Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!gatech!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!ddl
From: ddl@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Don Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs
Subject: Re: How reliable is video tape and DAT tape (for data storage)
Message-ID: <12685@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 10 Mar 88 16:58:04 GMT
References: <JW.GNUS6@sics.se>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Reply-To: ddl@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Don Lewis)
Organization: UF CIS Department
Lines: 16
Summary: Suspect it's just badmouthing

As far as using VCR's to backup, I can't speak from personal experience,
but I did work in the television industry for a number of years, and
tapes were commonly used more than ten times.  Often, though, after three
or four passes (of recording, playback is pretty much irrelevant), the
possibility of drop-out occurring was probably greater than 50%.  Still,
considering the cheap price of tape ($5 U.S. will get you a pretty decent
tape), this is still not a bad deal.  I'd be interested in hearing what
everyone else has to say about this.  

As for the DAT's, I'm not sure what technology they're using to record and
play with, so I don't know what the wear factor would be.

-Don Lewis
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida  32611
(904) 395-8812