21–28 of 28 posts
Also, the market for good digitizing hardware is drying up too.
The moral, hurry up and digitize now before the equipment use for this purpose drys up.
People who have VHS should digitize. There is a lot on Youtube but for how long... Old films/series are lost and will be lost forever that way. It's not even actually only VHS: some things never made VHS and is rotting on tapes in dark vaults under tv studios. Possible already damaged beyond repair. Stuff like 'secret valley' (AU tv series) is unfindable. Xenon (Flemisch scifi) is only in the BRT vaults; I mailed the…
I imagine in many cases the cost (and opportunity cost) of just thinking about it isn't worth what studios and other holders believe they'll make from the effort.
For me, a huge justification for piracy: archives. If the content license holders won't do it then someone has to preserve this stuff before it disappears. I've never understood why a content creator would not digitize their archives and then offer it through streaming somehow. After a while it would seem the eventual revenue might offset the cost of the archiving. Free backup. Imagine if one of the older studios sud…
Not just you, but also the US supreme court. If you already own a copy of that movie on any format it's legal to have 1 digital backup and you can acquire that backup by downloading it. Where most people get in trouble is by re-uploading it. If you do that, you're distributing something you have no right to distribute. And the most successful aspect of bittorrent is how efficiently it turns you into a distributer.
For me, a huge justification for piracy: archives. If the content license holders won't do it then someone has to preserve this stuff before it disappears. I've never understood why a content creator would not digitize their archives and then offer it through streaming somehow. After a while it would seem the eventual revenue might offset the cost of the archiving. Free backup. Imagine if one of the older studios sud…
For me, a huge justification for piracy: archives. Not just you, but also the US supreme court. If you already own a copy of that movie on any format it's legal to have 1 digital backup and you can acquire that backup by downloading it. Where most people get in trouble is by re-uploading it. If you do that, you're distributing something you have no right to distribute. And the most successful aspect of bittorrent is…
I'm speaking more of the topic of the article. If the content holder has decided to no longer make content they control available to the masses then it is almost a moral obligation for someone to digitize that content for uploading to the Internet so that is not lost. How much content have we already lost that should be in the public domain but no one has the content any longer to digitize?
But I'm not talking just movies and tv shows. This could easily cover other mundane topics of life such as sporting events, interviews, documentaries, newscasts and so on.
This is the time that someone in the future, say 100 years, could have a near perfect record of what's going on today with the sheer amount of data we are producing on a daily basis. Not just video content but emails, texting, forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc. If only we could keep copies of content somewhere convenient so that people can get to them whenever they wish.
Now, be clear, I'm not saying that this content should be freely available the moment it is completed. The creator should have the right to recoup their costs plus make profit. Especially since profit might be required for the creator to create more. But we should have saner copyright laws in place so that it doesn't take near 100 years for something to become public domain. That kind of nonsense guarantees that something we feel is not important today may be lost and missed later. The missing early episodes of Dr. Who that keeps getting mentioned is an excellent example.
People who have VHS should digitize. There is a lot on Youtube but for how long... Old films/series are lost and will be lost forever that way. It's not even actually only VHS: some things never made VHS and is rotting on tapes in dark vaults under tv studios. Possible already damaged beyond repair. Stuff like 'secret valley' (AU tv series) is unfindable. Xenon (Flemisch scifi) is only in the BRT vaults; I mailed the…
I have TONS of VHS tapes that I have been slowly digitizing over the pass 25 years. The issue I have ran up against is it is harder and harder to get VHS players. New models are almost non-existent so you have to troll Craigslist or eBay for used equipment. Also, the market for good digitizing hardware is drying up too. The moral, hurry up and digitize now before the equipment use for this purpose drys up.
Unfortunately, the tapes have some age/wear issues. And the fancy-schmancy Sony DVD/VHS combo recorder/player I was given promptly turns these -- which play well enough directly to the TV -- into extreme pixelation.
So, any equipment/procedure recommendations would be greatly appreciated.