[mythtv-users] Anyone archiving to Blu-Ray Disks?

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday, July 08, 2010 08:47:20 am Travis Tabbal wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 8:16 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > And most people don't have SCSI any more.
> > 
> > Datacenter type commercial gear often becomes available cheaply after a
> > while, but that doesn't mean it's a good choice
> > for a home user.
> > 
> > I paid something like $25 each for my DLT drives, if I hadn't had a
> > source for media, and already had SCSI controllers, it
> > would have made no sense at all.
> 
> heh... "most" people never HAD SCSI. :) For backup/archive, there just
> isn't a good home user option. HDD arrays aren't really the best choice
> for various reasons, but tapes just cost too much and DVD/CD just aren't
> reliable enough and don't have the capacity. Even BD doesn't have the
> capacity, IMO, media cost is high, but will come down over time, and
> reliability is a huge unknown. The "rapid aging" tests they use to claim
> 100 years of data retention have been shown to be worthless, so that
> leaves non-datacenters like 99% of us in the cold. If I could find a
> decent cost for the media and drives, I'd consider tape. I have SCSI
> controllers around that would work fine. But the cost is just way too
> high. For me, it was cheaper to use the old HDDs and misc parts to build
> another ZFS server and put that in a friend's house for remote backup. And
> with ZFS I can do automated checks to make sure the data is good. Tapes
> and plastic discs can't do that unless you own a changer robot ($$$$$$).

One problem with remote backup, and this applies to any "cloud" or other internet-based option, is that most residential 
internet services have outbound rates measured in bits per fortnight. You have to go to a business type account to get 
anything even close to 1Mbps. outbound, and that is dog slow by today's standards.

> 
> For friends and family asking to borrow a show, I think I'm going to start
> telling them to buy a Popcorn type box and a USB HDD. Faster for me, no
> transcoding to fit the media, and no compatibility issues. Still not ideal,
> but nothing really is I suppose. :)

There are in fact tons of "media players" available now, some for well under $100. I think some BR players can also play 
back from USB storage. Netflix streaming is starting to get more people aware of and interested in such devices, but you 
have to be careful which one you buy. For example, many can't handle MKV files, or DTS audio.