khayo@sonia.cs.ucla.edu (Erazm J. Behr) (12/11/87)
Hi; leafing through some sleazy-looking mag. full of
ads (mostly PC oriented) I stumbled on a very good
(or so it seemed to me) idea. I wonder if anyone can
comment on its feasibility - I don't know much about
the technical details involved. There is apparently
a product (add-on board, software, cables etc.) that
lets you back up a hard disk on a VCR (VHS) cassette.
The transfer rate given in the ad wasn't great (?),
something like 1MB/min, but I guess every poor man's
solution has its drawbacks. Now, it seems likely that
the Mac SCSI port with some (trivial? complicated?) box
with electronics connected to the PCM input that most
*8mm* VCR's have could be a better/faster combination.
Of course, poor people don't usually own fancy new
digital VCR's - but those who do could certainly use
such a gizmo. Any thoughts? hard facts? Is anyone out
there actually using such a thing?
Eric
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>>>>---------------> khayo@MATH.ucla.edu spike@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Spike) (12/12/87)
In article <9823@shemp.UCLA.EDU> khayo@MATH.UCLA.EDU (Erazm J. Behr) writes: >Hi; leafing through some sleazy-looking mag. full of >ads (mostly PC oriented) I stumbled on a very good >(or so it seemed to me) idea. I wonder if anyone can >comment on its feasibility - I don't know much about >the technical details involved. There is apparently >a product (add-on board, software, cables etc.) that >lets you back up a hard disk on a VCR (VHS) cassette. [...] >such a gizmo. Any thoughts? hard facts? Is anyone out >there actually using such a thing? I've seen two. One simply pluged in to any VCR and prompted you to press play, stop and rewind. The other came with a VCR that had a serial port that was used to control it. The software ran the whole show on that one... The problems: The first required a great deal of attention. The second cost far more then it was worth. -- ->Spike
ron@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (12/14/87)
I currently have two devices sitting on my desk. The first is a Sony DDR-700 digital encoder/decoder. This at very high speed encodes data into a rather conventional SONY BETA tape deck. Of course the thing is rather difficult to deal with. The other device I have is an EXABYTE SCSI tape unit that records on 8mm video tape cartridges. It looks fairly nice, does a sustained ~250 KByte a second (a bit on the slow side) but has a 256 K buffer. -Ron
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (12/14/87)
While I don't own one, I've been told that it is an effective method. The problem is that locating information inside of a backup isn't as convenient as a streaming tape. The mitigating factors are that a very non-fancy VCR can be used for the tape transport and the tapes are much cheaper than DC600As or DC2000s. The backup can also be tranmistted over any communications channel that can handle an NTSC format transmission. There have been several experiments using satellite TV to do so. I think the name of the product is Video Trax, and the control board goes for about $US 300. You can also buy a "specially modified" VCR from them. --Bill
adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) (12/14/87)
In article <9823@shemp.UCLA.EDU> khayo@MATH.UCLA.EDU (Erazm J. Behr) writes: >Hi; leafing through some sleazy-looking mag. full of >ads (mostly PC oriented) I stumbled on a very good >(or so it seemed to me) idea. I wonder if anyone can >comment on its feasibility - I don't know much about >the technical details involved. There is apparently >a product (add-on board, software, cables etc.) that >lets you back up a hard disk on a VCR (VHS) cassette. [...] >such a gizmo. Any thoughts? hard facts? Is anyone out >there actually using such a thing? > I remember, several years ago, seeing such a thing. We had a hard disc system acting as the file-store for an Apple network (remember the old Apple II ?). I believe it was called Corvus (or maybe that was the manufacturer) and there were two boxes involved. One was the hard disc unit, and one was a multiplexer which connected 10 Apples to it. The hard disc unit had hardware built in, called the Mirror interface, which could back up the contents of the hard disc onto a VHS video tape. -- "Keyboard? Tis quaint!" - M. Scott Adrian Hurt | JANET: adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk
czei@cbdkc1.UUCP (12/14/87)
In article <9823@shemp.UCLA.EDU> khayo@MATH.UCLA.EDU (Erazm J. Behr) writes: >There is apparently >a product (add-on board, software, cables etc.) that >lets you back up a hard disk on a VCR (VHS) cassette. At OSU, I've helped design some hardware which could be used to accomplish such a thing using Sony's PCM adapters. Unfortunately, the adapters expect constant data at a throughput around that of a CD, which is too fast for hard disks connected to the Mac with no DMA. Since we are just using the Mac for development, this wasn't a problem for us, but it ruins the chances for easily making it work for backup. A solution I've considered is a kind of Stop/Start protocol which would 'imbed' the Mac data into the faster digital stream going onto videotape at a constant rate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michael S. Czeiszperger | "HELP! I'm stuck in 3B HELL !!!" Contracted to AT&T | Phone: (614) 860-4952 Unix Systems Administration | UUCP: cbosgd!dkc1!czei 6200 E. Broad Street | Disclaimer: "The above opinions are those Columbus, OH RM 1L334 | of a large rodent with sharp teeth" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein) (12/15/87)
In article <9823@shemp.UCLA.EDU> khayo@MATH.UCLA.EDU (Erazm J. Behr) writes: >(or so it seemed to me) idea. I wonder if anyone can >comment on its feasibility - I don't know much about >the technical details involved. There is apparently >a product (add-on board, software, cables etc.) that >lets you back up a hard disk on a VCR (VHS) cassette. I believe Corvus had such a product (called Mirror ?) for backing up its hard disks. A long, long time ago (back in the days of Lisa development), some people on the Lisa project used this for archiving files. I don't know how well it worked, since that was before my time, but it did exist. During one of our moves, we discovered a box of tapes with peoples names on them. We thought they might have been secret confessions or job interviews, but they turned out to be archived disks. -- Larry Rosenstein Object Specialist Apple Computer AppleLink: Rosenstein1 UUCP: {sun, voder, nsc, mtxinu, dual}!apple!lsr CSNET: lsr@Apple.com