Challenge: Tape Tech Dominates

The challenge is to have tape formats dominate. Instead CD's, cassette dominates, or at least remains competitive, and perhaps even floppy disc in computer tech. Instead of DVD and Blu Ray, VHS and D-VHS* are top dog. And so on.

*D-VHS was VHS' last hurrah. It was in HD 1080p or whatever that is...but on tape.
 
If the development of lasers is stalled that would help tape - but then again, there's plenty of other applications of lasers aside from DVDs/Blu-ray & CDs...
 
Well, they did for a while after all. But ultimately they have too many disadvantages over laser read systems or all-solid state systems (delay long enough and you might skip to dedicated flash drives being used instead of DVDs, for instance) to dominate forever. You can make them last a bit longer, maybe, but they're not going to last forever.
 
Well, they did for a while after all. But ultimately they have too many disadvantages over laser read systems or all-solid state systems (delay long enough and you might skip to dedicated flash drives being used instead of DVDs, for instance) to dominate forever. You can make them last a bit longer, maybe, but they're not going to last forever.


Well the biggest thing I can think of now is the digitalism of the modern age; storing small, and portable, and transferable data. Maybe if the internet is non-existent, or computer technology is retarded, it could lead to this. Or, if there were a division between the digital and analog. As you mentioned skipping DVD and all to straight information, maybe that could occur, with the digital being purely information and files, and the analog source therefore not needing to be digital at all. I mean, a CD still requires conversion to be able to have its files put on an iPod; maybe it's not unreasonable to think that there could be attachments on computers in this alternate reality like those, but to convert tape medium to digital files.

I think, on a side note, it might be easier to keep VHS than anything else. That format lasted forever, and if D-VHS comes out much earlier, it could keep DVD out of vogue. VHS is also somewhat more versatile than DVD, in that VHS recorders unlike DVD players let you record. A lot of people still to this day don't have DVR's or Tivo, and lament that you can't record TV on DVD. The media companies must have really gotten their sh*t together to make sure DVD recorders weren't out there a lot in the US. Sources seem to say its because Americans use DVRs and all now and that's the reason you don't see DVD Recording players, and I'll flat out say that's bullsh*t because I can't count the number of people who wish they could just burn a DVD like they could record a tape from TV. I swear it's the companies that were angry over VHS winning against them and it being legal to record on them, and that they got together and decided to lock down with the new format. And I never saw them in the stores to begin with, so how could the public have rebuked them?
 
The best way would probably to make the digital cassettes technology more successful in general.

Digital audio cassette formats introduced to the professional audio and consumer markets:

Digital Audio Tape (or DAT) is the most well-known, and had some success as an audio storage format among professionals and "prosumers" before the prices of hard drive and solid-state flash memory-based digital recording devices dropped in the late 1990s. Hard drive recording has mostly obsoleted DAT, as hard disk recorders offer more editing versatility than tape, and easier importation into digital audio workstations (DAWs) and non-linear video editing (NLE) systems.
Digital Compact Cassette was intended as a digital replacement for the mass-market analog cassette tape, but received very little attention or adaptation. Its failure is generally attributed to higher production costs than audio CDs, and lukewarm reception by consumers.

Analog cassettes used as digital data storage:

Historically, the Compact audio cassette which was originally designed for analog storage of music was used as an alternative to disk drives in the late 1970s and early 1980s to provide data storage for home computers. The ADAT system uses Super VHS tapes to record 8 synchronized digital audiotracks at once.
There have also been several audio recording systems which used VHS video recorders as storage devices and video tape transports, generally by encoding the digital data to be recorded into an analog composite video signal (which resembles static) and then recording this to magnetic tape. These systems were generally used as "mixdown" recorders, to record the finished mix from a multi-track recorder in preparation for the manufacture of a vinyl record, cassette tape, or CD. An example was the dbx Model 700. Several companies sold VHS backup solutions in the 80s and 90s where data was converted to a video image which was then saved on a VHS tape.
 
Note that tape is still alive and well, in some A/V fields. Sony cameras use HDCAM tapes, which uses the highest compressed bitrate, besides uncompressed video. DV tapes, Betacam tapes, etc. are used by many independent videographers (less and less though, as many are switching to HDSLRs or high-end prosumer camcorders like the REDs) and news-gathering orgs (over-my-dead-body types).

In the music industry, tapes are used as masters for longevity.

The problem is a lack of accurate search capability (ie. how do I get to 00:32:30, and what content does that time have?) and slow transfer rate (typically 1:1, at least hopefully). In file-based formats, 00:32:30 would have a name, comments, and other metadata (all searchable), and it would be instantly accessible to the frame, and it can transfer as fast as the computer can encode.

To get the whole industry, top to bottom, to stick with tape would mean that:

1. Non-linear editors don't exist or remain in the five-figure cost range. That knocks out a major reason for switching from tape, as then linear editors would still be useful (and they were fucking horrible to use, trust me).

2. Computer development is horribly retarded, and storage space never develops to what it is today. For instance, hard drives never develop, and tape based storage remains. Nor does memory density develop. That would negate the usefulness of using a computer for media editing.

3. Tape is somehow speedy, and codecs are extremely efficient and don't have much data loss when compressing. ASB territory, in other words.
 
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