I actually had to search the Internet for a bulb for the movie projector. I found one!!!
It is a chore and a lot of pressure. I inherited the family pictures when my dad went into a nursing home. I bought plastic, sealed bins, in hopes of preventing the disaster that you mention. Scares me to death.
4 tracks? Wow. Lol. That was after two tracks. Lol. My parent had 8-tracks.
Backups in secondary locations — good man. Your children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren…. will thank you. :)
Wow. Jaz. I still have some too... and no player.
New future formats — lol. Reminds me of the Men in Black....
I just looked at Amazon and other places, still selling them but at expensive prices (like $70 and up). I've got 6 or 8 players. Also Zip drives. Hundreds of Jaz and Zip cartridges. I should open a store. I get stuff at recyclers, for pennies on the dollar. Jaz players cost me a couple bucks each. People are constantly throwing out stuff as they upgrade, so one doesn't need to buy new. Local recyclers sell stuff cheap before it goes to the dumps. I've bought vintage computer stuff cheap this way. One purchase was 14 iMacs for about $100. Resold half and recouped costs, keeping the best. Wife has been after me to whittle down my collection, reluctantly selling much. Had bought a box of 16 motherboards for $10 total, sold one for over $300. People throw away stuff that's pure gold to others, in their quest to keep current with newer technology. I don't need the money, I like playing with vintage stuff, including cars and furniture. But vintage computer stuff is a whole different thing. This conversation reminds me, I need to convert a Betamax tape of my kids.