Moving to Blu-Ray (a Q for Peter or anyone else who already has switched)

[DavidFriedman]

These questions are meant for Peter, but I'd welcome answers from anyone else who has made the switch to Blu-Ray for backups.

What criteria did Blu-Ray have to meet before you were comfortable using it instead of DVDs?

Have you replaced your existing DVD archives with Blu-Ray (combining buckets, as you describe in the book)? Or are you just using Blu-Ray going forward?

How do you know Blu-Ray will take hold the way DVD has? It seems to me that DVD adoption was driven as much by movies as by storage capacity, but in this case Blu-Ray movies have a lot more competition in the form of digital downloads. Does it matter whether or not Blu-Ray becomes more widely adopted, or is it enough to know that there is a solid enough base of users?

Blu-Ray drives read CD and DVD just fine. But how confident are you that the next generation of high capacity storage will read Blu-Ray disks, instead of using some other technology altogether? Will there always be a need for optical drives as hard drives and flash drives get so cheap?

I guess you can see where my concerns lie. I know you're very conservative about taking risks with your data, so it's encouraging that you have already adopted Blu-Ray, but I'd appreciate just a little more elaboration on how you came to make the switch. Thanks.

David

[peterkrogh]

David,
Yes, I've migrated.  Pretty much as outlined in the book.  we started generating some huge files here (one stitched image of the USS Arizona is a 20 GB image file), so I had to do it.

I was waiting for
1 - HD-DVD/Blu-ray war to be over - it is.
2. Can I get Blu-ray at a reasonable price - I can. ($5/disk on Amazon).

The new Lenovo X700 on its way here has built-in Blu-ray.  We'll see this more frequently.  Even if Blu-ray gets overtaken by something else soon, the convenience for me is worth it if I get a few years out of it.  DVD became unworkable for how much I shoot, and I'm very uncomfortable with hard drive only archives.

I have only been burning the buckets moving forward as Blu-ray.  THe old ones are still only on  DVD (plus the 2 HD copies).  I did put the old buckets in Blu-ray sized buckets (generally 5 to a bucket) so that my count would be accurate, and to reduce folder clutter.  The DVD buckets remain in their DVD sized subfolders until I go back and re-burn them.  I may dump everything in to the Blu-ray bucket at that time - have not thought that one through yet.

Peter

[DavidFriedman]

Thanks for the response. Good food for thought.

David

[danaltick]

Peter,

Good info.  Thanks.  Since I haven't officially started targeting clients yet, I think I'm going to hold off a little longer.  I'll probably invest in one when I build another new system next summer using the new I7 (Nahelem) core and hopefully a new intel solid state drive.  Should be one hell of an overcloked system if Intel continues to stay on track.  I've read the I7 kicks butt with CS4.  I'm hoping it will do the same with Camera Raw 5.

Dan

[JoeThePhotographer]

How about dual-layer blu-ray...do you find that useful?

Are there any brands of media to stay away from?  Anything to look for when buying media?

Do you run the burner at maximum speed, or do you use a slower speed to be safe?

Joe

[peterkrogh]

Joe,
I've adopted single layer - have not found dual layer to be available at a reasonable price

As to what to look for, I've been looking for affordable. Newer disks can be made in DVD factories, so the price difference is pretty dramatic. We'll see how well the data validation goes.

Generally, I burn a speed down fro the top (2x).  I'll burn at 1x if there absolutely no hurry (like, I've started a burn and go to bed).
Peter

[danaltick]

Peter,

Any idea what the MTBF is with your burner.  If it takes hours to burn a single disc, I might be a little concerned how much burn time I could get out of it for the price.

Also, when you folded your DVD buckets into Blu-ray buckets, did you do the same to your secondary archive?

Dan

[peterkrogh]

Dan,
No idea about MTBF.  I needed it due to the size of the files I was creating.  Even f it only lasts a year, it will be worth it.  I've already gotten a second burner (inside a Lenovo 700 from Microsoft), and I expect they will become common soon.

As to the backups, no, I have not changed those.  Since all I did was combine buckets, the backups can stay the way they are.  If I ever need to use them, itwon't be that painful to recombine then.  And I have not yet started reburning DVD buckets onto Blu-ray.

Peter