Of course, you can copy aging videotapes on to new tapes, but each time you do, there is a significant loss of quality. By the third or fourth generation, the copy quality is so degraded it is virtually useless.
The solution is to copy these works onto a digital medium. While this still creates some loss in the initial transfer, they can be returned to video without any further degradation.
Even digital mediums like CDs and DVDs have a limited lifetime. But the good news is that aging CDs and DVDs can be copied to new disks with no loss of quality - the copy is exactly as the original was.
The Historical Video Archive Project intends to capture these works before they vanish and re-record them on digital medium. They will initially be captured in MPG files and written to CD. Then, when the technology for DVD writers stabilizes a bit, they will be moved to DVD format.
We currently have a list of over 700 videos, but we know there are a great many more videos in existence. Over 300 videos have been submitted and are in the queue to be captured. Here is a list of them (updated on 4/15/2001) so you can see if your video is already included.
We are looking for the following types of Middle Eastern, Belly Dance, East Indian, African, Hula, Flamenco and related dance videos to include in the archive:
- Instructional tapes
- Performance tapes - professional, seminar show, and candid
- Seminar tapes
- Field recorded performances
- Perhaps others as well...
If you are interested in submitting your video to be recorded, you will receive a copy of it on CD in return. Please keep in mind this is a time consuming process and we are just getting started, so the turnaround time will be a bit long. Please be assured that the digital copy of your tape will be used for inclusion in the archive only and will not be made available to anyone except you without your permission... you may specify how your tape is to be used.
In addition, we will be buying new and used videos as finances allow. For quality and copyright reasons, we are interested in originals, not copies, unless the copy is the only existing record.
For more information about the Historical Video Archive Project, to add videos to the known list, or details of how to submit your video, contact me at:
URL: http://www.ZillTech.com