Wetlook World Forum

I have always kept all my original recordings as they were recorded, cos these days most people never keep their original recordings any more, and they just create online clips at whatever bit rate they used at that time, and then they erase their original recordings -- which is a mistake, cos many people I know made online clips from tv shows during "the dial up era" (late 1990's) at small screen sizes (320x240) and low bit rates (250K) and now years later they are unable to re-make their clips at full screen size, cos they only saved a small screen low bit rate version of their clip. I made loads of small screen sized low bit rate clips in the 1990's too, but because I kept all my original recording on VHS tape (and later on DVDs) I am able to go back and re-make my old small screen clips and re-make them again at full screen size.

So...archiving things properly is always a good idea....and don't be short sighted....like the British and American television companies...who were so short sighted in the 1960's, they never thought that people in the future might want to see those shows, so many tv shows like 1960's era Dr Who shows and Johnny Carson shows are lost forever, cos those fools would erase and recycle their mastertapes.

This short-sightedness is particularly blatant within the BBC in the UK, who erased thousands of great tv shows in the 1960's, and their shortsightedness even continued as late as 1986...i.e. in 1986 they shot the last show in the 1972-1986 tv series "Pebble Mill at One" and because they were done with that series, some idiot tossed thousands of mastertapes from some 5000 shows into a construction skip to be sent to the garbage dump. Over 2000 celebrities appears on those shows and now most of those shows are lost (including the long lost wetlook pool scene Bo Derek interview from 1986 too). The only shows that survived (and have shown up on Youtube) are from private recordings made by BBC viewers.....and a few "dumpster divers" who rescued some of those tapes from the construction skip outside their studio.

Anyway....I always save all my original recordings for the last 8 years at DVD quality.