched these movies in years, but lately you have been thinking, “Why not transfer those old videos to DVDs?”
You should have precious videos like a wedding, the arrival of a baby, holiday family gatherings, dance recitals, school plays, sporting events, birthday parties, competitions or just kids playing around the house converted to DVD. Why? Because you are in danger of losing them forever!

VIDEO TAPES DETERIORATE!
Videotapes lose their magnetic signal over time, quality and color of your memories deteriorate due to the friction between the VCR head and tape, and the tape grows brittle and eventually breaks – even when sitting on a shelf! Especially troublesome is a climate like Denver with wild temperature swings and ultra-low humidity levels, which wreak havoc on the materials that make up audio and video tapes.
VHS recordings were made with an analog process. The illustrations or photos were coded into a magnetic tape. As time passes, this code can fade because of different factors and the illustrations or photos will start to turn out to be grainy and deteriorate in top quality. Digital illustrations or photos recorded onto DVD last longer since the digital codes embedded into the CDs are higher in high quality compared to their analog ancestors. Given these differences, wouldn’t you say that it is time to accomplish a little VHS to DVD conversion?
When videotapes are copied, each copy loses a bit of the information from the original – in other words, the video loses quality. Consider that in a few years nobody will use traditional VCRs, as we know them today. How many people do you know that watch video tapes at home anymore? Therefore, if you want your memories to last, DVD is the clear format of choice.

HOW LONG DO VIDEO TAPES LAST?
It is one of the toughest questions, and few people bother to ask it: How long does a magnetic tape last?
Popular belief has always been that the information stored on videotape is permanent. Magnetic tape (cassettes, VHS and camcorder tapes) has allowed us to document and replay our history. Nevertheless, magnetic media has a very limited life span, and your priceless sounds and images will soon be lost forever!
The truth is, videotape is not forever. Unlike movie film — which can last for decades — videotape is far more fragile. In fact, no magnetic recording medium is permanent
All magnetic tape older than 15 years is in serious jeopardy! The greatest problem with videotape is that over time it will breakdown. Breakdown occurs when the binder that holds the magnetic particles to the polyester base on the tape decays. As the breakdown process progresses, the tapes become extremely difficult to play. The problem may be so severe that the magnetic material literally falls off, leaving a pile of dust and clear tape. I have actually opened a tape box to find a box full of oxide dust- rust.

FACTS ABOUT VIDEO TAPE:
1. Video quality deteriorates each time you watch.
2. Video quality will deteriorate after 10 years, even if you do not watch them.
3. Your VCR can destroy your tape when it malfunctions.
4. Analog videotape (from the 20th century), like VHS tapes, will not last as long as digital tape.
5. Digital tape is better, but it has an expected useful life of only 20 years if stored under ideal conditions.

WHY ARE DVD’S BETTER?
DVD’s are better because they are the next generation in media. It is expected that a DVD will maintain video quality for 100+ years (though we used to think that about video and audio tapes, too!). Your saved digital images on DVD will then be available for the next evolution in media for future saving.

FACTS ABOUT DVD:
1. Digital standard for the 21st century.
2. DVD video quality is superior to tape.
3. DVD audio quality is superior to tape.
4. DVD video quality will not deteriorate, no matter how many times it is watched.
5. A DVD may last 100 years or more.
6. DVD’s are sealed and have no moving parts (unlike tapes).
7. DVD’s are easier to handle, use, and store.
8. DVD’s can be copied without loss of signal, digitally.
9. DVD’s can be played on home computers with DVD drives and on most DVD players.
10. DVD’s allow quick access to specific scenes. Instead of fast forwarding to a specific spot in your video, a DVD lets you skip right to a specific point, bypassing all of the video in between.
11. One of the best things about DVD is the quality of the video. While a normal VHS tape only offers 200-300 vertical lines of resolutions, a DVD allows a full 480 lines of resolution. This means that your picture is sharper and more detailed. And with BluRay, you get 1080P HD quality!

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW?
The conversion process does not affect the original tapes. We do not make any changes to the original tapes, unless we need to in order to play them! They will be played and rewound a few times by a quality VCR while they are being processed. This will not affect the original tapes any more, than if you played and rewound them a few times at home.
How much video can be burned onto a DVD?
We can burn up to 2 hours of high quality video and audio to one DVD-R.

SAVE YOUR PRECIOUS MOMENTS!!

CONVERT YOUR VHS TAPES TO DVD'S NOW!!!

CALL TODAY FOR DETAILS
I'll pick this part in the next post...

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  #2  
09-08-2018, 04:53 AM
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This is a tired old trope, and plagiarized almost word for word from much early nonsense dating back 15-20 years online.

To put it bluntly, it's FUD to scare you into using their service.

Company:
"WARNING: The boogeyman is eating your precious family memories!"
Unsuspecting consumer: "Oh no, whatever shall I do?"
Company: "Why send them to us, of course!"

But it's bullshit. Complete, total, utter, 100%, grade-A bullshit.

Let me dissect it:

Quote:
Why You Should Transfer and Convert Now
Somewhere in your house is a drawer full of videotapes — aging home movies shot with a camcorder that may not even work anymore.
You should have precious videos like a wedding, the arrival of a baby, holiday family gatherings, dance recitals, school plays, sporting events, birthday parties, competitions or just kids playing around the house converted to DVD. Why? Because you are in danger of losing them forever!
This is nothing but fear mongering.

Quote:
VIDEO TAPES DETERIORATE!
Videotapes lose their magnetic signal over time,
This is true. Tapes do deteriorate.
But it takes a long, long, long, long, long time. Not mere years, or even mere decades. The primary issue of degradation is referred to as oxide shedding. That's where the magnetic tape literally flakes off (sheds) from the mylar tape. But for that to happen at an accelerated rate, the tapes had to be stored in horrible conditions: the attic, the basement, outside in a garage. And even then, oxide shedding isn't the worst that can happen. Those same storage conditions are far more likely to induce mold growth, and only a specialty lab are able to handle tapes infected by mold spores.

There have been some cases of oxide shedding happening without bad storage, but it tends to be an immediate issue, caused from bad tape stock. Certain early Sony Video8 tape stock, for example, was lousy. Some of the cheapest VHS tapes in the late 90s, the kinds of no-name brands you'd find in gas stations, would have issues. Either sticky, or outright shedding. But it didn't take years to set in, it was fairly quick.

Quote:
quality and color of your memories deteriorate
This is complete nonsense.
Color data is stored on tape as YUV in a subcarrier frequency. No amount of science, or magic, could alter the color once recorded. It's not film. Film can fade, because it's an optical format. Light harms it. But color data in a tape is immune to such things. This is the part of the "tape are degrading" myth that I most hate.

Quote:
due to the friction between the VCR head and tape[
This is partially true. However, the same is true of anything: playing LPs/records, handling DVDs, etc. There is an understanding that physical contact will occur, and so the format was build in such a way that the internals of a VCR/camera, and the construction of a tape, would minimize the effect. You'd have to play a tape dozens of times to have friction pose a serious problem. Even then, the main outcome is demagnetization of certain portion of the tape, and at worse deep scratches. But that specific tape or VCR can equally beat fault.

Quote:
and the tape grows brittle and eventually breaks
This is complete nonsense.
Mylar is resistant to heat and moisture, and rarely gets brittle over any length of time.
And tape breakage is generally caused by faulty players.

Quote:
even when sitting on a shelf!
No.

Quote:
Especially troublesome is a climate like Denver with wild temperature swings and ultra-low humidity levels, which wreak havoc on the materials that make up audio and video tapes.
This is complete nonsense.
You think Denver has wild temperature swings?

Denver has a cool climate, and low humidity -- two things ideal for any archive. Video tapes from states like Colorado are generally in far, far better condition that tapes in coastal states like Florida, or in southern climates like Arizona and Texas. But, even then, it only matters if you stored the tapes in a garage, attic, basement, or other non-temperature-controlled location.

BTW: This company is in Michigan, so they seemingly stole/plagiarized this BS document from some other company. Like I said already, this is disproven garbage that has been stolen and stolen again by shyster companies on the interwebs for over a decade now.

Quote:
VHS recordings were made with an analog process. The illustrations or photos were coded into a magnetic tape. As time passes, this code can fade because of different factors
This is complete nonsense.
This is unscientific jibber-jabber from a person that has zero idea how video tapes (and VCRs and cameras) actually work. It's not "coded", and "different factors" is meaningless doublespeak.

Quote:
and the illustrations or photos will start to turn out
This is complete nonsense.
Illustrations? Photos? This is analog tape, not a book.

Quote:
to be grainy and deteriorate in top quality.
This is complete nonsense.
Grain was a trait of the tape itself (with Fuji Pro probably being the worst grainy VHS tape I ever saw), or the quality of shot video. For example, underexposed video is often confused with being "grainy", and underexposure was very common with amateur shot footage.

Quote:
Digital illustrations or photos recorded onto DVD last longer since the digital codes embedded into the CDs are higher in high quality compared to their analog ancestors.
This is complete nonsense.
Again, more text written by somebody that has zero knowledge on how optical media work. For starters, a DVD is not a CD, and you cannot use the term interchangeably (unless your a tech-inept grandma). DVD is encoded as MPEG-2 video, and many of the traits common to analog formats are actually very similar to their disc-based brethren. Most notably, the asinine idea that "colors fade over time", a falsehood that is commonly (mis)stated as a problem of both media types.

Quote:
When videotapes are copied, each copy loses a bit of the information from the original – in other words, the video loses quality. Consider that in a few years nobody will use traditional VCRs, as we know them today. How many people do you know that watch video tapes at home anymore?
Finally ... some true statements.

Quote:
Therefore, if you want your memories to last, DVD is the clear format of choice.
The 2000s are over, and in the 2010s nobody is watching a DVD anymore than they're watchign a VHS tape.

Quote:
HOW LONG DO VIDEO TAPES LAST?
It is one of the toughest questions, and few people bother to ask it: How long does a magnetic tape last?
No.
It's only a "tough question" if you're not aware of the science and ample anecdotal evidences (dating the to the 1950s) that exists.

Quote:
Popular belief has always been that the information stored on videotape is permanent.
Nobody ever thought that.

Quote:
Magnetic tape (cassettes, VHS and camcorder tapes) has allowed us to document and replay our history. Nevertheless, magnetic media has a very limited life span, and your priceless sounds and images will soon be lost forever!
More fear-mongering.

Quote:
The truth is, videotape is not forever. Unlike movie film — which can last for decades — videotape is far more fragile.
This is complete nonsense.
Film is indeed a fragile format that has many problems, including image fade. There are entire documentaries dedicated to film salvation, because it was being lost at a much faster rate than was expected by movie studios. The most famous is probably the original Star Wars trilogy, which was in a miserable state after only 15-20 years.

Video tape, by contrast, doesn't have the same issues. Issues, yes, but nowhere near as dire as film has proven in recent decades past.

Quote:
All magnetic tape older than 15 years is in serious jeopardy! The greatest problem with videotape is that over time it will breakdown. Breakdown occurs when the binder that holds the magnetic particles to the polyester base on the tape decays. As the breakdown process progresses, the tapes become extremely difficult to play. The problem may be so severe that the magnetic material literally falls off, leaving a pile of dust and clear tape. I have actually opened a tape box to find a box full of oxide dust- rust.
Hyperbole, almost nonsense.
Buried under the exaggerations is a single thread of truth. Yes, oxide shedding can happen, and I explained that earlier in this post. But the item that you'll open a box to find nothing but dust is ridiculous.

Quote:
FACTS ABOUT VIDEO TAPE:
Almost none of them are facts.

Quote:
1. Video quality deteriorates each time you watch.
Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on several factors, namely the condition of the tape and the player. Intrinsically, the idea that deterioration automatically happens is simply not true.

Quote:
2. Video quality will deteriorate after 10 years, even if you do not watch them.
This is complete nonsense.
The longevity of the tape depends on the format. Some tapes, like DV, are sadly quite fragile, and the digital data is far too finicky even after 15 years. Others, like Ampex, which were used to shoot episodes of The Twilight Zone, and many others, are often still fine more than 60 years later. VHS tapes from the 1970s are still fine when played. The generally accepted lifetime of a VHS tape is 35-65 years -- at least those with actual scientific knowledge of the nature of the format, such as archivists and professionals within the studio industry.

Quote:
3. Your VCR can destroy your tape when it malfunctions.
Yes, true.

Quote:
4. Analog videotape (from the 20th century), like VHS tapes, will not last as long as digital tape.
False.
Tape is tape. It doesn't matter if the data is analog or digital. If anything, digital is a "all here, or all not" sort of format. At least with analog, the content is still present, even if disrupted.

Quote:
5. Digital tape is better, but it has an expected useful life of only 20 years if stored under ideal conditions.
This is complete nonsense.
Again, just more pulled-from-butt numbers. Tape is tape, digital or analog. And the grade of tape matters just as much as the storage, in terms of improving/degrading the longevity.

Quote:
WHY ARE DVD’S BETTER?
DVD’s are better because they are the next generation in media. It is expected that a DVD will maintain video quality for 100+ years (though we used to think that about video and audio tapes, too!). Your saved digital images on DVD will then be available for the next evolution in media for future saving.
It's pretty obvious that this is an old site, with decaying information. The idea that a DVD lasts for 100+ years was long ago disproven.

Quote:
FACTS ABOUT DVD:
1. Digital standard for the 21st century.
The 21st century is not even 20 years in, and the format is essentially dead already. Streaming has overtaken both it as its largely failed successor Blu-ray. Optical media is now the niche, while streaming is the mainstream.

Quote:
2. DVD video quality is superior to tape.
3. DVD audio quality is superior to tape.
False statement.
Depends on bitrates.

Quote:
4. DVD video quality will not deteriorate, no matter how many times it is watched.
In theory, but the bigger issue is that discs are outlasting players. And contrary to what has been stated so far, discs do come into physical contact with the player. Add in some scratches from even those most careful of care, and the idea that the DVD can be played forever is quickly seen as false.

Quote:
5. A DVD may last 100 years or more.
Unlikely, few decades at most.

Quote:
6. DVD’s are sealed and have no moving parts (unlike tapes).
Yet only as strong as the bonding. And sadly, the bonding is often the weakest part of a disc. Once it cracks open, the discs isn't even useful as a drink coaster.

Quote:
7. DVD’s are easier to handle, use, and store.
8. DVD’s can be copied without loss of signal, digitally.
9. DVD’s can be played on home computers with DVD drives and on most DVD players.
10. DVD’s allow quick access to specific scenes. Instead of fast forwarding to a specific spot in your video, a DVD lets you skip right to a specific point, bypassing all of the video in between.
All true, finally.

Quote:
11. One of the best things about DVD is the quality of the video. While a normal VHS tape only offers 200-300 vertical lines of resolutions, a DVD allows a full 480 lines of resolution. This means that your picture is sharper and more detailed. And with BluRay, you get 1080P HD quality!
False statement.
Both VHS and DVD have 480 lines of vertical resolutions. VHS is not measured in pixels, and in fact analog was not measured on the vertical axis at all. Analog NTSC is equivalent to the same 486 lines you get with digital NTSC.

It's the horizonal where the big difference happened. VHS was theoretically 240 lines, but that was only SP when all conditions were idea. For those that insist on factoring in Kell, which I disagree with (and Kell is NOT universally accepted), it was still less than 350px. DVD has a max palette of 720, but the content can of course be less resolved. And when you're converting VHS to DVD, that is always the case. VHS doesn't magically become 720px when it was a mere 200-300px source. And FYI, 720px is the same as about "500 lines of resolution" in an analog horizontal measurement.

Quote:
How much video can be burned onto a DVD?
We can burn up to 2 hours of high quality video and audio to one DVD-R.
False statement.
The length of video that fits onto a DVD-R is solely determined by the bitrate.

Also: You can actually stored 3 hours of VHS as 352x480 (ie greater resolution that the VHS source), using a 4.0mbps bitrate, or it will look better than 2 hours stored as 720x480 at 5.0mbps, due to the bitrate allocation.

Quote:
SAVE YOUR PRECIOUS MOMENTS!!
CONVERT YOUR VHS TAPES TO DVD'S NOW!!!
CALL TODAY FOR DETAILS
Yes, now that we've scared the shit out of you with total malarkey, give us your tapes.
Mwahahahaha.

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  #3  
03-04-2020, 02:37 AM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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An excellent post my friend!!!!!!

Either these people have been lied to and are spewing the garbage they have been told or they have an agenda!!!
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