21-09-2018, 05:24 PM
Forgive me for asking what may seem a rather silly question: it is intended, nonetheless, to be helpful. Are you clear that the requirement is actually to recover the material rather than merely view it?
I was asked to assist in what sounds like a similar exercise about 25 years ago. The source material was on a number of reels of 1/2" Sony tape, about which nothing was known except that they were believed to be CV-2000 format, and dating from some time prior to 1970. Fortunately a machine was available, although this turned out to be in need of new heads (low-band U-matic heads can be made to work, just out of interest). The client requirement was said to be "please dub to DVD". From memory there was about 20 hours worth of material.
Once replay had been achieved, examination of the vertical interval suggested that the material was 405, which was confirmed by measuring the line period. Obviously, this gives rise to the issue you were enquiring about.
Discreet enquiries revealed that the ultimate client wanted to examine the material as possible evidence in litigation which was then at the "we're thinking about putting a case together" stage. They were persuaded that it was actually much easier for them to view the replay of the tapes, which they did over a number of days at the premises of the people I had been asked to advise. Even this sounds easier than it was, as the tapes had not been sympathetically stored and were starting to shed oxide. Viewing was therefore often interrupted by the need to clear a video head clog.
That was as far as the project went: having viewed the material, the ultimate client decided that it did not show what they had been led to believe it might, and, indeed, did not support the case they were trying to make. They went away very happy, and were happier still when given the bill, which, clearly, was much smaller than it might otherwise have been.
I was asked to assist in what sounds like a similar exercise about 25 years ago. The source material was on a number of reels of 1/2" Sony tape, about which nothing was known except that they were believed to be CV-2000 format, and dating from some time prior to 1970. Fortunately a machine was available, although this turned out to be in need of new heads (low-band U-matic heads can be made to work, just out of interest). The client requirement was said to be "please dub to DVD". From memory there was about 20 hours worth of material.
Once replay had been achieved, examination of the vertical interval suggested that the material was 405, which was confirmed by measuring the line period. Obviously, this gives rise to the issue you were enquiring about.
Discreet enquiries revealed that the ultimate client wanted to examine the material as possible evidence in litigation which was then at the "we're thinking about putting a case together" stage. They were persuaded that it was actually much easier for them to view the replay of the tapes, which they did over a number of days at the premises of the people I had been asked to advise. Even this sounds easier than it was, as the tapes had not been sympathetically stored and were starting to shed oxide. Viewing was therefore often interrupted by the need to clear a video head clog.
That was as far as the project went: having viewed the material, the ultimate client decided that it did not show what they had been led to believe it might, and, indeed, did not support the case they were trying to make. They went away very happy, and were happier still when given the bill, which, clearly, was much smaller than it might otherwise have been.
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.
John Ruskin
John Ruskin
