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Archiving clips and Final Cut Pro X projects on Blu-Ray
Hi all,
I have this huge number of video clips, of which I still think I wanna keep them archived. I have filled many HD’s by now, but there’s a danger, so I’m told: HD’s also lose quality and may crash. So what to do?
I decided to go for long lasting Blu-Ray 25GB disks. Prices have dropped steadily. But pop, there’s new problems: suppose the disks last for 25 years, as advertised. How to make the archive really platform independent or ensure, that some device and/or program will be able to read the files in the future? Nothing passes faster than electronics, the very newest is obsolete in a wink and backwards compatible is typically unsure in the long term, so I think. And the mere thought of migration every ten years is unbearable for me.I was thinking, that perhaps FCPX’s exporting XML option is the best way to go forward? Could XML serve the purpose and be relatively future-proof? I really don’t know much about XML. I never had to exchange video between platforms or editing programs. Is there anybody who has the experience and is willing to share his/her thoughts on this issue? I have searched on the www, but all talk is about archiving on HD’s. I think I have that covered. Or am I overlooking the thread that answers my question?
I would be grateful for your thoughts on this.
Paul -
6 Replies
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Archive to a raid 1. You’ll probably have to migrate every 5 years if you want to keep it all in one place. But really, the odds of me opening or needing something that old are slim. I’m looking at archiving to an inexpensive USB 3 raid 1. When the disks are full Ill pack the drives away, or get a larger raid and migrate so its all in the same place.
Feel free to make Blu-Ray backups too, but those seem more fragile to me. I’ve burned a few AVCHD discs of stuff as backup masters to hard drives myself. I prefer the drive with the ability to sort by modification date, alphabetical, file type, etc vs trying to find a disc in a pile of hundreds. And the ability to plug it in and edit off it is appealing too.
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I’ve been archiving to hard drives for years. What I like most about that is if I have to make a revision, often I can do it on the archive drive without transferring all the data back to my edit drive. I also backup my edit drive daily to a 6TB G-Tech drive. If a particular project is very important, I also back it up to a second drive.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.7.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Comp 3.5.3, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.3)
FCP-X 10.0.7, Motion 5.0.6, Compressor 4.0.6Pro Tools HD 10 w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec DSP Monitors, Prima CDQ120 ISDN
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Hi Bret and John,
I’m afraid we talk different languages. Hard drives are excellent media for, say, 5 years. I’m talking 25 years. I have all those files stored on hard drives, just as you said, I have RAID arrays full of them (10TB), all OK. But that’s not archiving, that’s backing up.
Don’t ask me IF I want to archive those clips, but talk HOW to archive them. Remember the old family films that pop up of our youth? That’s the idea. HDD’s will certainly NOT do on that term. Archiving is looking ahead over a much longer period. That’s my point.
Sorry to notice, that everybody starts talking about HDD’s over and over. They are fine, but, helas, not for my purpose.
But still thanks for your reactions,
Paul -
Understood. Our clients program’s rarely have more than a five-year life so HDDs work for that. That said, I have drives from the mid to late 90s that still work fine. I don’t throw them away. You never know. I’ve looked at tape systems, but I can’t justify the cost, although, prices seem to be dropping.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.7.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Comp 3.5.3, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.3)
FCP-X 10.0.7, Motion 5.0.6, Compressor 4.0.6Pro Tools HD 10 w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec DSP Monitors, Prima CDQ120 ISDN
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Hi John,
I found Panasonic BDR’s to be quite long lasting and affordable. My initial question was on WHAT to burn on them. With my drives I don’t be that picking, with BDR’s I want to. I try to look 25 years ahead, see? Any thoughts?
Paul
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I think BDRs are a good option. I don’t use them because my projects range in size from 100GB to 250GB, so putting them onto BDRs is a lot of effort. As to your question about what to archive, I archive everything – MXFs & media made from them. Also, I archive all QuickTime export masters. I don’t always archive Renders. Archiving XMLs is ok, but you need to archive the media they reference or they can’t recreate projects, etc. At least I think that’s the way it works.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.7.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Comp 3.5.3, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.3)
FCP-X 10.0.7, Motion 5.0.6, Compressor 4.0.6Pro Tools HD 10 w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec DSP Monitors, Prima CDQ120 ISDN
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