NYPL Broadway Archives?

From what I've seen in other threads, they tell them they're watching it for educational purposes. If you just want to watch it because you want to, I'm thinking they may or may not let you watch. Like I said, this is what I think I remember seeing in another thread. Maybe the Lincoln Center Archives threads?

The Library wants you to have an acceptable reason for watching the videos. They don't want you to watch them for entertainment value. Even though you are not always asked, have a reason for wanting to watch the video, even if it's just to say "I want to see how it was staged for a production my high school is doing."

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Updated On: 8/9/13 at 12:11 PM

The NYPL has recently been begging for money. I don't think going digital is on their list of priorities.

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But it is really just taking the tapes and playing them while recording them onto a hard drive, right? That way, when the are viewed from the hard drives there is no fear of degradation. When you watch it on a tape player, the head of the player is pressing against the tape which can be damaged as a result. This is not the case when viewing on a hard drive; you can pause, fast forward etc. without fear of damage. I would think this would be a priority to prevent damage to these historic recordings.
I do find it odd that much of the newer stuff at Paley is digitized, while much of the older more historic content is not. I remember watching a video of ALL THE WAY HOME (1980 I think)with Sally Field there and it was digitized. But when I wanted to watch AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS from 1951, I had to go upstairs where it was on tape.

"But it is really just taking the tapes and playing them while recording them onto a hard drive, right?"

It's not that simple when you want to preserve quality as well - you really need someone who knows what they're doing to handle encoding spec, colour correction, deal with dropout patching, etc. You're also dealing with older tape formats like U-Matic, which means ageing machines requiring extra service, transferring tapes off multiple reels and splicing digitally, etc. Every step you add costs more money.

The play and dump method works for something like the Vanderbilt archive, where fidelity isn't of high importance (their main goal is watchable and referenceable, part of what keeps them their fair use exemption), but here, you're preserving history and need to keep it as high end as possible.

(Note: I work in video, have friends who do transfers and encodes for commercial release, and also do theatrical research.)