Discussion Can someone fill me in on Blu-Ray Burners?

[ClapTrapper]

I gave up on the dream of Blu-Ray Burning years ago. I had (and still have) mountains of DVD discs filled with my backup data. I wanted to use a Blu-Ray burner to cut that mountain down,but the burners were expensive and the blanks,when you could find them,were so much higher than recordable DVDs I gave up on Blu-Ray Burners.
It seems the burners and media has come down in price.
Are people using these as back-up media?
Can anyone give any info on the pros and cons of Blu-Ray Burning?
Thank You!

 

[andjayik]

i just use portable drives and have a blue-ray burner but hav'nt used in years. With the portable drive u can take it anywhere and use it.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Same here, portable or desktop hard drives much easier to manage for backups than any type of optical disc.

 

[helpstar]

optical disks won´t be that reliable than hard drives
for short term backups ok, but even after one year self burned disks can be fault and can not be read anymore.

 

[ClapTrapper]

optical disks won´t be that reliable than hard drives
for short term backups ok, but even after one year self burned disks can be fault and can not be read anymore.

I don't know about that! I have DVD backups I burned 10-15 years ago that are just fine.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't know about that! I have DVD backups I burned 10-15 years ago that are just fine.

And I have some that fail to read all the way through after 5 years.

 

[helpstar]

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/do-not-trust-dvd-for-long-term-backup/
https://www.ontrack.com/en-us/blog/backup-for-eternity-3

 

[ClapTrapper]

optical disks won´t be that reliable than hard drives
for short term backups ok, but even after one year self burned disks can be fault and can not be read anymore.

I have a lot,a whole lot,of experience burning DVD data disks. The key is using good blanks and burning slow. Don't be editing a 4k video and playing the latest FPS while burning.

 

[ClapTrapper]

Same here, portable or desktop hard drives much easier to manage for backups than any type of optical disc.

In my other posts I was looking for a high end case with 5 1/4 external bays for my DVD Burner.
I backup a lot to DVD (hopefully Blue-Ray soon), a lot!

Having the burner integrated into the case is much more convenient than an external burner in my circumstance.

 

[helpstar]

the problem is that the surface of self burned DVDs/Bluerays won´t be sealed after burning and therefore you have to store these disks in a place where it doesn´t get hot/cold (about 22°C) and the humidity is always <40%

The experience you have is great and if it is working out for you, you can use it like you wish.
the usual life span is <=10 years for a DVD.
You should use M-Discs for you backups. But this would be very expensive over time.

still, at least two external hard drives (4TB) would be the best backup media

 

[HerrKaLeu]

There is a reason they went away...... use an HDD/SDD and you can dynamically update your backup and are not limited by size.

Years ago I had my music on 100s of CDs. what a hassle, even with 6-CD changer in car. Now all in my phone and i can listen to everything everywhere. Same progress in technology.

 

[Joseph57]

I have found that some newer music file formats that sound o.k. on a phone do not sound that well on a vintage stereo system with those vintage tower speakers. It is noticable. I don't know how it would sound in a car with a good audio system

 

[HerrKaLeu]

I have found that some newer music file formats that sound o.k. on a phone do not sound that well on a vintage stereo system with those vintage tower speakers. It is noticable. I don't know how it would sound in a car with a good audio system

has nothing to do with how data are stored. bits are bits on DVD, SSD, or HDD.

What matters is how you converted the music to (presumably) mp3 or other compressed format. Lower bitrate = lower quality. Not sure anyone would, you could just copy the CD data format to HDD without compressing to mp3 and it would be an exact clone.

Same thing if you play back the mp3 from a phone, or a CD player that reads mp3. It is the same data. All the differences are in the device that converts the digital data to analog sound (i.e. your phone speaker).

 

[jasonf2]

If you are hardcore worried about backups I would suggest going with a reputable paid cloud storage service. This can be as simple as a paid subscription to one drive or box. The upload will take a while but the case of a good cloud service it will have redundant data-center level backups and even if you have a fire or something catastrophic the files will be safe. Decentralized storage farms also mean that even if Microsoft has a fire in one of its data centers there is a backup somewhere else as well. You don't need to worry about loosing the media, breaking the media, or time degradation of the media as the cloud service is maintaining the volumes constantly. The cost per month is cheap and by the time you figure out what your media is running you in long term maintenance I don't even know if you come out ahead with physical media at all.

 

[Theresa N]

I wouldn't back up to blu-ray. But you can't beat blu-ray for both video and audio if you have good enough components unless it is a lossless rip of a blueray or UHD disk.. MP3s sacrifice sound quality for convenience. Trouble is nobody these days knows what good sound is, they've been spoiled by highly compressed audio.

 

[popatim]

There are plenty of audiophiles around as well as lossless formats to store music.

I make a yearly backup to BDR as well and ongoing backups to several external HDD's as new stuff gets added.
My server also has dedicated internal backup drives that are updated nightly.

One copy of the BDR's go in my basement and the other copy goes in my sisters basement. I don't care if they can't be read after more then a year. LoL

My biggest fear is the dreaded bitrot.