Posted by: "{ brad brace }"
>
> Thanks Phil! great info!
> In a quest for even longer continuous recordings, I'm about
> to buy the MZ -- (seems odd that Macs, apparently,
> can't upload legacy recordings to computer.)
I have no problem with digital transfer from my Portadisc.
As far as best deals, mine have come off Ebay. I've a supply of high end
HHb 80 minute discs that is enough for several lifetimes, (at least my
lifetime) and most came from one bulk buy off ebay.
> Is it accurate to say that digital copies of MD recordings
> do degrade with each copy? The meagre 30-year max shelf-life
> of MDs will be an issue...
They are a lot more durable than that. Well over 50 years is what Sony
used to report from their tests. Do not confuse them with recordable
CD's & DVD's which are not near as trustworthy. The only thing with
longer life and durability is 3.5" optical disks (which I also use for
archiving)
My MD's form the first leg of my archive, I record on new disks, don't
edit on disk, and after copying to the mac they go into archive storage.
The computer copy is archived to 3.5" optical disks and to audio CD. The
last mostly for convenience. None of my MD's or 3.5" optical disks have
ever failed and I've been using MD for a long time and the 3.5" optical
disks even longer.
Yes, if you re-record MD to MD with new encoding you will loose a little
and with enough rounds of copying enough to be a problem. Use your MD as
your original and take it into your computer and store in standard audio
formats beyond that. If you want a MD off those, or a mp3 off them,
consider that a dead end and go back to the standard audio files for
future copies. If you loose all your computer copies you go back to your
original recording on MD to get another copy, but in reality that's not
likely to happen if you manage your archiving properly.
Walt
|