7 Reasons Your Next Camcorder Should Be DV (page 2)

5. Archival Storage

DV is the only consumer format that allows you to clone your videotapes, a necessity if you want to preserve your work for future generations. Anything recorded to magnetic tape is subject to deterioration over time. This is true with both digital and analog recordings. Tape stretch and print-through degrade both the image and sound quality of analog tapes and will eventually cause bit errors on digital recordings. Because DV uses several layers of error correction, however, the tapes are much more stable over time than their analog cousins.

Even more of a threat than tape stretch and print-through is the phenomena known as "Sticky Shed Syndrome." Over time (10 to 20 years or more) the glue that holds the magnetic particles to the polyester base of the tape breaks down and the tape surface becomes coated with an adhesive that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to play. In some cases the magnetic material will peel or fall-off the base, leaving a clear tape and a useless pile of magnetic dust.

With analog tape you have a major problem, because every time you copy one tape to new media, you inflict a generational loss in quality. Because you can make literal clones of your digital footage, you can greatly reduce the chance of unrecoverable data…