I was wondering what the best technology for long term data archiving is. Maybe Digital Tape? It looks like optical is only good for about 10 years, some DVD media, much much less.

When I convert home movies or film somebody’s wedding, I have to give them some form of archival alternative to DVD, as their films should truly be timeless, and by truly timeless, I mean long enough for them and their kids to forget it ever happened.

Thanks for any advice

Good luck, Kodachrome is the only long term media I have worked with that actually will last through generations, and the days of Kodachrome movie film are long gone. I would use VHS, as my experience has been that my tapes have lasted well past 25 years and the deterioration is gradual rather than total, as is the case with digital media. Then the problem will be the hardware and they cannot blame you for that.

Ahh good point, now where did I put that film recorder.....

For your exact request, make the DVD and use good DVD media, maybe even give them two copies on two different kinds of good blanks, and tell them to store one in a safe deposit box.

Then do a DV tape too.

A lot of this "oh my god DVDs die fast" stuff is for the birds. There's not really any truth to it. There are far fewer drawbacks to optical media than there is to magnetic tape. Equipment is a big one, as mentioned already.

Google is about to take over everything anyway, so why not entrust it to them (!) via some online storage solution...
...then again, how long should forever be...? How long are you expecting the world to last...?
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Ok, quality dvd media, and a digital tape back-up is your only realistic option, apart from a hard-drive that you or they keep backed up, and can access should anything go wrong. More you can´t do...but technology should evolve to solve this in time, as it has done in the past.

With tapes bought 25 years ago, ys. With nowadays tapes, no way. Quality has dropped dramatically, and all the VHS tapes I've recorded during the last 4 years are turning bad. MOST of it. Not ALL of it. . But whatever, most premium DVD media properly burnt, stored away from heat and high humidity, and handled with care, should last for more than 20 years.

IMO there is no miracle solution for long-term archiving. The only really sound approach (still IMO) is to have backups on several different media (HD, CD, DVD, tape, whatever..), stored in diferent places.

yeah i agree.... to make sure u dont lose your important data i would just burn to quality dvd media such as TY or Verbatim dvd's... and then if u have more than 1 pc i would make copies of it across both pc's and even having another backup copy of your important data on another dvd would not be a bad idea... or even some external hdd's ... cause this way the odds of losing your data is slim to none.

cause i even store some data i would rather not lose on my xbox game console ... i periodically update it with the newest stuff.... but i always put stuff i dont want to lose on my mitsui cd-r's/ and more recently 8x DVD-R TYG02 TY media.

hell, even storing stuff on a flash memory stick might not even be a bad idea for another source to store data... and even online storage would be a good idea ... cause i figure if u where to have a fire and your house got burned down atleast u would still have a copy of your data online... online wise, i prefer to use the gmailfs on gmail

cause for me i highly doubt if u use quality cd/dvd media that they will be dying anytime soon... im guessing they will last an easy 5 years+ if not 10+ years, and by that time you can almost guarentee that another major format will be out that u will most likely need to convert all your important data to anyways... i think even under non-optimal storage conditions with temp/humidity i still think cd's seem pretty reliable.... cause in my room the humidity im sure aint in optimal ranges same with temps although im sure sunlight is never a issue.

just some thoughts ... but i figure if using all or most of the methods i mentioned... it's quite unlikely your data will ever be lost.

That is a funny observation, reminds me of the way other recordable media is becoming

Wonder how long next generation recordable media will stay high quality before declining in quality...

As to the original question, some form of computer readable HD or tape back-up are the 2 practical alternatives to optical media, imo. (but both are quite costly relative to a few DVD discs).

Until Ritek starts to make Blu-Ray!
(Sorry, couldn't resist)

For my personal backup i use at least 2 dvd-r for everything. Besides that i have online storage for important stuff (docs+pics). Yeah and then a few extra hard drives for important and semi important backups. And then again 2-3 extra dvd-rs for my own audio creations. All is pretty easy to find and should one go down i'll extra back one of my copys.

My advise for weddings would be 2 copys on dvd (and advice on storing), then tell people to back it up when new technology appears. -Even tv stations (and Pentagon) loose important archive material now and then so a little loss must be expected sometime for everybody.... Even moi

Thanks for the helpful info

I like the google + hard drive ideas. Media may deteriorate but Google will never die!

Heck, hard drives are cheeper than DLTs anyway.