[QuadList] Non-Contact Extraction of the Program from Quad Tape

[allanmc-avtech at comcast.net]

Quad List Folks, 



I've been watching this exchange with a lot of interest and want to throw an idea against the wall and see says it is dumb and who will agree with me and run with the ball.   As much as all of us love everything about the technology of 2" quad tapes I think there is a serious flaw built into any plan to build a NEW VTR that plays the tape in the same old conventional manner.   That flaw is the inherent weakness of the tape media itself and its subsequent degradation.   Every tape that we will attempt to playback in the conventional manner will be of advanced age and much of it will be the result of improper storage and handling.  Before you write me off as nutty, let me confess that like you every one of my senses is fed by playing a quad tape.   Everything about it, including the sound of the head tips digging into the tape, the singing of the headwheel at 440, and the whirl of the capstan only adds to the physical feel of the tape in our hands as we load it.   Additionally, even the smell of the tape itself is all part of our memory experience in loving that media and the technology required to play it.   All that said to prove I really do love the tape!   However, it is the tape that is our weakness.  I'm certain new technology and smart engineering can improve the transport and also the signal and servo systems.... but the limiting factor remains the degrading tape!    So, here is my thought I'd like to project for discussion.  What about putting time & energy into a new methodology of extracting the program information from the failing media without contacting the tape with head tips that are required to gouge it?   I'm suggesting non-contact playback!  Its being done for other media such as phono records and we are all familiar with the development of magnetic tracks for editing.   At the Library of Congress, the new National Audio Visual Conservation Center at Culpeper, which I just retired from, was just commencing with the early exploration of non-contact extraction of the program media on 2" quad tape.  



- What do you think? 



- What are the challenges to be overcome? 



- Has anyone else already begun work attempting this?   



Perhaps, Steve Nease, the Chief Technology Officer, still at the NAVCC can bring this group up to speed on the status of the Library's effort to develop a non-contact playback method. 



Believe me, guys, I would love nothing better than to get a 2" VTR humming singing along.   That would be music to all my senses.  But, honestly.... is that the best approach with old tape media that is failing and which will never be as good as it used to be?  Even with a NEW VTR, that's about as good as we can ever hope for under ideal conditions.   But, couldn't we do better.... with a NEW non-contact method that potentially would recover everything originally recorded into a recovered and restored state?   



Just musing........because I think the goal must be to extract the program information more than it is to just play the tape again in the same way we used to do it.  



Allan  McConnell   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://quadvideotapegroup.com/pipermail/quadlist_quadvideotapegroup.com/attachments/20090216/e59bef41/attachment-0004.html>