Blu-ray disc brands – comparison

[Craig Seeman]

[Bob Mark] “Mostly, because hard drives are so inexpensive these days.”

Hard drives fail. It’s inevitable. Drives are cheap but my client’s data is not. Blu-ray, like any media, won’t last forever, but they are leagues ahead of DVD. A properly cared for Blu-ray disk will probably outlast a hard drive. Hard drive even go bad when not used, especially for long periods.

[Bob Mark] “Plus, I have yet to have a client that will let me send them EX1 footage on disk. They all want hard drives.”

Fine for short term mobility. That’s not archival though. I have sent clients EX1 files on disk although I sometimes send a batch of DVDs if they don’t have a Blu-ray reader. With hard drives there’s always the risk of being hung by NTFS vs Fat32 vs HFS, etc formatting issues, not knowing what computer they’ll be using. I have used hard drives too but you do have to be careful about drive formatting.

[Chris Babbitt]

Blu-Ray data discs are apparently subject to the same formatting issues as hard drives. I have a client who works in the Windows realm, and every time I send him a Blu-Ray with EX files that exceed 4gb, he cannot see those files. I still haven’t found anything that works. Even doing an ISO 9660 disc won’t work.

[Bob Mark]

Yes, hard drives do fail. However, I have not had a failure in over 5 yr. Since I gave up on using scsi drives, I have not really had drive issues. When the solid state drives come down in price, they will be a good option. Burning disks is certainly a good option as well. I keep my important footage on three drives and on some disks and from way back on Beta SP tape. That 4 gig issue is “bite.”

Bob