[Hidden-tech] durable DVD writer
Robert Heller
heller at deepsoft.com
Tue May 7 21:33:21 UTC 2019
At Tue, 07 May 2019 09:17:43 -0400 "Elijah Gwynn" <eli at egwynn.com> wrote:
>
>
> > *Plain* thumb drives, even with imprinting, in the 50-100 quantiy
> > range are
> > about as cheap as DVDs.
>
> Hopefully not too off topic, and not sure what you mean by "about as
> cheap", but I'd love to know where you're sourcing your thumb drives. On
> Amazon I see blank 4.7GB DVDs for around $0.25 / disk ~= $0.053 / GB.
> Best I can find on Amazon / AliExpress is 50 8GB drives for $125 ~=
> $2.50 / drive or ~= $0.31 / GB. USB sticks look like they're about 6x as
> expensive on a COGS basis unless I'm missing something.
>
> FWIW I'd def go with the USB sticks though, if you can afford it. Just
> about everything about the process will be simpler and faster.
Part of the cost is the burning process (which includes wear and tear on the
burner). And labeling and packaging. Many of the places where you can get bulk
USB thumb drives will pre-load them with your data for a minimual extra cost.
The thumb drives can be imprinted (that saves the labeling cost) and packaging
can be mostly eliminated, since thumb drives are much more rugged than DVDs.
And as you say "Just about everything about the process will be simpler and
faster"... Oh, and if you come up with a revised dataset, the thumb drives can
be updated, whereas the old version DVDs go to the landfill and you have to
burn new ones :-(. Yeah, on a pure gig-for-gig basis, DVDs are still cheaper,
but when you figure in the additional costs, things even out. Also, thumb
drives have a much greater capacity, so if you have > 4.7GB data sets, you
only need one 8G thumb drive and not two DVDs...
>
> Eli
>
> On 7 May 2019, at 8:22, Robert Heller via Hidden-discuss wrote:
>
> > At Tue, 7 May 2019 07:27:41 -0400 Chris Hoogendyk
> > <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Both of those options are much more expensive. That's alright if I'm
> >> just thinking of my own backups
> >> and archives, and I do both of those among other options as well.
> >> However, if I'm talking about
> >> producing 50 to 100 or so and distributing them to libraries and to
> >> extended family members
> >> (descendants of D.C.Graham –
> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Crockett_Graham), then it shoots
> >> way way out of my price range.
> >
> > *Plain* thumb drives, even with imprinting, in the 50-100 quantiy
> > range are
> > about as cheap as DVDs.
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> On 5/6/19 7:29 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> >>> At Mon, 6 May 2019 16:28:01 -0400 Tom Adams ~ Reelife Productions &
> >>> Folktography <tomadams at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Chris,
> >>>>
> >>>> "relatively universally accessible"- is the big question... I would
> >>>> suggest
> >>>> thinking of portable hard drive like you would a dvd ... and put
> >>>> the video
> >>>> files on the hard drive... you could label them and store it on a
> >>>> shelf.
> >>>> and then access and connect to whatever playback device that would
> >>>> allow
> >>>> for viewing, laptop/projector/tv/laptop screen...
> >>> "Rotating rust" drives (traditional magnetic drives) don't always
> >>> store well
> >>> (the spindle lube hardens). OTOH, SSDs store well. As do SD cards
> >>> and USB
> >>> thumb drives. No moving parts. Highly shock resistant.
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> *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 4:18 PM 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.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 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
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> -
> >>>>>> O__ ---- Systems Administrator
> >>>>>> c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geosciences Departments
> >>>>>> (*) \(*) -- 315 Morrill Science Center
> >>>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu <mailto:hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> ---------------
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Erdös 4
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page:
> >>>>>> http://www.hidden-tech.net
> >>>>>> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net <mailto:
> >>>>> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
> >>>>>> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech
> >>>>>> Discussion
> >>>>> list.
> >>>>>> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the
> >>>>>> Members
> >>>>>> page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
> >>>>>> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
> >>>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> ---------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Chris Hoogendyk
> >>>>>
> >>>>> -
> >>>>> O__ ---- Systems Administrator
> >>>>> c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geosciences Departments
> >>>>> (*) \(*) -- 315 Morrill Science Center
> >>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
> >>>>>
> >>>>> <hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ---------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Erdös 4
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>> MIME-Version: 1.0
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
> >>>> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> >>>>
> >>>> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech
> >>>> Discussion list.
> >>>> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the
> >>>> Members
> >>>> page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
> >>>> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> >
> > --
> > Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
> > Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
> > http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
> > heller at deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
> > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
> >
> > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion
> > list.
> > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
> > page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
> > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
>
>
--
Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
heller at deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services
More information about the Hidden-discuss
mailing list