DV tapes are not a preservation medium. As the support for DV tape technology gradually declines, it is imperative to begin migrating DV content from tapes to files for storage and ongoing preservation of the content. In the migration process, the technical nature of DV tapes frequently causes issues generally described as “glitchy” or “finicky”. DV tapes often perform differently from one play to the next and across playback devices. DV Analyzer provides an automated way to monitor and report on the accuracy of the migration process.

DV Analyzer is a technical quality control and reporting tool that examines DV streams in order to report errors in the tape-to-file transfer process. DV Analyzer also reports on technical metadata and patterns within DV streams such as changes in DV time code, changes in recording date and time markers, first and last frame markers within individual recordings, and more. To those concerned with preservation and archiving, this means that you now have the ability to automatically monitor integrity during reformatting of DV tapes and extract meaningful metadata from DV files.

AVPS is pleased to offer DV Analyzer free of charge to the AV preservation community which we serve. DV Analyzer is licensed by AudioVisual Preservation Solutions under the open source GNU General Public License.

For more information on DV Analyzer, or to download it go to: http://www.avpreserve.com/avpsresources/tools

To request specific information about the product go to: http://www.avpreserve.com/you/

Or e-mail us at info@avpreserve.com

We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions about DVAnalyzer.

Be sure to catch up with David Rice, Chris Lacinak, or Joshua Ranger of AVPS at the AMIA conference this week. They can also answer your questions about DVAnalyzer.

In support of UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (October 27, 2009) and American Archives Month, and in celebration of the work being performed by archivists worldwide, AudioVisual Preservation Solutions (AVPS)requests your participation in a project designed to garner support for audiovisual archive preservation planning and project implementation from influencers, policy makers and funding organs.

As consultants and advocates working with audiovisual archives, we contribute to and witness preservation success stories on a daily basis. We understand that those successes were built on sustained long term efforts and collaboration with other internal/external stakeholders, and through community information exchange. Our celebration of these successes can lead to the kind of funding support all archives need in reaching their goals.  We are asking you for your favorite audiovisual preservation experience at your archive. These stories will provide encouragement to other archivists by showing what can be achieved in similar circumstances.

These stories will be published on our website, and some will be selected for use in our ongoing efforts to inform private and public funding decision makers, both of what is being achieved, and what can be achieved with their support.

Our first inclusion is dedicated in support of the spirit underlying UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and American Archives Month, and will profile the ongoing story of “The Jazz Loft Project”, www.jazzloftproject.org/index.php an excellent example of how a person or organization convinced of the cultural value of previously inaccessible audiovisual content was able to garner the support necessary to both make unique materials accessible, and to preserve them for posterity.

Because all archives deserve advocacy, your story deserves to be told.

Please contact AudioVisual Preservation Solutions at www.avpreserve.com/you , or send us an e-mail at info@avpreserve.com , or call us at 347-241-2920 to leave contact information. We will follow up with guidance on telling your story. Please Support the preservation projects of the archive community overall by getting your story told.

We will provide periodic updates on subsequent phases of this project as it progresses, and a blog will be posted on our website on Wednesday, October 27^th in celebration of UNESCO World day for Audiovisual Heritage.

Thank you for your participation, and we wish you success on all of your preservation projects.