Just to make sure I don't loose the original data, I started to make backups on DVD-R as disk images. It fits in nicely and pretty inexpensive.
But the workflow takes little bit too much time.

In a few days at Consumer Electronics Show I believe, Pioneer will announce their BluRay burner (single layer 25GB). I'm looking forward to dual layer (50GB) which I hope will be very close behind. That should solve the archive issue. 50GB with headroom should be around 45 minutes and even if it only burns at 2x it will be reasonable time efficient. Compare to tape, BluRay will be more storage space efficient and faster than tape to access a give scene/shot.

wonder how much blue ray burners will cost.. let alone blank discs...

i remember when the first cdroms came out.. 3grand.. discs were 30bux..

cd burners came down and now u can get them for 30bux..

same with dvd burners.. when they first came out i bought my first for about 4 grand.. discs were like 60bux