Sorry to say - If you want the best transfer - you'll need to go back to your DAT masters and re-transfer them to computer. Otherwise you are archiving a 1st gen digital copy. Im sure DAT>PC is always the preferred linage.
It's taken me years to archive my DAT collection to CDR and I still have a good 1/3 of it left to do. I bought the HHb CDR 800 new in '98
At the time, you were doing the best you could do. You have options here: EAC the discs and let those be your new Masters, or re-transfer the DATs.
Is there any consensus on re-importing DAT > HDD versus EAC master discs? I have a lot of discs that were tranfers from DAT > HHB-830 which I understand was a fine unit. Maybe I should start a different thread, but it was brought up here.
In my opinion, you would be fine just using EAC with the master discs you already made. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned something about a 1st gen digital copy and being better to go DAT>PC, which I disagree with completely unless you were making analog transfers from your DAT deck to your CD burner. If you were running coax between the decks, those CDRs are the same as if you had run the burner at the show running, exactly the same.
I take issue with some of the dramatic statements basically implying that all CDs and DVDs destined to go bad within a few years, which reminds me of the claims made back in the late '90s that all DAT tapes would become unplayable after about 10 years of storage. Sure, there have been many true stories of premature failure incidents with every type of medium to store recorded sound, analog tape, digital tape, optical media, hard discs, whatever. However, I believe that a collection of dozens, even hundreds of reports of various incidents of failures does not make a trend when stacked against the billions of hours of archived recordings that have not failed and the information is just as good today as ever.
I have been archiving DAT masters from my collection and so far, I have found even 18 year old DATs without a single pop, tick, or dropout. My collection has been properly stored, the tapes not overplayed, and rarely lent out to be copied by someone else on foreign equipment that could pass the old "digital VD" that used to be a risk lending out DATs. I usually made people copies on my own gear, instead of lending them the DAT masters.
I am an advocate of multiple backups, and also don't believe random predictions of what the future will look like. As a result, I back up all my raw wave files on both HDD and DVDRs, just so I am covered with both methods. One thing about a DVD is when it fails, it's one show, versus if a HDD craps out, it's every show on the drive. So, backups of HDDs are also very important, as has been stated.
As far as CD medium going away, players, etc. I don't see that. What I see is a move to universal players that will play any of the 5" optical disc formats, CD, DVD, and Blueray. Certainly 5" drives will continue to be supported for computers, even if consumer electronic makers stop making CD players. Just like DAT machines are still being serviced and kept going in studios across the country because of the massive amount of material on DAT, people still have CD collections, some very large. 5" optical discs will be around for a long time, even if they descend to a niche group of users, it will still be large enough a group to warrant continued support of the format. In the early '80s, it was common for "pundits" to claim that the LP would eventually cease to exist, and turntables relegated to glass display cases in museums. Well, obviously that did not happen, 30 years after CDs first hit the market, if anything we have seen a surge in interest in both releases on vinyl, and new models of hardware to play them. Even cassette is still supported, although now mostly through commercial/professional gear makers like Tascam and Marantz, but you can still buy blanks.
As far as CD, the largest single marketing segment in the US is still baby boomers, which means anyone 45 and older. I just deducting off the top of my head, but this segment of the population likely comprises more than 50% of the physical possession of all commercially produced CDs in existance. A 50 year old with a CD collection they started building in 1982 is not going to throw it out and replace it with something else. Sure, many in this segment have embraced ipods and other mp3 players, but they still buy CD box sets and new releases of bands that mean something to them with their statistically higher level of disposable income than the younger age demographics.
Clearly, the big difference in viewpoint about the future of CD can be divided between the age group that has never known a world without CD, and those from the age group that plainly recall the time when CDs and digital audio was introduced as a new format.
Topic: Demise of CD players in 2011??? (Read 10828 times)