"For the video data, Adrian started to frame-grab images from the videodiscs using an RGB frame grabber [15] card in a PC, and a custom cable to connect to the RGB output of the videodisc player. This approach has been used in other resurrection projects, but it takes a lot of time to download thousands of images, and it does not give the highest quality for a number of reasons - some to do with the nature of PAL television and some with the inherent problems of videodisc. After Adrian had grabbed a sample of images sufficient to test out his new system, he agreed to use images derived from the original videotapes that Andy Finney was tracking down. The earliest copies of the tapes turned up in Peter Armstrong's loft....
The rescue project came just in time. A working original system to compare with and validate the migrated system is invaluable, especially in multimedia migration where the look-and-feel and user interaction is important. Some original systems and hardware components were still available and could be made to work, but the systems were fragile. Wear between the videodisc drive spindle and the disc has caused the loading of the disc to be a delicate operation on most systems....
The timescale was unknown at the outset, and it eventually took sixteen months to produce the new Windows version.
The lesson of this digital preservation project is that if you have enough time, individual skill, dedication and imagination then almost anything is possible, provided that you don't leave it too late. If you start counting the cost this may seem an expensive project, but then the value of the record is high too - and that applies equally to the original Domesday Project. There is of course a great need to preserve other electronic records in a routine and predictable manner, and this rescue project is not a suitable model to be followed in such cases." [Ariadne, via Resourceshelf]
Interesting article on how some dedicated folks saved the Domesday Project data. Relying on finding early copies in someone's loft is definitely NOT a best practice. Then sixteen months for just one operating system (Windows). And just imagine how impossible this would have been if any BigPub Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions had been involved.
There's a forest of a lesson in those trees that the media companies will completely ignore.
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Thursday, July 31, 2003
