Date:         Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:17:59 -0400
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Storing Mini-Discs
Comments: To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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MD's got a big strike against it: the proprietary perceptual encoding. So
only MD equipment can read and decode it. How many MD players have been
built and sold and how many will be around in 50 years, and of those, how
many will work?

Newest version of MD will record WAV files, which is a Good Thing but I
think the data pack is tighter. I'd never archive to a format that needs
both hardware and decoding software to play it and is obscure enough that
the players are far from ubiquitous in their heyday.

One man's opinion, YMMV, etc.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Storing Mini-Discs


Richard, I can't speak to the future players, but a radio friend of
mine thinks that MDs are MORE archival as they have magneto-optical
recording and may last longer than the only-chemical CDs. He took the
time and trouble to transfer 20 years of weekly programs to MD for the
permanent archive on this theory.

Do you think he might be wrong? Discounting the availability of
players, for the sake of discussion. You are probably right about that
the way things are going with the players though nothing is gospel any
more.

Thanks for your opinion!

Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689

On Oct 13, 2005, at 1:59 PM, Richard L. Hess wrote:

> Digitally transfer them to two CD-Rs and store the CD-Rs. Or better
> yet, if you have a managed digital archive that can accept them, store
> them in that.
>
> I don't think many of us think that MDs are archival. I wouldn't worry
> about an archival box for a medium that probably isn't archival. I
> don't think we can expect the long-term availability of MD players as
> compared to CD players.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Richard=