Old dv tapes. What should I do?

P

Pop

Active member
Hi
I have a lot of dv tapes (recorded with DVX100 and xha1s), perhaps more than 200.
All these tapes are in a cabinet (in my office). No light, no dust, no magnetic field.
But some of these tapes have been there, never used, for years (since 2003).
I am afraid that one day I need some footage but It is unreadable.
How long a tape can "live"?
Is it better to save all the footage on a raid system as soon as possible??
Any other advice??
thank you so much
 
Properly stored, tapes can last a couple decades. Make sure that they're stored upright (i.e. not laying flat) and that they've been played through to the end and not fast-forwarded or rewound.

However, it's probably not a bad idea to start ingesting and organizing now, not as much out of concern for the tapes, but out of concern of accessibility. It will be much quicker to access later on, and you won't have to worry about having a functioning deck/camera or a FireWire connection. Just be sure to copy everything to a second drive, and store the duplicate drive in a separate geographic location.
 
what kind of external HD do you prefer?
seagate goflex DESK?
other brand\models?

what about a docking station + internal drive?


thank you
 
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