What is the best media for the buck?

[Extender67]

I got myself a burner so i could back up my movies, but i can't find any resonably priced BD-Rs. most of what i have found are so expensive, i might as well buy a second copy of the movie. any suggestions of what media and where to buy it would be greatly appreciated. thanx!!!

[Extender67]

I find it hard to believe that nobody can tell me some good prices on media. It looks to me like there are a lot of people making copies. Are they all paying around $20 per blank?

[jmkoch]

Originally Posted by Extender67

It looks to me like there are a lot of people making copies. Are they all paying around $20 per blank?

All those copies of "Pirates of the Caribbean" were probably made by, well, pirates of the Caribbean, Shanghai, or even Smallville USA. The Kent family may not need a BD player at all if their adopted son's laser vision is switched on, but he should wear a patch over one eye and renounce Truth, Justice, and the American Way (cough, cough) if he gets into copyright mischief.

No one in this forum, so far as I know, expresses any ambition to copy (aka "rip") their collection of purchased BDs for the sake of "back-up." Might you cite an example?

To copy protected or proprietary videos is a violation of law. There are some "fair use" exceptions, but few. Anyway, no one should need to "back-up" a commercial Blu-ray. A disc should survive several hundred playings, at least, and no one is going to watch any movie that many times.

On the other hand, hobbyists or small commercial videographers who create their own HD videos and want to share or sell them in optical disc format. Honestly, the hobbyists have the upper hand, since the prospects of recouping the costs are slim. There are just too few BD players among households at large, and a fair share of them seem to have trouble playing BD-RE or BD-R discs. Even so, except for the Buffets of this globe, few hobbyists can afford to burn 20 or 40 BDs to share with all the players and fans of the state BB champs, the audience of the choir concert, or all who attended Great Granny's Jubilee.

Almost no stores sell cheap spindles of BD-R or BD-RE, whether SL or DL. At best, they hang on an isolated hook, probably in clost proximity to the security camera or senior cashier. They sell in individual cases at top prices. A store's entire inventory might be ONE BD-RE. However, the advantage to the buyer is that the total sum put at risk is under $20 and, if the disc is no good, there is probably a policy to give cash back if the buyer produces a receipt and returns the useless "coaster."

The cheapest price I've seen is $99.75 for a spindle of twenty-five 25GB BD-R offered by the following site:

http://www.mediamegamall.com/mega-me...bcdd695827e1b0

The silver discs are made by http://www.opticalquantum.com/ , about which one can read some pretty strange or unfavorable remarks in various forums. None of the comments looked particularly diligent or expert, though. I decided to take the risk. So far, all four discs I've burned have been successes. All play on my cheapo Sylvania BD player, a PS3, and one PC with a Matshita BD drive. I cannot attest to the durability. That will take some time. Fortunately, I do not yet need to find out if the site provides reliable or timely refunds if defective goods are returned.

The world abounds in crummy conventional DVD discs. The DL line features some notorious batches of junk discs that do not burn. Hopefully, the licensing and manufacturing standards for BDs are a bit more rigorous, but sooner or later some bad merchandise could start to appear.

[Extender67]

I have a 5-year-old son who likes to watch movies, but he's not content to have one movie in for the entire movie. No!!! he has to watch it for 20-30 minutes and then change it to something else. Kunk-fu Panda usually lasts around 45 minutes, but Cars, Wall-E and Horton Hears a Who are not so lucky. I've taught him how to handle disks a hundred times, but he still isn't very careful. That is why I would like to have back-ups of them. If a back-up gets scratched, then i can just make another.

[Ian@CDRLabs]

I hear you Extender67. My kids beat the crap out of their discs too.

Wouldn't it be better to burn a DVD copy? It's a lot cheaper and I doubt your son is going to notice the difference in quality.

[ckent22]

jmkoch,

While I admire you for respecting copy right laws, if you buy a film, then by law you are allowed to make one backup copy for yourself in case something happens to the original copy of the movie you purchased.

What you are referring to is making copies to sell or pirating copies that you don't pay for in which case that is a violation of federal law. But, I remember the DVD XCopy trial in which the judge ruled that one backup copy that you make for your own personal use of a film that you purchased is acceptable under law.

Now, I am not sure if that law has changed, but as far as I know it hasn't.

Back to the OP's question, I understand what you are saying and it in your case it does sound like you need backups. However, backing up Blus right now is not logical due to the high prices of Blu-Rs and the encryption that they run. There is one program I know of that I read in a software magazine that bypasses the encryption of Blu-rays, but I don't know if it is legal and I am certainly not gonna recommend it to you without knowing that.

So, with that said, making a backup of a DVD is much more logical and AS FAR AS I KNOW still legal if you purchased the film to begin with.

[Extender67]

Ok... thanx for your replies!!! and I assure you, I am only backing up Blu-rays that i have purchased.

I see a lot of people talking about burning Blu-rays for whatever reason. What I want to know is, How much is everybody spending on the BD-Rs that they are using and where do they get them? Can I get some reports of how much you guys are spending and where?

thanx everyone!!!

[ckent22]

Originally Posted by Extender67

Ok... thanx for your replies!!! and I assure you, I am only backing up Blu-rays that i have purchased.

I see a lot of people talking about burning Blu-rays for whatever reason. What I want to know is, How much is everybody spending on the BD-Rs that they are using and where do they get them? Can I get some reports of how much you guys are spending and where?

thanx everyone!!!

The average price I see for one at the store is probably 19.99 and that is as cheap as I have seen. I don't have a Blu-ray burner so I don't burn them.

[Ian@CDRLabs]

You can get 25GB Verbatim BD-R discs for less than $10 each. Most drives will write to them at 4x or higher.

[zicmubleu]

Originally Posted by Extender67

Ok... thanx for your replies!!! and I assure you, I am only backing up Blu-rays that i have purchased.

I see a lot of people talking about burning Blu-rays for whatever reason. What I want to know is, How much is everybody spending on the BD-Rs that they are using and where do they get them? Can I get some reports of how much you guys are spending and where?

thanx everyone!!!

Look at jmkoch's post, he provided a link to megamediamall which I have used without any problems. I got a 15 pack spindle from them for $60, shipping was minimal and they arrived within a couple of days. In your situation you should go to the newbie threads and check out the one on people unloading their DVDs, they would probably sell them for about the price of a BD-R and it would work, your BD-R copy probably won't work anyway. I learned to use a BD-RE, about $9, to test my Blu-ray media, slideshow, before burning a BD-R, after creating a few coasters.

[Extender67]

Thanx for the info guys!!! it's been very helpful.

[Extender67]

I almost forgot to ask. Has anybody ever purchased the Mega Media discs? Is it a reliable company to give a credit card? Are they good quality or do you end up with a bunch of expensive coasters?

[zicmubleu]

Originally Posted by Extender67

I almost forgot to ask. Has anybody ever purchased the Mega Media discs? Is it a reliable company to give a credit card? Are they good quality or do you end up with a bunch of expensive coasters?

Do you mean the Ri-data discs megamediamall sells for $4? If so yes, I have used them, and with better luck than the LG BD-RE that came free with my LG BD burner. There are a lot of early adopter issues apparently with the media, hopefully that will improve very soon, but buy one disc and try it out before committing much money. I also saw inexpensive discs at buy.com but didn't need any so I didn't purchase them; plus they charge more for shipping I think. And I have not had any problem with my CC using megamediamall.

One last thing, I haven't verified this however, but Blu-ray movies/films are written to BD-ROM which may have more capacity than a BD-R layer for layer - I think. This is one reason I said you probably won't have much luck copying a Blu-ray disc no matter what your reason is.