Finally, data writing onto the PDW-U1 for Macs
 

We can now just dump our BPAV onto the pro discs via drag and drop and anything else we want to put on there!

Philip Bloom Blog Archive Finally. The best way to archive SxS and anything else you want!

If the EX clips are wrapped as an MFX will the Sony XDcam decks see them as video, or are the EX clips just transferred to the PDW U1 as data files?
In other words if I write to a PDW U1 then put it in an XDCAM 1500 deck will it show up in thumbnails and be viewable as video?

Phil - I own an EX1 and although my data needs I'm sure are much more tame than yours (I'm not doing near the volume of work you are), I don't personally own a PMW-U1. I'm thinking, however, that it would be viable for me to store to a mirrored set of drives when I archive, then transfer those over to XDCAM media when filled by renting the PMW-U1 and purchasing the media as-needed.

So forgive my ignorance on this next question due to my lack of experience with XDCAM media - is the shelf life significantly more impressive than that of a standard-issue burnable CD-ROM or DVD has turned out to be? They're saying now that the shelf life for those that you'd pick up at a store for regular burning or backing up is 10 years or so on best, last I remember. I'm not backing up to optical media right now, but if XDCAM isn't any better than that, I think I'd be better of with the mirrored drive set, one kept off-site...

The PDW-U1 costs about $2800. A 50gig XDCAM disc runs around $60 each. For that amount of money, you can buy TWENTY EIGHT 1 terabyte hard drives.

Drobo vs. Floppy Disks
 

Sorry, I can't resist: for that kind of money, you could buy a fully loaded 16TB DroboPro or perhaps over 9600 3.5" floppy disks (~14GB of storage!)


<rant>The debate over archival strategies rages on and the only conclusion that I've come to is that different people have different requirements, differing value placed on the content, as well as different definitions of the word "archival". For some, I think using XDCAM discs for long-term storage is brilliant. For others, maybe just using spinning rust (hard drives) would suffice. YMMV, yada yada yada, if you can't justify solution "X", then you can't justify solution "X". I can't justify a robotic LTO tape library, but that doesn't mean my material isn't valuable to me. I use an archival strategy I trust and one that I can justify.</rant>

Oh, and thanks Phil!
 

Almost forgot to thank Phil for letting us know the good news.

Once the summer rush is over, I'll probably consider one of these drives.

For the cost & time savings I went with a DroboPro. I was holding off for the U1 drive to be upgraded but I just can't ignore how little a loaded DroboPro is in comparison.

The Sony professional discs are designed to have a shelf life of 50 years. I've seen a couple of Drobo systems go bad corrupting the entire file system so not as impressed by them as I once was.

it is professional solution for professional archiving. Just sticking your rushes on a hard drive is not a safe enough archiving solution for me.

This IS a more expensive professional archive option, but fortunately there are many other solutions out there that range in price/speed/workflow, that are equally reliable and professional.

Thanks, Alister - this is what I was looking for.

Drives to LTO
 

You could also just use a 750-gig drive (specifically, yes) and take it down to your local video house/archival storage place and have them archive it for long term storage on LTO tape (which hold 800 gigs on LTO-4). Locally here in Minnesota that could be done for somewhere in the price range of $10/transfer and $0.10/gigabyte (about $85.00). Quite inexpensive and LTO has a 30+ year rating.

That may be true, but it sure isn't going to be very convenient when you need to grab a shot or two out of your archives -- which is something I do all the time.

I think I'll be archiving from now on with 50GB optical disks because I already own a PDW-U1. Obviously, if you don't have a PDW-U1 then it might not make sense for you.

I archive in 2 locations. But if both hard drives fail, isn't it possible to send it to a data recovery service?

drives to LTO
 

Indeed, that wouldn't be convenient. But it would be convenient if your working drive(s) went down. You could just restore the whole drive for a few bucks. The system would be to capture and duplicate on 750 GB drives and have long-term/archival backup on LTO.
Warren -- have you priced out hard drive recovery? You may as well spend the money on the other systems up front and not worry about it.