DVD-R vs. CD-R for storage?

[Todd Art]

My father-in-law (an engineer) said that DVDs may be much more temperamental because we're storing much more data on the same size disk and any tiny error or fluctuation in reading or writing is going to be more apparent on a DVD than a CD. As far as archival quality, perhaps neither is perfect.

I've been using CD-Rs and have had mixed luck (better luck with my new CD-RW drive than my last two drives). I found a good price on a Sony 8x DVD-R drive and am considering adding it to my system. What are you folks thinking?
--
Todd
http://www.muskopf.org

To those whom I offend--please forgive me.

 

[R N]

A bit tangential to your main question, but Fujifilm came out with a new extremely archival cd-r at photokina. I'm surprised it didn't create more buzz; I just ran across mention of it a few days ago -- I think it could be a really geat piece to the archiving puzzle:

So, depending on how good and how economical this turns out to be, I guess that counts as a vote for CD-R.

==========

 

[jcpb_smac]

A bit tangential to your main question, but Fujifilm came out with
a new extremely archival cd-r at photokina. I'm surprised it
didn't create more buzz; I just ran across mention of it a few days
ago -- I think it could be a really geat piece to the archiving
puzzle:

So, depending on how good and how economical this turns out to be,
I guess that counts as a vote for CD-R.

==========

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=1672&Category_Code=TDK

--

 

[Todd Art]

That looks good. I guess I have to find the price for a spindle of 50 or 100 now--my new 8 MP 20D shoots over 1 GB in an afternoon!

A bit tangential to your main question, but Fujifilm came out with
a new extremely archival cd-r at photokina. I'm surprised it
didn't create more buzz; I just ran across mention of it a few days
ago -- I think it could be a really geat piece to the archiving
puzzle:

So, depending on how good and how economical this turns out to be,
I guess that counts as a vote for CD-R.

==========

--
Todd
http://www.muskopf.org

To those whom I offend--please forgive me.

 

[Todd Art]

ah, we have comppetition!

A bit tangential to your main question, but Fujifilm came out with
a new extremely archival cd-r at photokina. I'm surprised it
didn't create more buzz; I just ran across mention of it a few days
ago -- I think it could be a really geat piece to the archiving
puzzle:

So, depending on how good and how economical this turns out to be,
I guess that counts as a vote for CD-R.

==========

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=1672&Category_Code=TDK

--

--
Todd
http://www.muskopf.org

To those whom I offend--please forgive me.

 

[RecalcitrantRon]

I just switched to DVD and have been satisfied so far. I think the key here is to use good quality media in either format. Beware that even the same brands will use different media sources and there are very few ways to tell.

For instance I was at Best Buy several months ago and they had Fuji CD-R media in 50 and 100 spindles. The 50 stack was made in Japan and most likely the very highly regarded Tayio Yuden manufacturer while the 100 stack was made in Taiwan and of unknown origin.

After doing some research in these forums and around the web, I opted for Mitsui (MAM-A) Gold CD-R with excellent results. For DVD I use the Tayio Yuden also with good results.

You might also consider that DVD is the wave of the future while CD is the "old man" in the world of optical media. In other words, more reliable or not, DVD is the future at least for now.

I also recall readind some opinions that DVD was actually more reliable than CD, but I can't for the life of me recall the source.

BTW, how's the 20D treating you?

I get my media here:

http://www.cddimensions.com/

You can read up on optical storage and drives here:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/

http://www.videohelp.com/

--
Just my nickels worth.
Happy Snappin'!

Ron
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/recalcitrantron
FCAS Member No. 68
pbase supporter
D Seventy

 

[Todd Art]

thanks for the info. Here's some 20D samples from the last 6 weeks or so:









These 4 won POTDs. I won another one today:

http://www.digitalimagecafe.com/view_photo_potd.asp?src=53940

All taken with the 20D. I really like this camera. I haven't had any of the lock-up problems that people are so petrified over. The noise reduction is amazing. ISO 1600 is very useable with or without noise reduction. I don't need any noise reduction at ISO 100-800. The 9 point AF points are great. The speed is very nice and the AI Servo is spot on (see bike shot--shot 5 fps while panning with the rider).

I'm happy!

--
Todd
http://www.muskopf.org

To those whom I offend--please forgive me.

 

[R N]

Looks interesting, too. Here's some added info.

Press release:
http://www.tdk.com/tecpress/080404_8cmarmor.html

Amazon has a 5-pack for $11.88USD. That works out to $1.97 per gig.

TDK emphasizes its durability against scratching. They say it does have an-anti UV layer; it looks good, but I couldn't find any data regarding archiving longevity.

--
==========

 

[RecalcitrantRon]

--
Just my nickels worth.
Happy Snappin'!

Ron
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/recalcitrantron
FCAS Member No. 68
pbase supporter
D Seventy

 

[spyz]

I think you should get it, since the Sony writes both CDR and DVDR so your choice is really a matter of choosing which type of media to burn.

Btw, your father-in-law is correct - the higher track density of DVD means a scratch would affect more files than the same scratch on a CD. I believe DVDs are a little harder to scratch though, since the recording layer is sandwiched between the substrate (while on CDs the recording surface is "painted" on the label side).

-K

My father-in-law (an engineer) said that DVDs may be much more
temperamental because we're storing much more data on the same size
disk and any tiny error or fluctuation in reading or writing is
going to be more apparent on a DVD than a CD. As far as archival
quality, perhaps neither is perfect.

I've been using CD-Rs and have had mixed luck (better luck with my
new CD-RW drive than my last two drives). I found a good price on
a Sony 8x DVD-R drive and am considering adding it to my system.
What are you folks thinking?
--
Todd
http://www.muskopf.org

To those whom I offend--please forgive me.

 

[eos]

Well I think there's some truth to that matter. Writing DVD-R these days seems to harken back to the dark ages of CD burning. While I have yet to have a CD-R that I've burned go bad in the last 5 years or so, I do burn the occasional DVD-R coaster, and have had a few DVD-R discs go bad with unrecoverable CRC errors. However, as my data needs have grown, I find it's just plain impractical to archive on CD-Rs (especially when you are shooting in RAW formats.)

What I do these days is burn 3 copies of each archive onto a DVD-R of differing brands at no more than 2X speed. (Now ideally I would be using multiple burners as well, but don't have that luxury at the moment.) Then I stick each disc in a DVD reader and run an old DR-DOS utility called Xdir which reads each file and generates a sumcheck value for the entire disc. I make sure the sumcheck matches for each disc and put this value on the disc for future reference. If I have a problem with one disc, I and then rerun the sumcheck to see if any of the other backups are bad and restore one from the other accordingly. All three discs go into a separate case and into storage (although ideally I'd split them up and put one offsite for safety.) Hopefully (knock on wood), this strategy will allow me to keep my pictures around for years to come.

=-eos-=

I think you should get it, since the Sony writes both CDR and DVDR
so your choice is really a matter of choosing which type of media
to burn.

Btw, your father-in-law is correct - the higher track density of
DVD means a scratch would affect more files than the same scratch
on a CD. I believe DVDs are a little harder to scratch though,
since the recording layer is sandwiched between the substrate
(while on CDs the recording surface is "painted" on the label side).

-K