Tape is dead ???

[Alban Egger]

I have a BetaS deck in a closet since 2007…..tape died 5 years ago for me.
Over here DigiBeta and IMX are still in use by some public stations though.

[Craig Seeman]

In the early ’90s I was involved in a preservation project for PBS. They were just getting around to dubbing their 2″ tapes to another format. What format did they choose? D2.
Apparently they’re not the company to look at for decisions on the use of modern media devices.
Someone is going to make a huge amount of money when they get around to BetaSP preservation . . . made possible by donations from “viewers like you.” Sorry about that.

[Dustin Parsons]

[Herb Sevush] “I can’t even get rid of my Beta SP deck.”

Ouch, I would hate that. I had to rent a Beta SP deck 2 years ago for nightly show I was doing covering NY Fashion Week, the issues I ran into laying off to tape were worse than having to get up at 6AM and edit until midnight. I made the decision then that if I ever work on a show that requires I deliver on tape that I’m outputting to ProRes and bringing a hard drive to a facility so they can do it there. Luckily, I haven’t had to touch tape since then.

I know a lot of people like tape or at least don’t have problems using it, for me, I’ll take digital files over tape any day. I think the majority of people agree with me and it’s only the facilities that can’t afford new hardware that are stuck using tape for the time being.

[Brian Mulligan]

What is their HD delivery format?

Brian Mulligan
Senior Editor – Autodesk Smoke
WTHR-TV Indianapolis,IN, USA
Twitter: @bkmeditor

[Joseph W. bourke]

Tape is not going to be dead for a long, long time. At least until the last machine dies and there are no parts for it. The broadcast station I worked at for fourteen years had its main news archive on 3/4 inch and beta SP tape, and also had some early stuff on 1 inch and 16mm film. It’s too expensive (and you have to have an archivist on staff – that ain’t gonna happen at a broadcast station, believe me) to put all of that footage on digital media. Even most of their commercial production archive (raw footage, masters with no graphics, that sort of stuff) is on 3/4 and Beta.

I read somewhere once that the only valid archival medium is 35mm film, because there will always be machines to play it back, and it doesn’t degrade the way tape stock does. A lot of what’s in the Library of Congress is on paper prints – I don’t understand how that works, I’m guessing it’s like a contact print in still photography – I’ll have to read up on it.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Craig Seeman]

Tape archives will exist until the stock and the machines fall apart but tape delivery is going to fade when “the delivery chain” finally accepts file rather than HDCAM.

[Michael Gissing]

I just played out HDCam and digi beta masters of a 90 minute drama doco for loacl broadcasters plus I am about to do another set of HDCam and digi betas for ZDF in Germany & ARTE France.

Although ‘tape is dead’ is a catchy mantra, many of us will be playing out tapes as standard broadcast deliverables for a few more years for sure. Broadcasters know tape works. Files are fraught with so many variables that although many broadcasters say they want files, the reality is that they will probably want files plus tapes for at least a few more years.

I bought my HDCam deck four and a half years ago and only expected it to be in use for five years max. I think it will be more like 6-7 years before it is my jilted lover.

[Craig Seeman]

[Michael Gissing] “I bought my HDCam deck four and a half years ago and only expected it to be in use for five years max. I think it will be more like 6-7 years before it is my jilted lover.”

I think it’ll be a couple of years for the transition to go through to file.

[Bob Woodhead]

Tape? No, it’s here to stay! Why, I go through more now than ever before….. and every format, too – I use masking, Scotch, gaffers (black and white mostly), painter’s, electrical….

[Andrew Kimery]

What utilities are out there that allow for punching-in replacement video and/or audio into an already existing file? I assume this would only work with all I-Frame codecs since doing a punch-in on a GOP codec would screw up the compression cadence.