[Hidden-tech] durable DVD writer

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 6 May 2019 15:49:48 -0400 Chris Hoogendyk <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu> wrote:

> 
> I'm open to suggestions.
> 
> I want something that I can put an informative label on the media and have it in a book like case 
> that I can design a cover for. It should both be able to sit on a book shelf in a library and be 
> uploaded to their digital archives. It should also be relatively "universally" accessible.

Most *new* Laptops are without optical drives (but do have USB ports).  
Smartphones and tablets don't have optical drives (but do have USB ports).

Thumb drives come in a wide range of physical forms.  Including something the 
size and shape of a credit card (which can have printing on it).

> 
> 
> On 5/6/19 3:38 PM, Tom Adams ~ Reelife Productions & Folktography wrote:
> > Chris, I are you committed to using DVDs? If not, I would highly recommend NOT using them. They 
> > are a faulty medium and not good for archiving either. Be glad to discuss further...
> >
> >
> >
> > *Regards,*
> > *
> > *
> > *Tom Adams, Director/Owner*
> > *Reelife Documentary Productions <http://www.ReelifeProductions.com> • **Folktography by Tom* 
> > <http://folktography.zenfolio.com>
> > /• Cool Media Production...Not Boring or Dumb /
> > • Media that Educates, Entertains & Enlightens... since 1996
> > /(413) 575-9707//
> >  • Williamsburg, MA
> > /
> >
> >
> > On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 3:24 PM Chris Hoogendyk via Hidden-discuss 
> > <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net <mailto:hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>> wrote:
> >
> >     Does anyone have knowledge or experience about DVD drives with respect to writing lots of DVDs
> >     without burning out?
> >
> >     I've been producing DVDs of historical primary source material (see, e.g.,
> >     https://www.worldcat.org/title/moreygraham-historical-letters/oclc/904725729) on my
> >     grandfather (see
> >     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Crockett_Graham). In March, I was about to head out to
> >     China for
> >     a three week trip, and I was pulling an all nighter producing DVDs of my latest project with
> >     23 of
> >     his diaries. At 6am on the morning that I was leaving, my DVD drive took the usual length of
> >     time to
> >     burn a DVD (seems like forever), then it started the verification scan, took a long time and
> >     summarily spit out the DVD, saying it was unable to verify it. I went through 4 DVDs with the
> >     same
> >     result. This was from a stack of 100 good quality Sony DVDs that I had been pulling from for
> >     quite a
> >     while with no problems.
> >
> >     At the point that the drive failed, I had been burning DVDs non-stop for well over 12 hours. All
> >     told on this round going back a couple of days, I had burned something like 50-60 DVDs.
> >     Previously,
> >     I had used the drive to burn other DVDs.
> >
> >     This is not the first time I have had this experience. Maybe the third. (i.e. bought a new
> >     drive and
> >     then had it burn out.)
> >
> >     I'm using an iMac which I think is about 2014, running MacOS Mojave, with an Apple USB Superdrive.
> >
> >     Googling reviews of drives is pretty useless. They basically tell you they bought the drive, it
> >     hooked up without any trouble, it worked great, and it is built solidly; or something like that.
> >     They don't give long term wear and reliability. They don't say anything about non-stop burning
> >     sessions; just normal easy use with a brand new device. I asked this question of a "genius" at
> >     the
> >     Apple Store this weekend, and he didn't really have an answer. He suggested that perhaps I should
> >     buy a less expensive drive, because the internals would be the same. He said Sony made some
> >     pretty
> >     good drives, they just didn't have the aluminum case, etc. that the Apple drive has, but would be
> >     half or less the cost. It would be great to have a Consumer Reports "mean time to failure under
> >     continuous burning" and whether there are any drives with different, more durable, internals.
> >
> >
> >     -- 
> >     ---------------
> >
> >     Chris Hoogendyk
> >
> >     -
> >     Â  Â  O__Â  ---- Systems Administrator
> >     Â  Â c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geosciences Departments
> >     Â  (*) \(*) -- 315 Morrill Science Center
> >     ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
> >
> >     <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu <mailto:hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>>
> >
> >     ---------------
> >
> >     Erdös 4
> >
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