Digitalisation

[oracleslave]

Do any of you folk have experience with the digitalisation process. Not sure of that is the right word but what I want to do is this.

- I have a large amount of content archived/stored on tape.
- I want to get this content off tape digitalise it and the archive it on some more friendly storage medium
- Lastly I want to make this content available via the web for purchase using something like oracle's universal content manager.

Anyone got any experience in doing this? Any pointers on how to extract the data from tape given that some of it is really old? Any software that can help with the digitalisation process?

OS in clueless mode!

[NickFitz]

Do any of you folk have experience with the digitalisation process. Not sure of that is the right word but what I want to do is this.

- I have a large amount of content archived/stored on tape.
- I want to get this content off tape digitalise it and the archive it on some more friendly storage medium
- Lastly I want to make this content available via the web for purchase using something like oracle's universal content manager.

Anyone got any experience in doing this? Any pointers on how to extract the data from tape given that some of it is really old? Any software that can help with the digitalisation process?

OS in clueless mode!

What sort of tape - cassette, or reel-to-reel?

There are USB cassette decks on the market.

Alternatively, the Griffin iMic lets you connect any audio source up via USB.

Audacity is a free cross-platform open-source application for digitising, cleaning-up and editing audio.

Given your user name, I'll leave the Oracle bit to you

[oracleslave]

What sort of tape - cassette, or reel-to-reel?

There are USB cassette decks on the market.

Alternatively, the Griffin iMic lets you connect any audio source up via USB.

Audacity is a free cross-platform open-source application for digitising, cleaning-up and editing audio.

Given your user name, I'll leave the Oracle bit to you

Thanks Nick.

I haven't actually seen the tapes as yet but given the timeframes they are talking about I suspect they will span a few types.

One other thing I explained poorly was that the media was mostly video/tv programmes.

[NickFitz]

Thanks Nick.

I haven't actually seen the tapes as yet but given the timeframes they are talking about I suspect they will span a few types.

One other thing I explained poorly was that the media was mostly video/tv programmes.

Hmm... for video, finding some way of hooking a suitable player up to a DVD recorder would be the best start. After that, I only know Mac stuff (DVDxDVPro -> iMovie) - sorry

[oracleslave]

There's a thingy available in PCWORLD <spit> and elsewhere that records video direct to a usb drive. (No pc required)

It's about £99.

Dunno what the quality is like though.

The video has already been recorded and backed up to tape. Some of it is older than the oldest posters on this board.

[RSoles]

I've used one of these:-


http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...avigationKey=0

to digitize old camcorder videos and some VHS.
Needs the original player of course, then accepts and digitizes the video and audio.

Acceptable results for home videos.
RS

[PAH]

The video has already been recorded and backed up to tape. Some of it is older than the oldest posters on this board.

First step is getting something to play it back so you can then move onto connecting it to a digitizer, depending on the type of connections available.

Sounds like a very time consuming process, where you'll hook up the tape player (VHS, reel-to-reel, or whatever) and have to play each tape into a video capture device that does the digitization and stores it onto a hard drive.

[oracleslave]

This...

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...&category_oid=

Thanks. That looks like it would work for private use. I am looking for something more commercial I think. Think large European broadcaster with huge film/media libraries...