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I still find DVDs pretty versatile. I do a lot of data archiving and my burnt CDs from the 90s are still going strong. I have gone thru a lot of hard disks and flash drives since then.
Data storage is a subject by itself. Reasonably kept VHS tapes keep for far longer than many CDs and DVDs. The tighter data is packed, the more obtuse the storage scheme, the greater the potential for catastrophic loss.
The problem with changing technology and replacement is probably on the same path as Moore's Law. The day may come when a phone is good for a week and then has to be tossed. OTOH, the illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment may last another thousand years, long after their digital copies have turned to electrons and plastic. Babylonian mud block printing may outlast everything.
I've learned to by duplicates of some items that I suspect may have a short consumer life. Sometimes that works, sometimes not. I still miss the little radio shack call logger for my landline phone which recorded the numbers and length of call on every call- incoming AND outgoing. It made billing and disputes so much easier. C'est la vie.
Data storage is how our family makes its money, and while it's not a perfect system, I have more trust in a data storage company that continually checks and rechecks the integrity of stored data than a box of old DVDs in a box in the basement.
Last edited by randomparent; 04-03-2015 at 01:54 PM..
Several years ago I found I had other 200 music CDs and a few dozen DVDs. I ripped all of the music and ended up with only about 40 gigs. No more CDs or DVDs for me.
Data storage is how our family makes its money, and while it's not a perfect system, I have more trust in a data storage company that continually checks and rechecks the integrity of stored data than a box of old DVDs in a box in the basement.
Well, long story short, conceptually, it is the DVD's up by the TV and the box of VHS that it is derived from that's down in the basement.......and I have more trust in the DVD's than in a data storage company.
Ie, perhaps a classical example: Flash Gordon where in newer versions, they determined that Dale's acrobatics with the guard did not merit the story telling, so they cut it out. I want to see what I saw in the theatre, not what someone determines is and is not necessary to tell the story.......though that is not necessarily an economic point.
Macht Nichts. If you want to scan every single one your CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes for corruption weekly, if not daily, rather than depend on a data storage company, it's no skin off my nose. We use Spider Oak for our personal storage needs. We hold an encryption key, and we can store anything we wish: video, digital photographs, financial records, etc. It's our back-up storage in addition to what's on our personal computers and a separate three terabyte hard drive we keep in our home. One local and one remote is our rule, because we value our information, too.
Last edited by randomparent; 04-05-2015 at 09:18 AM..
Macht Nichts. If you want to scan every single one your CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes for corruption weekly, if not daily, rather than depend on a data storage company, it's no skin off my nose. We use Spider Oak for our personal storage needs. We hold an encryption key, and we can store anything we wish: video, digital photographs, financial records, etc. It's our back-up storage in addition to what's on our personal computers and a separate three terabyte hard drive we keep in our home. One local and one remote is our rule, because we value our information, too.
I've read a number of your posts. And I don't mean this to sound harsh, but you are a hoarder. You're doing everything in your power to justify purchasing more of something you already have a thousand of, and it's a dying technology. You fought like heck about your magazines last year.
I'm married to a hoarder. On the five stage class of hoarders, he's on the low end, but he's still got hoarder tendencies.
He sells stuff on ebay, and yay for that, but he buys way more inventory than he sells -- he could sell for a year and not be done. Add to that we work as janitors and you can't imagine what people toss out. He can't help himself. If not for me, this house would be filled with "merchandise". But I need a place to quilt - which takes space, and I need order for my peace of mind, so he manages to keep his hoard in some control. And he's really trying to toss things that don't sell -- thank God for Half Price Books. We hand over tons of books and magazines and videos.... and get a slip of paper to cash out. Then they can put that stuff to it's best use. That place has been a godsend...
I don't nag, by the way. We live in this house together, and after my mother died I cared about little for a very long time.... and the house got totally out of control. And when I finally pulled out of the grief, even he wasn't happy with the house.
I don't know why he does it -- I don't know why you do it -- but I know it when I see it.
I've read a number of your posts. And I don't mean this to sound harsh, but you are a hoarder. You're doing everything in your power to justify purchasing more of something you already have a thousand of, and it's a dying technology. You fought like heck about your magazines last year.
I'm married to a hoarder. On the five stage class of hoarders, he's on the low end, but he's still got hoarder tendencies.
He sells stuff on ebay, and yay for that, but he buys way more inventory than he sells -- he could sell for a year and not be done. Add to that we work as janitors and you can't imagine what people toss out. He can't help himself. If not for me, this house would be filled with "merchandise". But I need a place to quilt - which takes space, and I need order for my peace of mind, so he manages to keep his hoard in some control. And he's really trying to toss things that don't sell -- thank God for Half Price Books. We hand over tons of books and magazines and videos.... and get a slip of paper to cash out. Then they can put that stuff to it's best use. That place has been a godsend...
I don't nag, by the way. We live in this house together, and after my mother died I cared about little for a very long time.... and the house got totally out of control. And when I finally pulled out of the grief, even he wasn't happy with the house.
I don't know why he does it -- I don't know why you do it -- but I know it when I see it.
Point noted, but this is about economics, not psychology.
For a dying technology, it seems to still have many years left in it. After all, the shelf of CD and DVD spindles at Office Depot is rather a big one, people are still selling them at around $.40 a disk, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon.
BUT, on the other hand, as I originally posted, I've seen things that were plentiful yesterday suddenly be gone today, hence this topic.
Focusing on the data media consumables for a moment, is it hoarding? I think not. Why not? Because of the CDs, VHS, and DVDs, only the last one is on the buying list. The other two are not.
The CDs aren't because they got bypassed when hard drive prices came down. Can't recall the last time I bought a spindle. The VHS aren't because those prices when UP, the application where they were used essentially disappeared (TV truly became garbage and unwatchable), and DVDs became a very cheap alternative both in price and space. The VHS left in inventory were sufficient to do what DVDs can't.
Now, on a side note, eventually for me, the VHS to DVD conversions will come to an end and at that point, the 7 or 8 machines I have for that will have lost their usefulness. Shrug, things happen, but what that really means now, equations wise, is that there are sufficient machines to do the job and I don't need to get more machines.
Is that hoarding? Well, the above two paragraphs rather just said otherwise.
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