For those of us who still have videotapes, time is running out if you want to digitize that content. Experts worldwide agree that by the year 2025, it will become much harder to digitize videotape content, due to the degradation of the magnetic tape, the disappearance of the playback systems, and the retirement of engineers who know how to work with this obsolete technology. Ahead of 2025, a group of film enthusiasts is racing the clock to digitize the home videos of private citizens. This group from Tainan National University of the Arts is traveling the country to teach people how to archive their audiovisual memories before it''s too late. Here''s our Sunday special report. Dressed for war, the Taiwanese opera actors spur their horses and race across the countryside. Released in 1956, this film in Taiwanese caused a sensation nationwide. It’s called “Hsueh Ping-kuei and Wang Pao-chuan.”
The film was screened for 24 days, selling more than 1 million tickets. Once it came off the silver screen, its master tape was stored in improper conditions and lost to time. But some 60 years later, in 2013, a cinematography expert discovered a Hakka-language copy of the film in Miaoli and decided to screen the film once again.
Tseng Chi-hsien
TNNUA Multi-Media Center
We were very lucky with the film “Hsueh Ping-kuei and Wang Pao-chuan.” Had we found it a year or two later, it would’ve been damaged beyond repair.
Besides being a documentary director, Tseng Chi-hsien is a professor at Tainan National University of the Arts. Over the past few years, he’s taken students all over the island to find audiovisual records of Taiwan’s heritage. They’ve ventured into old residences, ruins and abandoned theaters in their search for discarded film reels. It’s a physically demanding task. Once found, the videotapes are taken back to the university, where the restoration magic begins.
Making the film visible again requires both strength and patience. After the reels are recovered, every smudge on the tape must be carefully brushed off by hand.
Wang Ming-shan
TNNUA documentary and film archiving
I have to judge whether it will play smoothly or not. This tape is twisted over here, so when you scan the image, it will appear distorted.
After the physical restoration is complete, the tapes are digitized. Then, on the computer, the images are digitally remastered.
Remastering old film has become increasingly common in recent years. Today, this work is more urgent than ever, especially for old home videos that were made in the 1980s and 1990s.
According to UNESCO, the year 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of magnetic tape.
Because magnetic tape degrades, 2025 is a judgment day of sorts, after which it will become very difficult to recover content held on magnetic medium.
Wang Ming-shan
TNNUA documentary and film archiving
Magnetic tapes have a lifespan. So when the time comes, the tape will lose magnetism. The second thing is an issue with the video players. The machines aren’t made in factories anymore, so we should prioritize videotapes.
Today we’re joining the video restoration team on a mission to a bowling alley about to close down in Tainan’s Xinying District.
In one corner of the bowling alley we find a 5-ping karaoke booth packed with old karaoke machines and more than 1,000 videos of backing tracks.
The ’90s were the golden age of bowling in Taiwan. To keep people spending money all day long, the owner of this bowling alley opened 18 karaoke booths, so that patrons could sing in between knocking down pins.
Cheng Hung-pin
Bowling alley owner
It’s been more than 20 years since we last turned on the system. It broke down, and we didn’t feel like turning it on again. What would we do with these things? We thought they had no use, so we considered throwing them out.
For 28 years now, the bowling alley has seen business decline as bowling and karaoke are slowly replaced by other pastimes. All these backup tracks were destined to be thrown away. Fortunately the repair squad snatched them just in time.
Tseng Chi-hsien
TNNUA Multi-Media Center
Every generation thinks their things don’t matter. Currently, the medium that’s becoming obsolete is DVDs. Every family thinks, “We have so many DVDs! We should chuck them.” So they throw them away. But 20 years later, when you watch a DVD, you’ll think they are precious.
Commercial videotapes lend insight into the entertainment industry of the past. But what about home videos? Are they also worth saving?
Over the 1980s, the standard of living in Taiwan improved, allowing many families to purchase their own camcorder to record their daily lives.
For example, this moment from a Mother’s Day party. Family and frie
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