Let the dead speak

Scott at AMCGLTD.COM has a different take on the recently discovered recording of Thomas Edison's voice. Scott's take is that this illustrates that data isn't lost just because the technology for reading the data becomes obsolete. My comment:

I remember when the Smithsonian decided to store historic images on... wait for it... laserdisc. (My spellchecker doesn't recognize the word!)

But you're right, any kitchen table tinkerer could make a laserdisc reader. Figuring out the irrational mystery that is NTSC would probably be the hard part.

I actually used some laserdiscs recently. I was moving, and used them to protect vinyl LPs.

Eventually, I expect that laserdiscs will be read holographically in one flash of laser light. The NTSC->(something sane) conversion will still have to be done in software.