[HN Gopher] Backer: Storing data on VHS tapes (2003)
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Backer: Storing data on VHS tapes (2003)
Author : mmastrac
Score : 17 points
Date : 2022-03-27 19:56 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (linbacker.sourceforge.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (linbacker.sourceforge.net)
| rasz wrote:
| Significantly worse than https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArVid
| agumonkey wrote:
| > An E-180 video tape is able to hold 2 GB of uncompressed data
| at the lower rat. Similarly, this means that an E240 4-hour
| tape, using the higher data rate, would be capable of storing
| between 4.35 and 4.46 GB (230 bytes), approximately equivalent
| to a standard single-layer recordable DVD.
|
| Quite funny to see a comparison. If I had a pc vhs tape player
| I'd have fun doing large backups long before DVD-R[w]
| abruzzi wrote:
| I don't know anything about its data encoding, but Alesis had a
| system--ADAT--that stored 8 trackes of 24bit, 48khz audio on SVHS
| tapes. There was a period of time in which it was a pretty
| revolutionary product. It preceeded the time when storing lots of
| digital audio on your local computer was practical (1991/1992).
| iso1210 wrote:
| I remember seeing the original proprietary one with amazing
| claims of multiple gigabytes on a standard blank VHS cassette,
| this was in the days of 1.44M floppies, 28k modems, and maybe if
| you were on the cutting edge a 56k modem and 100M zip drive.
|
| I never got one, and they clearly didn't sell well as they'd
| vanished in a couple of years. They were advertised in computer
| magazines and my local Tandy had them in store.
|
| It always annoys me, even now, that tape backup capacities are
| quoted as the "compressed" volume. Tell me the uncompressed, I
| know roughly how much my data will compress by (text, sure lots.
| Already-compressed video? Forget it). Got very irate with vendors
| when I last looked at LTO tapes around the LTFS/LTO5 time.
| neilv wrote:
| Yeah, IIRC, in the '80s, one product was a device for
| microcomputer backup on VHS tapes that looked pretty much like
| a normal consumer VCR. (It might've had a brand name beginning
| with "V" emblazoned across the frontload tape door, I don't
| really recall.)
|
| This might've been roughly around the time that the Iomega
| Bernoulli Box was being sold, but I assume it had died before
| before the popular Zip and then Jaz drives. (And of course
| there were always numerous flavors of tape cartridge systems,
| and maybe a few of those popular on consumer/office
| microcomputers.)
| ajp11 wrote:
| I think I still have an ISA bus Backer card in a box somewhere.
|
| I got it second-hand for not much money and was pleased to have
| it. At the time, it was the only practical way for me to back up
| my 500MB harddrive.
|
| My vague recollection is that the software that was supplied with
| it, for windows 3.11, could store about 500MB on a three hour VHS
| tape.
|
| I tried various settings in the software and reading a tape
| holding files of mostly under 1MB in size always gave a checksum
| error on two or three files.
|
| A different VCR might have worked better.
|
| I would let a backup run for three hours, wait another three
| hours to play back the tape then copy the few files that could
| not be read to a floppy disk and keep it with the video cassette.
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