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May 1997, Week 4

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 22 May 1997 13:53:56 +0100
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On Tue, 20 May 1997 17:28:57 -0400 Mike Frank <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
> which seems to imply that turntables for what we used to call records are no
> longer available . . . and this is simply not true . . . in fact tunrtables
 are
> now better than ever [they have to be to compete at all against the challenge
> of digital] and are available not only for LPs but even for 78s . . .
 certainly
> they're not mass marketed or mass produced as they used to be, and it's
> probably true that it's no longer possible to buy a cheap or bad turntable . .
> . but for those who care about vinyl [either because of the important inherent
> advantages in linearity of analogue waveforms, or because there are still many
> things that can be gotten on vinyl that have not yet been rereleased on
> silver discs, and may never be] there is a wide variety of turntables
 available
 
I don't think this argument can be applied in its entirety to video.  There are
two reasons why record turntables continue to be made.  Firstly, there are a
large number of records still in existence, which results in part from the fact
that records "survive", in that, given reasonable storage conditions, shellac
discs are known to be playable after 100 years or so and vinyl after 45.
Secondly, the turntable itself is technically simple object relying on
electromechanical principles: simple enough, that is, for small-scale cottage
industries to manufacture them for specialist markets.  In other words, the
level and nature of supply is compatible with that of demand.  Furthermore, the
number of format permutations is very small and easy to deal with: anyone could
adapt a turntable to play a record from the inside out, say, or at a
non-standard speed.
 
With video technology, there are additional factors.  Firstly, the tapes have a
much shorter lifespan.  Within less than a decade, a standard grade VHS tape
stored at normal room temperature and humidity may well be unusuable.
Secondly, there's the rapid turnover of formats.  And finally, the machines
needed to play them are complex pieces of technology involving thousands of
microelectronic components, most of which will be irreplacable within a very
short time of the machine going out of production (this state of affairs being
deliberately engineered (excuse the pun) by the big electronics manufacturers,
who, of course, want to keep selling us new kit).
 
Building a turntable in your garage is perfectly feasible, building a VCR most
certainly is not.  So, market forces and the electronics giants, to a great
extent, call the shots as to which formats remain in use and when they die.
Arguments 2 and 3 definitely apply also to optical and magneto-optical discs,
and, as cases come to light of CD deterioration caused by label inks attacking
the outer polyeurethane layer, it seems that 1 probably does, although to a
lesser extent.  And on top of all this, the advent of digital formats means
that we're dealing with a software problem as well as a hardware problem.
 
Archivists trying to conserve video recordings have concluded that the only
viable form of long-term preservation is to repeatedly copy material across
format generations, whilst trying to make the most pragmatic choice as to which
formats to use in order to minimise the frequency of this work.
 
Now to try and get back to the issue which started this thread: what the advent
of DVD means for educational collections of laserdiscs.  Promptly evading it
yet again, I think the crunch is going to come when VHS gets superceded as the
dominant domestic video tape format.  The incredible thing is that, despite the
fact that video (with the arguable exception of computer media) has the highest
instance of format turn-over of any audio-visual carrier, VHS has been around
for 20 years and shows no sign of being challenged.  Because there is going to
be a very expensive problem to solve by anyone caring to do so (support for
this argument can be found in the fact that although there have been many
attempts to replace the good old audio "compact cassette", such as Philips DCC,
DAT, the Sony minidisc and now CD-R, none has yet done so).
 
One possible option would be for a new digital tape in VHS cassettes, and the
resulting players being backwards compatible.  But with the increasing trend of
miniturisation through solid-state electronics (with smart card technology it
will be viable, within a few years, to store two hours of high definition video
on something the size of a credit card - even at present, a
broadcast-application D3 tape is not much bigger than a VHS), the costs
involved in building helical scan assemblies and other components rapidly being
rendered obsolete is likely to put the Japanese majors off that route.  So,
it's probably going to be something physically very different, leaving billions
of VHS tapes lying around and their owners requiring ongoing support for them.
 
My guess would be that a turntable-like scenario will exist for about a decade
after any new format gains market acceptance.  For a short time, both forms of
software will be available, then VHS tapes will be phased out, and the machines
will cease to be made/supported when the existing mass of tapes wear out,
something which will happen in a much shorter time than is the case with
records.  Any private individual who wishes to preserve a recording he/she has
on VHS in the long term, and who has no guarantee that it will not become
commercially available on the new format, will have to copy it, simple as that.
Of course there will be electronics buffs who will keep machines going by
cannibalising others, but they'll be pretty thin on the ground.
 
With laserdiscs the situation will be slightly different in that they were
intended primarily as a long-term library format, not a short-term timeshifting
device. The discs themselves have longer lifetimes, and so the demand for
playback equipment to be made and supported is likely to go on longer.  DVD
will have to knock laserdisc out of an established market, it's more expensive
and I can't see that it has any real benefits to the potential purchaser
(unless they come up with one you can record on).  So, where as a replacement
period will eventually start, I think it will go on for much longer and will
not begin until sales of any new format reach that critical mass whereby the
old one can be scaled down (as happened in the mid-late 80s with CD).  So, no
need to panic just yet, basically, but when things do start happening, anyone
charged with maintaining significant collections of recordings should start to
make plans.
 
Leo Enticknap
Univ. of Exeter, UK
 
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