What's the best DVD media for ARCHIVING so far?

[HughHefner]

Hi,

I'm about to archive many of my Divx movies and MP3s into DVDRs. so my quetions are:

1) What are the best DVDR medias or brands for archiving files for 5 or more years? I can't go for cheap 3rd-rate stuff because I need very reliable quality medias and brands for a long-run goal.

2) What are the best DVDR format for long-run archiving (just like above, 5+ years) ?

3) Is DVD THE best archiving media so far? I can't afford more HDs and I'm getting sick of my CDs piling up and sufficate my rooms due to its smaller capacity (700MB). Is it better to wait until better media or DVD format comes out (such as the upcoming Sony's 20 gig DVD, but that means if it's scratched a little bit, it won't even be readable).

4) Any tips I need to look for in terms of archiving DVDs?

Thanks in advance.

[lordsmurf]

MAXELL and MCC (or the APPLE versions) are the only discs I've had for about 2-3 years that I can guarantee will last that long without flaw.

RITEK G4 are good discs too, but I've only had them for a year (they've only existed for a year). Not fond of G1, G2 and G3 quality.

[iooi]

To be honest the cheapest and proberly the best way would be to buy another hard drive and a removable caddy. At least H/D's are known to last 5 years + unlike DVD's which are only just getting to that age now and as such are a unknown quantity in the aging stakes.
Sorry if its not the answer you wanted to hear

[handyguy]

BeAll from samsung has a 100 year archive but you didn't say what writer you have so don't know if they work on it.

[HughHefner]

I used to have HDs for archiving purposes (basically copy everything I want from the main HD to the archiving HD then store the archiving HD on shelves) but then I've had lots of experiences with damaged HDs, most are due from retails (such as Neweggs a year ago for sending me a refurbished HD while infact I wanted a brand new OEM). Some of my HDs crash permaturely, mostly within less than a year. I'm extremely delicate when it comes to archiving things, yet these experiences happened to often that I have to resort to a different media. And I never like the idea that whenever a HD crashes, I'd lose the **whole** 120 or 160 gigs of files whereas on a damaged DVDs only cost me 4.7 gigs (or CD for 700MB).

I'm planning to buy LG 4040 since Tomshardaware.com gave an excellent review rating on it. But I don't know if it would work with BeAll at all or maybe there are better DVD writers out there specifically for archiving purposes.

[Vanderlow]

Plextor (and maybe the new TDK 8x which is supposedly a Plextor) and Pionner 106 produce the least amount of errors when the disks are analyzed. That's what I've read.

[lordsmurf]

For the really important stuff, I have an offsite DVD backup, a DVD backup at home in a safe, a copy on a removable HD, a copy on at least two HD's and a copy on a CD-R.

I don't do that often, but I doubt I'll lose all of them.

[Lobe]

note: most HD manufactures specifically recommend AGAINST using HD's for archiving. They are better left in use, they may develop problems just sitting there turned off.

I would say Taiyo Yudens (same as Fuji 4x made in Japan) are the best right now, but it's all just a guess right now, and by the time we know they will have all changed their formulas/processes again so we'll never know for certain.

[FulciLives]

note: most HD manufactures specifically recommend AGAINST using HD's for archiving. They are better left in use, they may develop problems just sitting there turned off.

I would say Taiyo Yudens (same as Fuji 4x made in Japan) are the best right now, but it's all just a guess right now, and by the time we know they will have all changed their formulas/processes again so we'll never know for certain.

I agree that the best DVD-R media is Taiyo Yuden but I've only ever seen 2x Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs for sale on-line.

The FUJI 10-packs you can buy in stores like BEST BUY are Taiyo Yuden (the box should say MADE IN JAPAN) but have been 2x Taiyo Yuden but recently some people have claimed that they are now 4x Taiyo Yuden which is great but I've never seen 4x Taiyo Yuden for sale on-line so that kinda puzzels me.

Anyways the best prices I've seen on-line for Taiyo Yuden is at RIMA.COM

Also I have used the MAXEL 2x DVD-R discs that you can buy in stores (comes in a 10 pack in an orange box similiar to the FUJI package you can buy in stores) but these are expensive.

If you buy the 2x Taiyo Yuden 100 cake pack from RIMA.COM they are about $1.68 each and ...

Oh wait! This is a wonderfull thing. The Taiyo Yuden 100 cake pack is now 4x DVD-R not 2x DVD-R

Well I know what I'm ordering when I run out of my current batch.

You can't beat 4x Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs for $1.68 each

That's a sweet deal

The aforementioned MAXEL and FUJI 10-packs usually go in retail stores for $25 each which is $2.50 per disc although they do come in standard CD size jewel cases but who wants those anyways!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

Another thing you might want to consider ... even if using the "BEST" DVD-R media you don't want to fill up the disc too much. Most of your READ ERRORS are near the outer edge (the recording goes from the inside to the outside so filling it up gets right up to that outside edge).

To be safe I try and keep my DVD-R discs just under 4.2GB or 4300MB

Since a full DVD is 4.37GB this is not asking for too much to limit yourself to 4.2GB

Also after you BURN a DVD-R you should run a READ ERROR test on it. This can be done with DVDInfoPro which is available in a freeware adware version or a pay version free of adware.

Many are suggesting that even if you get one READ ERROR (which will come up as a RED BLOCK on a grid of otherwise GREEN BLOCK which means NO READ ERRORS) that you should consider chucking the disc and burning again.

That might be a bit anal though because I had some discs that had READ ERRORS (always near the end of the READ ERROR test which is the outer edge of course) and yet my stand alone DVD player still plays the discs A-OK but for serious archive stuff maybe it is a good idea to reburn if you have READ ERRORS.

Stuff to think about.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[trhouse]

It is expensive, around $9/disc but DVD-RAM was developed for archival purposes. See below for its history.

"DVD-RAM rewriting is only supported by DVD-RAM drives. DVD-RAM was not designed for consumers, but as an optical archiving standard, hence why it was first. DVD-RAM 1G (1997) debuted at 2.6GB/side (typical of the proprietary optical formats of the time), and increased to 2x and 4.7GB/side in 2G (1999). Based on Matsushita's PhaseDual technology (which is why Linux support was available on day 1), using modified laser logic, write verification and uniquely sector-aligned media (even outside the cartridge, it can be immediately differentiated from any other DVD format by its "track dashes"), it solves many of the reliablity and longevity issues of magneto optical (MO) media. DVD-RAM increases media lifetime 10x, number of re-writes 100x and reduces the error rate 1,000x times (near-magnetic equivalent) over other MO formats, including CD-RW, DVD-RW and DVD+RW. The "cost" is that DVD-RAM is not readable outside of DVD-RAM itself, and the verify logic cuts write performance in half (on 1-3G DVD-RAM). Despite the emergence of consumer DVD-RW and DVD+RW, DVD-RAM continues to proliferate as the standard for long-term optical archiving."

[iooi]

note: most HD manufactures specifically recommend AGAINST using HD's for archiving. They are better left in use, they may develop problems just sitting there turned off.

.

I stand corrected.

[zanos]

$168 for 100 discs just plain sucks dude. I don't care if they are TY or not.

[freestyler]

Yeah, who needs archives... should be $68 for 100 discs! who cares about quality?!

100 days or 100 years - with the speed of technology who can tell the difference?

[FulciLives]

$168 for 100 discs just plain sucks dude. I don't care if they are TY or not.

Well I think it is a good deal for TAIYO YUDEN media especially considering the FUJI 10-packs in retail stores (which is TY media) usually ends up being $2.50 each and the fact that I've seen TY media at much higher prices on other websites.

I don't understand this WE MUST HAVE SUPER CHEAP media thing so many people have ...

The year DVD came out (long before we could record to DVD) a high quality VHS video was still at least $2.00 to $3.00 each and I never recorded in anything otherthan SP if I could help it. So that meant I either got 2 hours or 2 hours 40 minutes (if using a T-160 and back then a high quality T-160 was like $5.00) on a single video tape.

So if you can buy the best (Taiyo Yuden) DVD media for only $1.68 per disc then yeah ... that's a deal.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

$168 for 100 discs just plain sucks dude. I don't care if they are TY or not.

Then keep buying cheap garbage and deal with problems. If you want quality media, you have to pay for it.

Ritek can be found for $140 for 100, and that's a bargain too.

[racer-x]

I bought a 50-pack of Fuji's for $64 at Best Buy. Excellent media for a great price.

[trhouse]

Last month I bought 100 Ritek G03's for $94/100 from Supermediastore. As soon as they arrived, I get this in the e-mail,

"Ritek Ridata G03 4.7GB 100 pack White inkjet printable DVD-R $0.95 each
DVD01X0080-100
Regular price: $130.00
Sale price: $89.00
you save: 32%"

[Lobe]

$168 for 100 TY's sounds cheap to me. I used to think $1.30 each was a deal for TY CDRs, and it was they are all still readable. For the amount they hold if you care about the data, it's a hell of a deal. If it's something you may not need down the road, that's different, like I use cheap CDR media for vcd crap etc... no loss if it fails. But for 30 or 40 cents more a DVDR that's worth it, if the cheaper media fails you'll have thrown away more than that in the cost of the media and then the time and data lost.

[zanos]

$168 for 100 discs just plain sucks dude. I don't care if they are TY or not.

Then keep buying cheap garbage and deal with problems. If you want quality media, you have to pay for it.

Ritek can be found for $140 for 100, and that's a bargain too.

$140 for 100 Riteks is hardly a bargain and for the record I don't even buy cheap media.

[ofbarea]

DVD-RAM and MO-disk are the best archiving media.

[lordsmurf]

$168 for 100 discs just plain sucks dude. I don't care if they are TY or not.

Then keep buying cheap garbage and deal with problems. If you want quality media, you have to pay for it.

Ritek can be found for $140 for 100, and that's a bargain too.

$140 for 100 Riteks is hardly a bargain and for the record I don't even buy cheap media.

$140 for inkjet Ritek G4 4x including shipping IS a bargain.

[i am x]

$168 for 100 discs just plain sucks dude. I don't care if they are TY or not.

Then keep buying cheap garbage and deal with problems. If you want quality media, you have to pay for it.

Ritek can be found for $140 for 100, and that's a bargain too.

100 Ritek G04's for $127.00 at the link below, and I'm sure there are even BETTER deals if you search.....

http://store.yahoo.com/runpc/ri4x47gbdvdv3.html

[handyguy]

What would be the point of getting 50 year archive media if if 50 years there are no dvd players?

[lordsmurf]

@i am x
I won't quibble over a few dollars, plus I use inkjet Riteks, and that price you showed doesn't include shipping and mine did...

but I would like to know if you've dealt with that store before.

On my next order, branded discs would be fine. I actually prefer them.

I've had bad experiences with those crappy psuedo-stores that use Yahoo as the storefront.

I've been ordering from RIMA, and their prices change frequently.