This is an interesting discussion, and I think the point about media formats and what folks will be able to read quite topical. One of the problems with the NASA video's was that the equipment used to shoot and playback the video was no longer available. This was discovered when some original tapes found in facilities in Australia could not be viewed. It took some time for NASA to lay it's hands on equipment old enough to play back the tapes (ironically, the walk on the moon shots are all transmitted digital images-- who knew?). When these tapes finally viewed it was found that they did not contain any footage of the moon missions.
However, that tape sent NASA in a tizzy looking for the originals. While they think that they were most likely taped over, there is still a slim chance they may be out there somewhere....hope we have a playback unit that can decipher them if they are found.
The black and white video of the walk on the moon that the world saw is actually a recording made off a camera pointed at the monitor in Australia (which happened to be in the footprint during the walk). It was the feed to this monitor being recorded on tape that NASA would like to find. Supposedly the images on the monitor itself were incredible.
As to quality of (analog vs. digital)...a friend of mine still owns a reel to reel deck with his original tapes from the 60's and 70's. These are cantankerous machines, and the tape is a mess; you have to manage the hiss through inadequate dolby technology, you can't find a particular piece of music, and the tapes take up a lot of space, gets brittle, and occasionally shoots off the reels in a fit of spite.
That being said, the fidelity from these old tapes is far superior to anything I've heard digitally. I have a CD of the Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto Verve session recorded in 1963 (this is the recording that produced "The Girl from Ipenema"). It is excellent. My friend has the original in reel to reel tape format. It is absolutely incredible. Gilberto's wife, Astrud, was in the studio, and you can actually hear her breathing in the background (She eventually did the vocals for part of the album, at Getz's suggestion).
Of course I can't fit that reel to reel deck in the dashboard of my car.