[PRCo] Re: Steel and Snow

[Derrick J Brashear]

For the people reading this on pittsburgh-railways, it's off-topic, and I
apologize; I'm only sending it so you can see the answer to the question
asked.

On Fri, 18 Jan 2002, Fred W. Schneider III wrote:

> Now with all this in mind, and with the idea that my VCR table library
> is going to soon be out of date and possibly not even usable,
> 
>      1.  What are you doing to convert your output to digital disc
>          format?  Will the digital discs last longer than VCR tapes
>          and is the quality really any higher when made from 8mm
>          home movies?  What do you view as the reasons for and
>          against? 

DVDs can be done on a one-off basis now for about $5 per DVD with a $750
box from Panasonic; If you're willing to use Windows (I'm not) it can be
done with Windows software and a $400 DVD-R drive. This assumes some sort
of video exists already. If you have film you need a telecine, and I
haven't priced those. Maybe I should. It's a special projector which just
projects directly to a CCD, the basis of many digital cameras.

I don't know what the resolution of film effectively is, not what options
are for "sampling" it to digital form directly. DTV refers to a
family of standards, some progressive scan (lines drawn sequentially,
whole frame at a time) and some interlaced (even lines drawn, then odd,
then even, and so on, so half a frame is updated at a time). 

HDTV uses a 16:9 aspect ratio instead of a 4:3, and the DTV resolutions
which correspond to it as 1080i and 720p (that's 1080 lines, 1920
horizontal pixels interlaced, and 720 lines, 1280 horizontal pixels
progressive, respectively); Some network programming is already available
in high definition format, but ABC and FOX use 720p while CBS, NBC and PBS
use 1080i.

For comparison standard NTSC (what you have now) is 480 lines, 640
horizontal pixels, interlaced. VHS uses 240 lines of resolution, SVHS is
about 400 lines 

As to longevity, it's like a CD. Don't scratch it. "Pressed" DVDs will be
better than "burned" but in 5 years you'll have equipment to easily
duplicate it and the media will last longer; I'd expect 10 years from a
recordable DVD. It doesn't degrade just from being played like VHS.

-D