And there's "quality attrition" where the quality of the media we are used to watching creeps up over a number of years. Media files used to be 200 pixels wide or something silly just a few years ago and we all happily watched them. And VHS of course! Most people would baulk at such things nowadays, but the quality hasn't got worse in these files/media per se - just our expectations/norms.
assuming no corruption the 1's and 0's will still be the same as the day the file was first created, its a digital system with no inbetweens no matter how much those snake oil people in the hifi business try and tell you to buy a 500 quid ethernet cable as it'll some how make the 1's more 1 than a standard cable
Physical degredation obviously is another matter and depends on the recording material used
And there's "quality attrition" where the quality of the media we are used to watching creeps up over a number of years. Media files used to be 200 pixels wide or something silly just a few years ago and we all happily watched them. And VHS of course! Most people would baulk at such things nowadays, but the quality hasn't got worse in these files/media per se - just our expectations/norms.
As said above, it's not digital quality degradation, it's that the World has moved on, and expectations with it.
I often cringe at many of the video files I produced over a decade ago for upload, when high quality was 384 x 288 at 256 kbps, also 320 x 240, or even 192 x 144 at 64kbps and 15 fps!
But they are the same now as then; they haven't deteriorated. But if I retained lossless source files (difficult back then due to small hard drive sizes - and backup CDs/DVDs can corrupt) I sometimes go back to them and re-encode, which helps a bit.
Unless the file buggers up somehow, the computer reading it every day, twice a day etc will be absolutely fine. Just like how a digital video/audio file can be copied over and over again etc without any degration happening.
As said above, it's not digital quality degradation, it's that the World has moved on, and expectations with it.
I often cringe at many of the video files I produced over a decade ago for upload, when high quality was 384 x 288 at 256 kbps, also 320 x 240, or even 192 x 144 at 64kbps and 15 fps!
But they are the same now as then; they haven't deteriorated. But if I retained lossless source files (difficult back then due to small hard drive sizes - and backup CDs/DVDs can corrupt) I sometimes go back to them and re-encode, which helps a bit.
Bloody hell! I never encoded video files them resolutions. The resolution I mostly used between 2003 and early 2005 was 576x432 for 4:3. For widescreen it was 576x320. I remember 640x480 looking quite big on my 1024x768 monitor. You could actually see the pixels on the screen when getting up close to it. How times have changed.
Bloody hell! I never encoded video files them resolutions. The resolution I mostly used between 2003 and early 2005 was 576x432 for 4:3. For widescreen it was 576x320. I remember 640x480 looking quite big on my 1024x768 monitor. You could actually see the pixels on the screen when getting up close to it. How times have changed.
They certainly have! I had a Matrox Mystique 220 (Rainbow Runner) video card back then as PC CPUs weren't up to the job and used to capture stuff from analogue inputs at full frame (720 x 576). But most people did not have broadband by the early 2000s, many being stuck with 56kbps or less modems! So you HAD to produce low bitrate streaming video for websites, for people to be able to watch it even with buffering, unless you wanted to restrict your audience to the lucky broadband or cable few.
It isn't possible to answer the question without specifying the media chosen to store it.
CD's degrade over time as the coating oxidises and will eventually fail even without playback, however as it's a digital medium the sound audio can only be lost or corrupted leading to skipping or mixed up digital signal. eventually it may not even recognise the disk and may not be able to play it.
Digital media won't degrade in the way analogue media would, anything analogue like basic tape will just lose quality, gain hiss and lose clarity generally, but with different degradation depending on the type of analogue storage.
the sandman
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Error correction can compensate to some extent.
The causes aren't generally caused by excessive playing.
If a file has not been corrupted, it will play as well as when it was made.
Physical degredation obviously is another matter and depends on the recording material used
As said above, it's not digital quality degradation, it's that the World has moved on, and expectations with it.
I often cringe at many of the video files I produced over a decade ago for upload, when high quality was 384 x 288 at 256 kbps, also 320 x 240, or even 192 x 144 at 64kbps and 15 fps!
But they are the same now as then; they haven't deteriorated. But if I retained lossless source files (difficult back then due to small hard drive sizes - and backup CDs/DVDs can corrupt) I sometimes go back to them and re-encode, which helps a bit.
Unless the file buggers up somehow, the computer reading it every day, twice a day etc will be absolutely fine. Just like how a digital video/audio file can be copied over and over again etc without any degration happening.
Bloody hell! I never encoded video files them resolutions. The resolution I mostly used between 2003 and early 2005 was 576x432 for 4:3. For widescreen it was 576x320. I remember 640x480 looking quite big on my 1024x768 monitor. You could actually see the pixels on the screen when getting up close to it. How times have changed.
They certainly have! I had a Matrox Mystique 220 (Rainbow Runner) video card back then as PC CPUs weren't up to the job and used to capture stuff from analogue inputs at full frame (720 x 576). But most people did not have broadband by the early 2000s, many being stuck with 56kbps or less modems! So you HAD to produce low bitrate streaming video for websites, for people to be able to watch it even with buffering, unless you wanted to restrict your audience to the lucky broadband or cable few.
It isn't possible to answer the question without specifying the media chosen to store it.
CD's degrade over time as the coating oxidises and will eventually fail even without playback, however as it's a digital medium the sound audio can only be lost or corrupted leading to skipping or mixed up digital signal. eventually it may not even recognise the disk and may not be able to play it.
Digital media won't degrade in the way analogue media would, anything analogue like basic tape will just lose quality, gain hiss and lose clarity generally, but with different degradation depending on the type of analogue storage.