Anyone using blu ray discs as storage/archive for ex1/3?

[radar]

I was just wondering about this workflow for archiving and possible delivery.

Any thoughts?

[PerroneFord]

Yes,

Clipbrowser > MXF files
load MXF files into editor
render 720x480 mp4 file with timecode window
render full size cineform file
copy entire folder (raw mxf, cineform, and mp4) to 50GB blu-ray.

Done.


Just did this yesterday.

[Carl Marxx]

:huh: I have been useing the Blue-Ray Rewritable -(RW) disks for archiving of MX.. files for some time. The Blue-Ray burners (PC) comes with a program to format the 25 and 50Gig. disks into data disks, just like a hard drive. You can also use the permanent disks for BV-R for permanant storage. The cost is now ~$10.oo for 25Gigs. Good for backing up a 16Gig. + 8Gig. memory cards. Consider the DVD-DL dual layer disks for 8Gig cards, also. The supplied program with the burner will do it all including: duplicate dubing and Creating standard Blue-Ray disks plus DVDs and CDs and DVD-RAM disks. -- Carl

[Mike70]

Thanks, Carl. What Blu-ray burner are you using? With PC or Mac? And what disks, from where? I just finished a week-long shoot , backing up onto two hard drives, but I'd like to use this option to make a "Master" of my dailies and was hoping to use the DL disks to get up to 50gb.

[Carl Marxx]

:bath: Hey, Mike70: LG makes a great burner and they are about $269.00 from Fry's electronics. The program will do all the known formats and LG is manufactured by Hitachi and is built well. The external version is about $100 dollars more and runs by USB, good for Mac, but you won't find any program for Mac when you buy the drive. -- Carl Marxx p.s. The 50gb Blue-ray rewritables are $149.oo for 3 @ fry's.

[Mike70]

Thanks, Carl. So I'd need to get Toast 9? which looks like it will still work with a g4 so long as I'm just using it to dupe files, not make HD content.
Just finished a week-long shoot adding up to about 200gigs, so if I can fit it all on 4 50g disks, that would be $200 for archiving. Expensive, but not bad all things considered, and hopefully they'll keep dropping.

[Carl Marxx]

:thumbsup: With so much video, you might consider using the new sata drives for storage. Even a 500Gig. is costing about $100 today, a more reasonable way to store. The down side is: if the drive goes south, your files maybe lost. If you use the hard for only archiveing, falure is unlikely. Also, if you have a mac (or PC,) you can use a docking port ~$50.00, which the "raw" drive fits into; when done, simply pull it out and put the drive in a safe place (or a safe.) It uses the USB connector on the compuer for transfer. good luck Mike70 -- Carl

[Happy Hopping]

I wouldn't go w/ LG. They are the cheap end product, poor on quality. The best one is Pioneer, at $360, their BD-R write speed is 4X vs. LG's 6X, but quality wise, pioneer is 1 of the best.

Newegg sells all of these brand names

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=Blu-Ray+Burner

and you don't want a hard drive, neither ext. or int. to backup your important films, as it is not a matter of "IF" the hard drive R/W head will crash, rather, "WHEN" the hard drive R/W head will crash. Eventhough BD-R media at 25 GB x QTY 20 costs more than a 500GB hard drive.

Further, you can get virus on your hard drive ea. time you connect to the computer for your backup, whereas BD-R backup software are scanned for virus prior to backup, and once it's burned, nothing can touch it

[Carl Marxx]

:Drogar-Evil(DBG): Not so.. Happy Hopping. The LG is one of the better ones! They will outlast any reader-writer on the market including Sony (which I whould not recommend you to by.) I was told that duplicators were failing in there spindals and replaced with LG's and have lasted more than 10 times as long. Pioneer was the "Veville" of the DVD's and in my opinion, still is great; but, it does't offer the features in a Blue-Ray that Mike70 needs. Right now, LG is the best value with the high quality and the lowest price, but if you can find the Pioneer with the same value -- go with it! I love both. -- Carl

[Jbucaro]

This is the best storage solution. There is no worries about crashing or getting a virus.
Here is a link http://www.drobo.com/Products/Index.html

[Happy Hopping]

Carl, I sell LG and all those other brand names, so I know they are junk. There is no RMA on Pioneer, but there is failure on LG line of optical products

Besides, who's going to pay $200 more on Pioneer if LG is that good?

Pioneer had an old problem w/ their optical laser when they first release CD-rom back in 1995 or so. We have to do a few return on those, so I wasn't happy w/ them back then and dropped their lines for 10+ years because of that. But I go back to this line this year, because there is noone better.

[Carl Marxx]

Happy Hopping, I was told that the LG DVDs holds up well, all thier products may not do so! The ones I have uses have not failed and are very smooth running. But, I do like Pioneer and I know about them from a long time back and I would highly recommend them to anyone for any model, I know they are the Cadillac of the industry while the Sonys are lower in quality -- Carl

[Mike70]

Only problem, Happy, is that the Pioneer is internal and I've still got to work on my G4 Laptop, so right now the LG seems the choice. The drobo looks interesting, but as the problem is archiving, not performance, separate hard drives would seem just as easy.

[MitchLewis]

I'm looking at the LG as well for the same reasons as Mike70.

[ColorBalance]

Hard drives for me. A 750 GB external drive, selling for $100 range almost, can store 50+ hours of video. Takes less space than the disks. On an HDD, you create a project folder, then sub-folders, and use notepad to create notes, and all, on a dynamic basis. No need to put sticky papers on to organize, and then search for specific disk. As far as crashing goes, HDD's do crash, but, make another backup - will require a couple of hours of unattended work especially if you use SATA II interface.

DVD's may make sense for event videographers. I shoot movies. For me, it'll be a real pain to have 20 - 30 DVD's for one single project especially when the scenes are not shot in a chronological order . I rather keep everything at one place under one roof, and make copies, just in case.

[Happy Hopping]

Only problem, Happy, is that the Pioneer is internal and I've still got to work on my G4 Laptop, so right now the LG seems the choice. The drobo looks interesting, but as the problem is archiving, not performance, separate hard drives would seem just as easy.

you can buy a cheap conversion box that converts an internal drive to an External USB. That same link at newegg sells them too

[Happy Hopping]

Hard drives for me. A 750 GB external drive, selling for $100 range almost, can store 50+ hours of video. Takes less space than the disks. On an HDD, you create a project folder, then sub-folders, and use notepad to create notes, and all, on a dynamic basis. No need to put sticky papers on to organize, and then search for specific disk. .

I am too lazy to put sticky paper, I just use a permanent CD marker.

but to save time for searching, what I did is I capture the dir. in CMD mode, on all my disc, in a simple txt file.

So if I need to search something, I just load up that file and go CTRL F. That way, I don't need to flip thru a disc binder

[Mike70]

Thanks, Happy. Will check it out.

[Mike70]

Took a look at the conversion enclosures, but given the less than enthusiastic reivews for any of them, I think I'm probably better off sticking with the LG.

On another point: any reason not to use the less expensive read only disks (instead of RW),since it's just for archiving?

[PerroneFord]

On another point: any reason not to use the less expensive read only disks (instead of RW),since it's just for archiving?

Nope, that's exactly what I am doing. Doing dual layer though because I need the space for most of my projects.

[Mike70]

Thanks, Perrone. It sounds like you're archiving actual video files, rather than data. How come you're not just taking the BPAV folder from your shoot and Copying it to a blu-ray disk formatted for data?

Also, what advantage are you finding in using Cineform? I'm using FCP and not sure why I'd spend $600 for it.

[Happy Hopping]

Took a look at the conversion enclosures, but given the less than enthusiastic reivews for any of them, I think I'm probably better off sticking with the LG.

On another point: any reason not to use the less expensive read only disks (instead of RW),since it's just for archiving?

For archiving, I buy Taiyo Yuden.

They comes in BD-R, and DVD+R. This brand is the highest quality money can buy.

[PerroneFord]

I am archiving actual video files, as well as data. Depends on my needs.

I tend to archive render my finished file into a portable format. Cineform offers me excellent visual quality and amazing compression that still edits easily. It's wavelet compression much like RED uses. Which is why RED lets you edit raw 4k files on a laptop. Pushing around 1920x1080 on my machines becomes trivial. It's honestly a lot like working with DV.

If I needed the raw files, I'd certainly move those to blu-ray also, but I just don't have the need for anything other than the finished products.

As for spending the money for Cineform, Vegas ships with a free version. So I didn't have to spend a dime for it. It would be worth the money for it anyway though. I wouldn't get anything less than the 2k version though.

-P


Thanks, Perrone. It sounds like you're archiving actual video files, rather than data. How come you're not just taking the BPAV folder from your shoot and Copying it to a blu-ray disk formatted for data?

Also, what advantage are you finding in using Cineform? I'm using FCP and not sure why I'd spend $600 for it.

[ullanta]

For archiving, I buy Taiyo Yuden.

They comes in BD-R, and DVD+R. This brand is the highest quality money can buy.




Where have you been able to buy Taiyo BD-R discs? They don't seem to be on the market yet...?

[Happy Hopping]

I use their DVD+R in barrel of 100. However, on the 2nd link, as you can see, they seems to be available in box of ?? 10 maybe. (page 4 of the PDF file, 2nd link)

http://www.yuden.co.jp/ut/product/pdf_html/pdf68.html

http://www.yuden.co.jp/ut/product/pdf/mbdr_e.pdf