crashsite

I don't know if this rises to the status of an "electronic project" at this stage of thinking but, here goes:

I was ranting a bit at the problem of archiving older magnetic media (like audio and video tapes and disks). The traditional thinking is to use a player that was designed to read the media (a VHS player for VHS tapes, a BETA player for BETA tapes, a compact cassette player for audio cassesstes, etc.). But, will these devices be available and still functioning 100 years in the future? There's also the question of the quality of the signals and of the substrates.

I'm thinking there's a need to employ the power of the computer to free up the need to keep the various players around and functioning. At this stage of thinking it's pretty theoretical but, there's a strong "electronic project" component to it as well.

In order to put the minimum stress on the media and make a universal reader, I think the solution is to not move the media at all. For example, if, in 2108, an old jam session from the 1950s, on acetate 1/4" tape, is found in a basement, it's likely that the tape is very brittle and, in fact, may be split or broken. If the tape is carefully unrolled and the scanning device moves over the surface (no contact), there would be no need to risk harming the oxides.

That implies a method of sensing the state of the magnetic domains on the tape. Then it would be up to the computer to figure out and reconstruct the data to restore the original signal. That signal could be anything from simple audio to video to data. The tape dimensions (1/8", 1/4", 1/2", 1", 2", etc.) would not matter. Even data disks could be read with the same methodology.

I guess there would be three main components to such a system. The magnetic sensor, the mechanical drive for the sensor and the computer program.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the feasability of this idea and also how it might be implemented (especially as regards the sensing of the magnetc signals). Keep in mind that there have been systems that record across the surface of tapes (longitudinally, laterally and slant-wise) as well as traversely (such as the control signals from the old Nagra tape decks) and who knows what all systems have been used for disks or other magnetic medias.

rjvh

in theory posible but if magnettic tape stays for a long time it losses easy its information if not stored properly and even if so you will still have a cosiderable quality detoration

as for roling the tape out and move the head instaed of the tape that can be done and interpetate by computers and fixit in a way by the software i think thats also possible

still i think it's comercialy a born dead idea

Robert-Jan

Super_voip

if you check for forensic tape, you would probably find such a system. You also forgot the depth encoding used in HiFi VHS systems.

The Mad Professor

Hard drive data recovery uses a magnetic force microscope and this would be one approach but it's damm expensive.

Besides, media transfer services are far more profitable..

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