P2 card archive

[Emre Tufekcioglu]

We have a 60K archiving solution from rimage that takes P2 cards directly and writes to blu-ray, however I would not recommend anybody to use blu-ray as an archiving solution. (we never used the system for that, duplication only).

Hard Drive based Raid-1 solutions with a LTO/VXA back up is the best way IMHO.

[Matthew Sonnenfeld]

Neal,

I have used both Blu-Ray and RAID 1 arrays as backup for P2 cards and I do happen to like using Blu-Ray. Hard drives are nice but in the end, they will fail. Every hard drive will fail as a rule of thumb. Not to mention the wasted disc space.

LTO tape is probably the best and most reliable way to go but that also will wind up costing you.

The scratch resistant coatings on Blu-Ray discs are quite nice and the data that they can store is ever increasing (soon to be 128 GB’s on a single BDXL Quad Layer disc). Of course, you need the burner to burn that size disc and to my knowledge, the discs are not yet available.

Blu-Ray discs are not cheap and a bundle of 50 BRDL discs (50gig discs) will cost you 330, but that would give you 2.5TB of pretty reliable storage so it’s up to you if you think that’s worth it.

The bundles from videoguys.com are really excellent and you can find an internal or an external bundle for Mac or PC that can fit your needs. Just remember, if you’re on a Mac you will need software, such as Toast, in order to burn a Blu-Ray data disc like a P2 archive. This is all included in the Mac Blu-Ray bundles.

In response to your question, there are no Blu-Ray drives specifically designed for this purpose so there won’t be any that can take a P2 card directly. But honestly, the Pioneer Blu-Ray burners are the only way to go. I have the Panasonic AJ-PCD2 card reader and for the money, it’s a rip off for USB 2.0, but it works every time and having come from the notoriously unreliable Duel Adapter, it’s worth every penny if you ask me.

Links to what I’m talking about:

Videoguys Blue-Ray Bundles: https://www.videoguys.com/Specials/Money%20Saving%20Bundles.aspx

Pioneer BDXL Burner: https://www.videoguys.com/Item/Pioneer+BDR-206MBK+BDXL+Blu-ray+Burner+w-+software/35B424D4630323254424.aspx

BRDL Spindle: https://www.tapeonline.com/products/verbatim-blu-ray-50g-bd-r-6x-datalifeplus-white-inkjet-hub-printable

Panasonic Card Reader: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/683343-REG/Panasonic_AJPCD2GPJ_AJ_PCD2GPJ_Single_Slot_P2_Memory.html

Hope this helps. Cheers!

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