Ask HN: Best way to backup a 5 minute movie for 50 years?
I want future generations to be able see short moments from their ancestors, like my marriage proposal.
How can I reliably store for the very long term?
How can I reliably store for the very long term?
The next best way is to realise that things like wedding videos get watched maybe twice - and your descendants likely won't care.
You could save the video in a variety of open codecs on multiple media and hope that at least one of them is compatible with machines in 10 years time (good luck finding a contemporary machine which reads minidiscs!)
Ideally, you would set up a legal trust which is tasked with shifting the media onto new formats every few years. That's complex and costly. And, even if you do find a law firm which isn't going to go bust, get bought out, or simply forget - you don't have any standing to sue. Because you'll be dead.
Finally, and this is similar to the first suggestion, you could create a tradition in your family to watch the clip every Xmas / solstice / anniversary. Keep that tradition alive for the next 50 years and I dare say it will become part of your family legend - similar to https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2017/jan/0...
But, in my estimation, they're little more than scams because the customer has no recourse once they've died. Just like cryogenic freezing - take the money in the sure knowledge that it doesn't matter if you don't uphold your end of the deal.
I think we need to solve this problem. The need extends beyond family and pet pics. A not-insignificant portion of human mind products are initially obscure and in private margins, waiting for subsequent discovery.
As long as OP sticks to traditional and established formats and pays attention every 5-10 years to migrate their data onto their new PCs, etc. it shouldn't be that much of a problem.