The 50 year Time Capsule Project

egproductions

egproductions

Veteran
Looking to help a client preserve a video time capsule to preserve for 50 years. If it were just 25 years i would stick with H264. It will likely be very inefficient by 2044 standards but i gotta imagine it wont be that much of a challenge to decode. Is h264 still my best bet for 50 years?

The bigger question beyond codec is going to be archival medium. Are there any archival quality cold storage hard drives? Tape is usually the medium of choice but i’m afraid of the software needed to read the tape. The cloud?!

I’m also worried about connection standards. Sata, usb, etc. what will be easiest to dust off and revive in 50 years?

Should i just be covering all my bases and throwing the kitchen sink at the problem...backing it up on every medoum i can think of?

Also something to consider is best practices so that the client is reminded to open the time capsule in 50 years. Outlook reminder? (Jk)
 
If the $$$ is there, I would be backing everything up on everything I could.

Also would plan/discuss a back-up plan (multiple parties involved) as life is unexpected.
 
How much would it cost to transfer to film?

Will be interesting to see what happens to video playback in 50years.
 
egproductions said:
Looking to help a client preserve a video time capsule to preserve for 50 years. If it were just 25 years i would stick with H264. It will likely be very inefficient by 2044 standards but i gotta imagine it wont be that much of a challenge to decode. Is h264 still my best bet for 50 years?
Click to expand...
I would encode the result using different codecs.

Make at least two copies on an M Disk and advice the client two store them at different locations.

https://www.amazon.com/Archival-Ver...argid=aud-801381245258:pla-469920438204&psc=1
 
Wow, 50 years?! Will planet Earth even be around?

For shooting, I would go with raw of some variety, in the highest resolution possible. Archive to anything and everything, including LTO tape, HDD, SSD, cloud, etc. Multiple locations, with multiple people aware of how to retrieve the backups.

Good luck!
 
Just theow a script in there, and then shoot it again in 50years. ;)

There are some archive quality discs. Choose a codec that is popular, like H.265, as well as a codec that hollywood might keep alive for archival purposes.

I’d go with something like film if you can.

Archiving for 50+ years sounds pretty cool. Did you ever read about the Miss Belvedere?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Belvedere
 
I would include the player with it. If you use a DVD, put in a cheapo DVD player with its own screen. If you choose solid state, load it on an old iPod touch or an outdated cell phone. Or both.

Or upload it to the web to whatever archive site you think will still be around 50 years from now, and print the web address on a sheet of paper and leave that in the capsule...
 
Cary Knoop said:
I don't think SD video is going to impress anyone 50 years from now.
If you want to record for the future use 4K and preferably HDR.

SD DVD's are practically museum items.
Click to expand...


So I look at this very differently. This isn't a question of what format is going to look the best in 50 years. No matter what format is used, even if shooting on film, in 50 years, undoubtly the quality is going to significantly improve. You wouldn't watch something that was filmed in 1970 and start picking apart the quality by today's standards, you would be reviewing it on other factors (lighting, direction, etc.) In addition, this specific project is more about the messages into the future that really show what life and people were like in 2020. With that in mind, I am going to be having everyone filming on their smartphones.
 
While the cleanest, I think multiple formats is probably the best idea. Including a player, reader, instructions, adapters, etc. if space allows. The Time capsule itself needs to be kept on display and visable so that it is never forgotten about. I'm reminded of the scene in back to the future II where marty is handed a letter from the doc, devliered by western union after 70 years given with the explicit instruction to be delivered to Marty mcfly. I wonder if such a service exists...or if you can dupe a system postal service, bank etc. into delivering a message or setting a reminder into the future. I say bank because if money collection is involved...financial institutions tend not to forget.
 
egproductions said:
No matter what format is used, even if shooting on film, in 50 years, undoubtly the quality is going to significantly improve.
Click to expand...

The idea of using film transfer, is that film will always be viewable. So, if quality doesn’t matter, then i know 8mm amd 16mm transfers are affordable. So, in addition some digital format, include a film one, since it is actually an image, and not 1’s and 0’s.

The less fun option, is to task people to update the formats after 25yrs, if needed. Haha.

Digital formats should be ok, but if you want to be sure of viewability, then film will be the most reliable option.

Anyway, sounds like fun!
 
The Superman Crystals are actually a reality but I am not sure it's on the market yet.

And you'd have to systematically rerecord all your files just to keep up with the advancements in the storage technology. Let's figure that a popular format lasts 15 years or so until it's superseded. VHS tape, to take an example, was widely available for about thirty years but that was the most dominant format for twenty of those too.
 
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