What DVD Brand To use for Storage?
 

OK, back from vacation (a bit earlier than planned) and I want to download my stuff from the SR11 to both my computer and onto DVDs for storage. Downloading to my computer is easy, but when I went to get some blank DVDs, nobody had the brand that I am accustomed to; Verbatim. I always believed that Verbatim were one of the best for storage due to their reputed "longer life" as to keeping your video images. But noone in my area has any. Did they go out of business?

What is the next best brand that will keep my videos pure and pristine for many many years?

Thanks.

Mike

Taiyo Yuden may be even better than Verbatim.

Ron Evans

Taiyo Yuden? Where does one get them?

Mike

Taiyo Yuden
 

Like the others here, I also use Taiyo Yuden. Very reliable and almost 100% error free. There are other no name brands sold in our country but is actually made by Sony or some well known disc makers. I use those for testing or simple data exchanges.

If you are thinking of archival, I wouldn't pin my hopes too long on DVD recordables. I use them only for temporary storage. I am thinking of 5-10 years of life only. For me, there is still no 100% storage archival that is cheap but reliable. Maybe tape can be considered as such, but it takes some time get the material into the tape and out of it. So it is cumbersome.

Hard discs (HD), and I mean that in a plural may be the better option for now, till maybe they get their BD (blue ray) act together. That means, have 2 backups of the same stuff in two HDs. Make sure these HDs are not from the same batches. Best to buy one now and maybe 4-6 months later. Good news is HD cost less now for more storage. You can get maybe a 3.5" 500gb for U$60 give or take. Notebook or 2.5" HD is in the U$100 for that same 500gb. Get an external enclosure or buy models with enclosures already that you can connect to USB or firewire, or the newer eSATA.

BD is still too expensive and so is the drive/burner. But that can be an option too if you don't trust HDs. They are smaller and lighter. Downside is they cost more and of course, we still have no independent tests to say that your data will really be more stable and last a long time.

As you can see, there are downsides and upsides to every solution. For me, since HD costs went down, that is the better option for now. But I'd start moving my data to a new one every 3 years just to be sure. That is the MTBF of HDs now. My guess is you can get a 2TB storage for around U$80-100 in 3 years anyway.

Maybe in 3 years, SSD (solid state drives) or some form of compact flash will be the next storage. So, maybe we can move into that instead. For now, they are expensive and they are limited in size. But if all goes well, maybe in the future we can see 500gb - 1TB SSDs or even CF/SDHC (or super/ultra sd) cards! Maybe if we can buy a 64-128gb SDHC for U$5-10 each, then we'll just be buying the cards like we are buying tapes today. Instead of transferring re-using them, they are our archival storage as well! Just buy new cards for the next project.

I now backup in two ways. One copy on hard drive and also one copy of the hard drive backup to LTO -03 Ultrium tape. Finished projects are dealt with in the same way.

Ron Evans

Thanks for the advice, guys. Seems the best solution for me (for now) is to get another large hard drive to store all my raw footage AND finished products on. Anyway, did find some blank Verbatims, but don't know if they are the good ones or the poor ones.

Mike

Mike,

I second the hard drive suggestion. I use 3 external 500GB USB drives for storage of digital video files. Each of the 3 was purchased 8 months to a year apart between purchases and when I come back with a "take" first thing I do is copy it to the C drive and one external.

Then I review and rename the clips on the C drive from the numeric filenames to something that relates to the project and will mean something to me when I begin the editing process.

After the rename I copy all renamed files to a named project folder on all 3 externals.

Finished projects are rendered to HD WMV and saved on all 3.

That works for me for now.

I can't find the reference for this at the moment, but I remember reading last year that hard drives must be spun-up for a few minutes each year if you want to maintain the data that is on them. So don't expect to archive your work to a drive, and then leave the drive on the shelf for 5 years.

Also, you might want to check out this very cool item from Vantec, that lets you pop in a bare SATA hard-drive and then pop it out like a piece of toast. :-)

NexStar Hard Drive Dock
Welcome to Vantec ? Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock-NST-100S2- 2.5"/3.5" SATA to USB 2.0 Hard Drive Dock

ThermalTake Drive Dock
Thermaltakeusa»Storage»BlacX»BlacX : BlacX ST0005U

I have two of the Thermaltake models. They work very well and I have stopped using the enclosures I had before.

Ron Evans

I have taken all you guys advice and bought another hard drive; an external 1.5 TB Seagate. Will be duplicating my most important stuff, and adding other less critical footage to it as my other two hard drives are beginning to fill up.

Mike

My question is why not just go back to tape? Is there a benefit to AVCHD?

MiniDV tape is fairly expensive (relatively speaking), per gig of storage. Even Blu-ray can be less costly per gig now. Also, AVCHD offers better image quality than HDV, per gig of data.

Maybe I need a "hook up" on DVD's (Blue Ray) or double sided, but they are outrageously priced where I shop compare to mini DV's.

For me all my finished film goes on tape [mini dv] blu ray disc and hard drive, i dont know which will last longest but i do have 13 year old mini dv tapes that are fine ,some film goes on avchd but no way is the quality as good as tape, all avchd material is ok but pans are not as clean as tape and bd no matter what software i have tried but it is hdv on dvd disc i suppose, bd discs only cost as little as 2£ sterling now but best makes are more pricey obviously.

A BD-R (single layer blu-ray disk) can hold the contents of two 60 minute miniDV tapes. Compare the cost of two premium quality tapes (roughly $5-$10, or more, a piece - so in the range of $10-20, or more, for two) to the cost of a Verbatim BD-R from Newegg ($6.50/ea buying a spindle of 10):

Newegg.com - Verbatim 25GB 4X BD-R 10 Packs Spindle Disc - CD / DVD Media

Generic BD-R disks can be purchased for as little as $3/ea in bulk nowadays. Even two of the very cheapest miniDV tapes you can find anywhere cost more than that.

The absolute cheapest way I know of, to archive footage, is on single layer (standard) DVD disks. The contents of a 60 minute miniDV tape will fit on three disks. Verbatim DVD-R or DVD+R can be purchased for a little under 20 cents (in spindles of 100) from Newegg, when they offer a rebate/free shipping deal (which is very often). That translates to less than 60 cents to archive the contents of a miniDV tape.