Should I change to blu-ray?

[nielse]

I am new to blu-ray and have some basic questions before I buy.

Is the advantage of blu-ray over other dvd platforms basically a question of storage capacity or are there other advantages?

I want to store thousands of RAW format photos and some videos (not HD though) and want to limit the number of DVDs I have to burn and keep. Would blu-ray serve that purpose?

I have seen that the LG GGW-H20L is one of the most reasonably priced internal PC burners. Any experiences with that and would it be a good buy?

Thanks in advance for any help regarding these questions.

[SpikesBluBlooded]

I can't answer all your questions, but can say at least this:

In addition to getting higher storage capabilities (up to 50GB on one disc), there's also the added benefit of the protective coating, which makes the darned things pretty much scratch-proof under normal conditions. Check out YouTube for an example of what one person did to get theirs from finally not being able to play back.

As far as specific models for your PC, well, that will be for some other members to answer, but there's more being put on the market every day, so I'm sure you'll find one that fits your needs.

[Pauliesr]

I can't give the most technical answer for you but I can tell you that a blu ray disc holds up to 25gb of info for a single layer which is five times that of a standard DVD. Obviously if you wanted to burn to disc you would have to buy a blu ray burner for your PC and I have no idea how many are out there if any or what the prices would be.

I could ramble on about thinking about buying a PS3 because it comes with a hard drive that you could load your pix and video on to and it plays blu ray as well as standard DVD and does a whole lot more. At the moment there is a 40gb PS3 currently on the market (but there have also been 60gb and 80gb and some of those could very well be in stores not purchased yet).

I purchased a 60gb PS3 back in Dec. '06 and love it not only for the blu ray capabilitiy but because I can load pix (600+) on it as well as video (almost 2 hours) and I have only used up about 18gb of space - keep in mind I also have 1000+ songs loaded on to it as well.

My $.02

[owa]

Originally Posted by nielse

I want to store thousands of RAW format photos and some videos (not HD though) and want to limit the number of DVDs I have to burn and keep. Would blu-ray serve that purpose?

I have seen that the LG GGW-H20L is one of the most reasonably priced internal PC burners. Any experiences with that and would it be a good buy?

Don't have any experience with them yet but I'm currently looking into this as well. I want a blu-ray burner for work so that I can archive large amounts of data (and cut down on the number of discs to keep track of). The main problem, in my case, is that no one else will probably have a blu-ray drive in their MAC/PC (at this point anyway), so I'd probably end up having to burn DVDs at some point anyway. I'm hoping blu-ray drives will become commonplace in PCs this year though and that should help.

[cembros]

sounds like you could benefit from a portable external usb hard drive, they hold hundreds of and work on everyones computers

[katharsis]

IMO it would be better to invest in an external harddrive. Maybe even 2 (just in case one will crash)
You can get a 500GB external drive already starting at $150 (for a good one).
Get 2 of those and you should be set for quite some time. The advantage is easier access (then flipping through a dozen or more DVDs / BDs) and you can still edit your picture, videos and save them again or add material as well.
Blu-ray media runs at about $25 for a 2 pack of single layer (25GB).

[Krayge2469]

I'll try to answer what I can. Basically, there are the details about capacity (50gb as has been stated for dual-layers), the coating that makes them very durable and as stated, MUCH harder to scratch. The 25-50GB of storage would certainly allow you to copy a thousand RAW pics (assuming they run around 10-14mb per shot) plus some videos.

As for specific burners, it just depends on what you are looking for. I would suggest making sure you get one of the newer drives with the new diodes if you can afford it, but that will also be more expensive. basically, just make sure you do your research on current tech and what you are buying...i know a few first-round adopters of the older bluray stand-alone players will prolly be upset when 2.0 comes out.

as stated, buying a couple external HD enclosures would certainly be the cheapest "portable" option, but i understand why you are thinking in terms of physical discs. A hard drive can crash. you can spill something on one. lots of things make them a little less "trustworthy" and since you're looking at long-term archiving (i would presume) then a physical media disc is the best option. BluRay will certainly knock down the number of discs to worry about, but for now at least, it'll be more expensive. Just make sure if you do plan on long-term storage, keep the discs in a dark place away from a light source as this will inevitably make any optical disc have issues...BluRay won't be immune to such.

[katharsis]

I see people are talking about the "scratch resistant coating". I do not believe that the empty media BDs will have this coating! It's like buying empty cds or dvds, if you check the back and you see they're blue, green or whatever color... once the studios finishes manufacturing them the coat will be put on there, which give them the silver look. This is just to finalize the disc and also to make a bit more scratch resistant. A music cd that you buy at the store is much more resistant to scratches and liquids spilled on there and fingerprints than a cdr that you burnt your own music on...

[katharsis]

Well I guess I was partially wrong:

"DURABIS 2 protects the disc surface against scratches and resists smudges from fingerprints, providing error-free Blu-ray Disc performance. Hard coating technology pioneered by TDK is part of the Blu-ray specification, but only TDK has DURABIS 2, the most advanced hard coating formulation for Blu-ray Disc media."

Pretty interesting...

[nycomet]

Yes, but I keep reading posts from people who rent Blus from NetFlux that the discs are all scratched up. How can this be if they have a protective coating? Can the coating weaken over time or can it chip off?

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by nycomet

Yes, but I keep reading posts from people who rent Blus from NetFlux that the discs are all scratched up. How can this be if they have a protective coating? Can the coating weaken over time or can it chip off?

It's not like diamond or anything. It will scratch if it's abused.

[katharsis]

Originally Posted by Aaron

It's not like diamond or anything. It will scratch if it's abused.

+1

See, most people do not appreciate the discs coming in from rental places enough to handle them carefully! Now if they would be theirs, bought with their own hard cash, I am sure they'd act a little different.
But I think there will be a difference if you receive a DVD handled by 100 people before you, compared to a Blu-ray handled by 100 people as well...

[nielse]

Thanks all for your advice.
Actually, I am backing up to external hard drives as well. What I wanted was to see if there is an alternative to the extra backup I do to dvd discs. Especially because I handle huge files such as RAW photos.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by nielse

Thanks all for your advice.
Actually, I am backing up to external hard drives as well. What I wanted was to see if there is an alternative to the extra backup I do to dvd discs. Especially because I handle huge files such as RAW photos.

So long as you understand that if you buy a BD burner, you still need to burn DVDs/CDs if you want to share your pix with other users/people.

Backing up on an external HD is great. 1TB is sorta affordable now. You can build a RAID drive for that extra storage though a second copy, say on BDs, in another location would be a wise move.


fuad

[nielse]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

So long as you understand that if you buy a BD burner, you still need to burn DVDs/CDs if you want to share your pix with other users/people.

Backing up on an external HD is great. 1TB is sorta affordable now. You can build a RAID drive for that extra storage though a second copy, say on BDs, in another location would be a wise move.


fuad

Thanks WS. But regarding sharing with others, as far as I have understood blu-ray is now the only standard left for high capacity storing and would that not mean that blu-ray increasingly will be more and more common on PC "standard" configuration?

[kurtlingle]

Originally Posted by SpikesBluBlooded

In addition to getting higher storage capabilities (up to 50GB on one disc), there's also the added benefit of the protective coating, which makes the darned things pretty much scratch-proof under normal conditions. Check out YouTube for an example of what one person did to get theirs from finally not being able to play back.

As far as specific models for your PC, well, that will be for some other members to answer, but there's more being put on the market every day, so I'm sure you'll find one that fits your needs.

I and my kids did a scratch test with the PS3 demo BD (some trailers for games + BD).

I can attest, these disks are pretty darn hard to scratch.

We threw them, we slid them on the hardhard floor (air hockey anyone?), used a screwdriver, and finally, rubbed them on the cement side walk.

The sidewalk finally did them in. But I was amazing how much effort it took to ruin the disk.

We did similar tests with a CD and the CD was totally scratched after 1 slide on our hardwood floor. We slid the BD many, many times with very little scatching.

Anyway, it was alot of fun and the kids just loved doing it. We even documented it (on paper).

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by kurtlingle

I can attest, these disks are pretty darn hard to scratch.

We threw them, we slid them on the hardhard floor (air hockey anyone?), used a screwdriver, and finally, rubbed them on the cement side walk.

The sidewalk finally did them in. But I was amazing how much effort it took to ruin the disk.

(on paper).

Then you mailed them back to Netflix

[IMind]

Originally Posted by nielse

Thanks WS. But regarding sharing with others, as far as I have understood blu-ray is now the only standard left for high capacity storing and would that not mean that blu-ray increasingly will be more and more common on PC "standard" configuration?

It's not only the only standard left... it's the only optical standard period large than a DVD. HD-DVD never had a burner on the market. The only other options you have are magnetic.. External HDs and tape.