lbaum@bcsaic.UUCP (Larry Baum) (08/03/88)
I have noticed an add in MacWorld for something called Videotrax, which apparently lets you back up data from the Mac to video tape using an ordinary VCR. Does anyone know anything about this product, such as its cost and reliability and functionality? Thanks Larry
aki@speech1.cs.cmu.edu (Yoshiaki Ohshima) (06/05/89)
Hello, is there anyone using "VideoTrax"? I would like to hear about any good/bad story about it. Since I am actually a low-budget hobbyist, in need of backing up 60MB, hooking my VCR to Mac via "VideoTrax" seems to be a neat solution. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks. regards, aki (aki@speech1.cs.cmu.edu) --
aki@speech1.cs.cmu.edu (Yoshiaki Ohshima) (06/12/89)
There seem to be few people, who have some experience with that product. Actually I'm still looking forward to hearing from videotrax users, and also several people have asked me to follow up. So far, I've heard from my neighbourhood (thanks Nathan!), and here's the story. -aki ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-Id: <0YWo0ey00W0KE0bkxo@andrew.cmu.edu> Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 23:08:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Nathan James Loofbourrow <nl0s+@andrew.cmu.edu> To: Yoshiaki.Ohshima@speech1.cs.cmu.edu Subject: Re: Backup using VCR In-Reply-To: <Added.IYWKGAq00Ui3A76k9i@andrew.cmu.edu> References: <Added.IYWKGAq00Ui3A76k9i@andrew.cmu.edu> Status: R I was looking at Videotrax at Macworld 88 - it's a perfectly nice system, but (a) it's slow, and (b) it's expensive. ($499, provided you already own a VCR) You can get a dedicated tape backup device for as little as $700, which is many many times faster, and includes a true verify. Videotrax cheats by storing data redundantly (to catch errors) which I suppose is reliable as long as someone didn't rewire your VCR so he/she could watch Revenge of the Nerds. "-) You can't really be sure that everything stored okay until you rewind and replay it. Nathan Loofbourrow --