I have been asked by the GM to look into archiving our beta tapes. Anyone dealt with this yet? It seems to be common knowledge that DVD's won't last as long as video tape on the shelf. A RAID array (hard drive) is probably the most logoical solution but I've also read about holographic storage that will be able to hold up to 3TB(!) per disc and UDO (Ultra Density Optical) storage that is capable of 60GB per disc. Does anyone have any suggestions or comments?
What to do with all the tape?
- Thread starter A.Bauer
- Start date
Sounds like he wants you to show him what the options are there now. I would find out what is on his mind, is storage issues? a sudden windfall of cash to be spent? etc.? If he is good He will listen. The whole process if done right will get you points.
Show what gives, and if you find them all to be bunk, say so.
Keep an eye out on a regular basis for a new answer.
Show what gives, and if you find them all to be bunk, say so.
Keep an eye out on a regular basis for a new answer.
Focus Finder
Member
well a HD option isant very great eather for longterm storage, the discs digrade over time, ie bad sectors, and they are extreamly expensive, and as far as how long the tape will last vs dvd ive seen some dvd's rated at over 1000 years. your going to pay more not something your going to find at walmart or your local computer store but its not a bad option. if stored correctly they will last. and 3TB isant going to hold as much as you think. i have seen some of the production dup houses out there that have dvd archive service, you ship them the tapes they ship you the dvds and tapes back.
Dan R.
Well-known member
External hard drives are getting pretty cheap nowadays. I just picked up two 500GB drives for $139 each (at an Office Max store of all places). I buy drives in pairs, one as a working drive and another for its backup. The backup drive then goes offsite somewhere (usually at a family member's house out of state). I have 8 drives, many that I've used for over 3 years now without issues. The hard drive archive solution has actually worked out very well for me. Very easy to go back and find things on them. Now two of my older 200GB drives (freed up by the new ones) will be dedicated to footage delivery to clients.
It's got to the point now that once a tape of mine is captured in, it never gets used again.
It's got to the point now that once a tape of mine is captured in, it never gets used again.
BNVN
Active member
Yeah, Dan is right about the cheap hard drives. I'm not sure about them not lasting since i'm using some hard drives that I have had for years for archive footage.
Between the footage I have on hand and the stuff from all of the BNVN Stringers, we have several thousand stock video clips of all kinds of extreme weather that we now have on several TB of disks.
Storing the footage on the Hard Drives is not the hard part, getting someone to encode it all and catalog it all is the hard part. It took us a hella long time to do all of our DVcam and Mini DV Stuff just to get caught up with the current stuff.
Doug