Techniques to transmit encoded data along a physical medium, e.g. tape, and decode the transmitted data along the physical medium are provided. Some techniques include logic to encode data transmitted along a physical medium, such as a tape suitable for any purpose including the encoding of multimedia data, where the encoding is pursuant to a conversion between a first and second colorspace. The logic may further be configured to decode the data once it is received at a node along the tape, where the colorspace conversion provides the basis, key, or cipher for preforming the decoding operation. The logic may be further configured to alter the encryption and decryption basis, key, or cypher by altering the colorspace scheme defining the encoding (and by extension the decoding) during transmission, including a transmission that takes place after a previous transmission governed by the previously defined (and subsequently altered) colorspace conversion scheme. Other embodiments are described and claimed.