Yeah that’s my point really, saying they can’t easily watch it is a cop out because it’s easy to find ways to make it possible. Which includes facilities and equipment such as in my example, but there’s plenty in the US and I’d be surprised if they don’t have their own facility they can hire the equipment into.
The thing that got my interest is the terms used themselves. Why say it’s an old format, rather than or as well as what the format actually is?
The media used, which I quoted, is not unusual itself but it is unusual to be used for a video format. Cinema film is usually 35 or 70mm gauge, and stereo audio is usually half or quarter inch. One inch is more commonly used for multi-track audio recording.
Maybe that’s all there is to it, there being no playback device, but its all rather intriguing, and it feels like there’s more they aren’t saying.