Without going into a lot of extraneous detail.. I am on several comittees and groups etc., involved in the restoration and preservation of films, sound tracks, and video media. All the high-techsolutions notwithstanding, one of the long-term archival methods is still an optically-recorded signal on stablized mylar or estar-based photographic film of some kind. With the proper care in processing the film life is forcast to be in excess of 500 years, and all that is required to 'read' it is a light source and a photo-responsive device.. plus the algorithms to recover the intelligence from the data stream. In the case of purely analog info, an audio amp, speaker, (and knowing the language) are the only recovery criteria. Data is a little more complex, but hopefully in 2100 somebody will be able to translate. Unless we've managed to reduce ourselves to cave-man status once again. ;} Cheerz John