Re: Movie Corruption Issue & Codecs

Posted by Greg Martin-8 on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Movie-Corruption-Issue-tp591691p591703.html

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Hey Folks --

 

    Steve, I know this doesn't help you with your problem, but I guess the advice I'd throw out for long term storage would be to always keep the original data -- I'm assuming that the images were not collected directly as a movie file.  If you have a series of tiffs you can always re-make the movie with a current codec.  Sure they take up space, but so what -- I learned and took to heart the mantra "film is cheap and time isn't" and now I teach that digital storage space is cheap, and time still isn't.

 

Be peace!  Greg.

 

Greg Martin
Keck Microscopy Facility
University of Washington
Box 357290
Seattle, WA 98195-7290
206-685-8784 (office)
425-344-2632 (cell)
www.depts.washington.edu/keck

----- Original Message -----

From: "Stephen Bunnell" <[hidden email]>

To: <[hidden email]>

Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:32 PM

Subject: Re: Movie Corruption Issue & Codecs

> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>

> I agree that my short-term solution poses a security risk, but the inability
> to play my archived movies had effectively deleted my work product from
> 1999-2004. This was not recoverable without reinstalling an earlier version
> of the OS in order to downgrade Quicktime. Obviously, this is not the best
> strategy.
>
> Apple explicitly advertises legacy support for _all_ previous Quicktime
> codecs. This is an extremely appealing feature when legacy access to old
> scientific data is at issue. However, this is currently false. If Apple
> intends to discontinue/disable old codecs, they should make this apparent in
> the upgrade notes, so that users may convert their movies _before_ their
> ability to convert them is deleted.
>
> I cannot imagine any sane individual who would enjoy the prospect of
> retroactively re-encoding 5 years worth of compiled imaging data solely to
> maintain legacy access.
>
> So, I seek advice: Are there industry-standard lossless codecs that are
> expected to be supported for 10-20 years? What are the best options for
> long-term storage of imaging data? What resources are available that discuss
> the costs and benefits of various formats vis a vis scientific data?
>
>    Best regards,
>
>    Steve Bunnell
>
> 
>
>
>
> On 1/25/08 1:16 PM, "Mathieu Marchand" <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

>>
>> To comment the previous post,
>>
>> Everybody should be aware that using any other version than the latest
>> available Quicktime is a major security risk, on both Mac and Windows.
>>
>> The last 7.3, 7.3.1 and 7.4 updates of Quicktime corrected some CRITICAL
>> flaws:
>> http://secunia.com/advisories/28502/
>> http://secunia.com/advisories/28092/
>> http://secunia.com/advisories/27755/
>> http://secunia.com/advisories/27523/
>> and these are the flaws for only the past 3 months

>>
>> These flaws are rated "extremely critical" and could give an attacker
>> remote access on your system just by visiting a malicious website with
>> your favorite browser.
>> Since Quicktime 7.2 and later does not support Windows 2000 any more,
>> I recommend to uninstall Quicktime on computers running Windows 2000.
>>
>> Support for old codecs like "animation" for quicktime or "cinepak" for
>> vista is broken or problematic and people should stop using them, and
>> plan to convert old movies to more recent codec. "Codec Packs" can
>> sometimes solve your problem, but they usually have major stability /
>> legality / security risks attached to them. They can introduce new
>> problems, too (for example: the Perian codec pack for MacOS brakes the
>> play out of 'ARAW' coded avi files including avi files generated by
>> ImageJ).
>>
>> Picking a codec is a complex issue and there is no easy choice.  It is
>> something worth discussing with a specialist to make the best decision
>> for your situation.
>
> ****************************************************************************
> Stephen C. Bunnell, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Tufts University Medical School
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