31 Oct
1999
31 Oct
'99
9:40 a.m.
It seems it was 'freebie' day
yesterday... my most striking gift
was a large box of 3/4" U-matic video tapes (13 of them) put out by
Digital, titled 'The VAX-11 Instruction Set' They are of course a
a video tutorial on that subject. I popped the first one into the
player last night and it put me straight to sleep... they are the
typical mid-80s hideously boring industrial instruction format..
the graphics of a school film and voice-over by some un-inflected
perfect-diction guy who pronounces mnemonic as 'newmunik'... but it
is still a cool find. I think when DVD software gets a little
cheaper it would be a good candidate for archival on that format.
DVD is a great "moderate" quality format that allows wide screen display
etc., but I think existing cheap/free MPEG compression and storage on a CDR
would work fine. Posting the results on alt.sleep.disorders possibly quite
profitable. Does the umatic tape have any archival issues that are of
concern already?
The cost issue with DVD I think will remain for some time with the media,
unless all of the vendors insist on a blood bath of price cutting like they
did with CDR.