Blu-ray discs for archiving?

F

finchy

Well-known member
Hey guys,

I am trying to work out the best and most cost effective way of archiving my EX1r footage.
EXT Hard drives get quite expensive when you need a lot of them so i am looking at alternatives to keep my raw files etc.

Would dumping them to Blu-ray disc be a sensible option?? You can get about 50gb per disc and would be a lot easier to keep safe and secure...

I am just wondering if this is common practice and advisable or not??


Many thanks

Tom
 
I'm no expert, but hard drives will fail with time even when just left alone. You have the option of copying to new drives at a later time, but would you actually do it?

I haven't researched Blu-ray discs, but if they are the same basic technology as DVD discs, the type you burn yourself is different than the type pressed at a factory.

The type you burn yourself is comprised of a a dye laminated between two layers of plastic. With time (accelerated with exposure to sunlight, heat and air) the layers delaminate resulting in a different lifespan those with a foil imprint.

I did find this on a media site:

"Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more. Little information is available for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs (including audio and video), resulting in an increased level of uncertainty for their life expectancy. Expectations vary from 20 to 100 years for these discs."

According to this paper the Blu-ray will last 500 years.
http://www.optical.com/optical_storage/IEEE_Bluray.pdf

I've been wondering about just buying less expensive SDHC cards and archiving to them, but I've been told those loose the data after a few years.

In the old days we archived on tape, though they were also subject to deterioration of the glue holding the particles onto the tape. I'd be interested if anyone has other solutions.
 
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why do you want something that will last more than a few years?

you can get a raid solution that will backup your digital files, you can change the hard drives every few years with cheaper bigger hard drives that are better and more reliable.
 
If you want to archive to optical discs then you NEED to buy archive grade media. Regular media is not reliable after a number of years. Archive media is more expensive but has a 100 year life.

Alternatively look in to LTO drives & Media.
 
I agree with EXACT, you need archive grade media. What type of archive to you want to use? That depends on how long you want the media.

Your best bet is to ask an archive librarian or if you happen to know anyone that works for "The Criterion Collection" they would know.
 
I've lost data on DVD-R media after only 4 years sitting on the shelf.
I've had a 'cheap' "Blaze" brand BD-R disc start to have trouble playing after 8 plays, and become unrecognized by the 11th play attempt.

Optical media, beyond CD-R, is not reliable at all. Don't trust anything to any DVD or BD optical media, unless it's something you don't mind losing.
 
Yeah, that's getting to the difference between the dye layer type vs the foil print type. None of us are doing pressed foil. All those you burn yourself have a dye layer.
 
No field-burned optical media are "archival". That includes CD-R, DVD*R, and BluRay. If you seriously want to keep content on optical disks, then plan on re-copying them every 2 years.

The cost of hard drive and flash memory decreases monthly, hard drives seemingly at a steeper rate than flash (at least here in 2010). Hard drives aren't "archival" either, but they are so cheap per megabyte that you can afford to keep 2 or 3 copies on different brand drives for somewhat higher expectation of recovery at a later date.
 
This whole issue raises an ugly spectre for the customer base.. what happens when thousands of DVD-R wedding/event discs start going bad and become unplayable? Will customers demand glass mastered discs then?
 
The best long term archive media that we know of today is a RAM disk. I have all my TV shows backed up on them. They are patterned after a hard disk platter with sectors, and have been used in banks for data for years with reliability and low failure. They are reliable and pricey at ~$2.00 a disk, and are rewritable (guaranteed 10,000 times) and known to hold information for a long time - up to 25 years I think. Also, they can be recorded without any trans coding. Panasonic developed this technology as the first optical drive starting 20 some years ago. Unfortunately, they hold only 4.7 gig on standard disk size. For security reasons, they can be locked optically so as not to accidentally record over critical information -- Just a thought!
 
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