January 28, 1998

I called Lab-Link today and asked Tony if I could project my third reel there--he didn't sound too glad to hear from me again, but he agreed.  So I ran up there at lunchtime, and, lo and behold, the flashes that I saw on Monday night do in fact seem to be in the film.  They're almost imperceptible when projected, though--I could barely detect them under the flicker of the projector lamp, and I don't think I would have noticed them at all if I weren't looking for them.  I guess the Rank transfer system at Nice Shoes gives such a good scan of the film image that problems are magnified.

I talked to Robin about the issue in the afternoon--I was about ready to give up and accept the flashes, but she is still concerned even after my report, and I decided to make a single VHS copy of the D2 so we can decide how obtrusive the flashes will be after duplication.  That VHS copy can also go to the Gen Art festival after we view it, which will remove the pressure I felt to hurry with the mass duplication process.

I called a bunch of duplication houses to get the cost of a D2-to-D2 clone.  (Apparently there is a difference with digital tape between a clone, which is an exact digital duplicate, and a mere copy, which can suffer degradation in the transfer.)  The prices were higher than expected, ranging from $157.50 to $450.  But I guess it's still cheaper than paying Nice Shoes for a new transfer if the original gets damaged.  I also priced a single D2-to-VHS copy for Robin and me to preview, and couldn't get anything cheaper than $25 or $30, which is about ten times the per-tape price of a mass D2-to-VHS transfer.  This final stage of the process is proving more expensive than expected.

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