I see many of the 12x and 16x DVD writers for sale, but the blank media is only 8x. When will the faster media be available for general consumptions? I don;t want to suffer the extra expaneso of a 16x burner which will not be used at full speed until is it nearly obsolete.
Faster Merdia - When, Where?
- Thread starter LunarMist
- Start date
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Merdia was kind of funny. "Merde" means shit in French. I guess merdia could be the new term for cheapo disks that end up as coasters.
blakerwry
Storage? I am Storage!
Because of the way that DVD media is manufactured it looks like it could easily be more reliable than CD's Simply because the reflective surface is enclosed in the plastic and should not be prone to scratches or delamination.
However, their isn't much evidence to the length of time data will stay on a burned DVD disc reliably. My oldest discs are about 6 months old and they still work so that is a good sign... but I think we'll have to see the technology wait a bit longer before we can truely tell.
From my experience with CD burning I stick to Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden discs. cdrlabs.com often conducts burn quality tests which can tell you what media will burn with the least amount of errors with your burner. This may not equate to better longevity though.
On another note, one thing that I am doing to ensure the integrity of my DVD backups above and beyond CRC testing is to create parity archives, AKA PAR files.
The easiest way to think of it is RAID 3 for zip/tar/rar files. You basically create a parity disc that contains enough information about all your other discs so that if one of them dies you can recover the data from your parity file and remaining archive files.
For zip/tar/rar sets where files are similarly sized (IE, each file is 4.5GB excepft for the last file) I would recommend PAR1. Easy to create/recover in both windows and linux. PAR allows you to create recovery files based on your needs. If you want to create parity in case of 1 disc failure you'll end up with a 1disc sized parity file, if you want to have coverage for 2 discs failure it takes 2 discs worth of space for your parity file and so on. Remember that this parity file allows recovery if any of the discs happen to fail, so it is much more space concious than a mirror.
Right now I'm using 1 parity disc on my backup set which consumes 4 DVDs of space. If I grow to require 8 discs I'm pretty sure I'll find a larger media or crete 2 parity discs.
However, their isn't much evidence to the length of time data will stay on a burned DVD disc reliably. My oldest discs are about 6 months old and they still work so that is a good sign... but I think we'll have to see the technology wait a bit longer before we can truely tell.
From my experience with CD burning I stick to Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden discs. cdrlabs.com often conducts burn quality tests which can tell you what media will burn with the least amount of errors with your burner. This may not equate to better longevity though.
On another note, one thing that I am doing to ensure the integrity of my DVD backups above and beyond CRC testing is to create parity archives, AKA PAR files.
The easiest way to think of it is RAID 3 for zip/tar/rar files. You basically create a parity disc that contains enough information about all your other discs so that if one of them dies you can recover the data from your parity file and remaining archive files.
For zip/tar/rar sets where files are similarly sized (IE, each file is 4.5GB excepft for the last file) I would recommend PAR1. Easy to create/recover in both windows and linux. PAR allows you to create recovery files based on your needs. If you want to create parity in case of 1 disc failure you'll end up with a 1disc sized parity file, if you want to have coverage for 2 discs failure it takes 2 discs worth of space for your parity file and so on. Remember that this parity file allows recovery if any of the discs happen to fail, so it is much more space concious than a mirror.
Right now I'm using 1 parity disc on my backup set which consumes 4 DVDs of space. If I grow to require 8 discs I'm pretty sure I'll find a larger media or crete 2 parity discs.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
LunarMist said:
Apparently most of the 8x rated stuff burns at 12x. I'll have to get some to see for myself. With the NEC 3500 @ around $80 I don't see the price premium as extravagant.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've had a lousy time getting anything to work over 8x. Normally I buy Verbatim DVD+Rs for my personal needs, but I've tried Memorex and generic "8x" discs. The Memorex discs my LiteOn drive wants to use at 2.4x (ouch), the generics (Prodisc?) underrun if I try 8x, but work OK at 4x.
Guess it might be the LiteOn drives but they haven't let me down so far.
Why could I get dual layer discs cheaper before the drives came out?
Guess it might be the LiteOn drives but they haven't let me down so far.
Why could I get dual layer discs cheaper before the drives came out?
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Mercutio said:
I'm guessing supply was high (relative to demand) and demand was low.
Now supply is low (relative to demand) and demand is high
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Well, yeah, but I still feel the need to complain about it.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Yes I think it is some sort of conspiracy to keep these blank media prices high. They (CDR) were real low a while ago and now I can't seem to find any. What gives?
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Mercutio said:
In my opinion it was probably a conspiracy. With low advertised media prices, people pushed for the drives to come out. Why wouldn't they want to use the new widget since the media is reasonably priced? The drives come out, and now people need the media, so manufacturers know they can raise the price, and people will still pay the cost.
sechs
Storage? I am Storage!
This just goes to show, purchase your eggs before they hatch!
Blake:
That's way too complicated for the occasional, but large backups. I plan to send out about 100-120GB per month. Right now I have an old 4x Pioneer DVD and a 12x generic DVD which is burning the 8x media at 8x. Unfortunately the 8x and 4x on the same channel can only burn at about 4x each reliably, and copying back is slower than with only one drive. I have an external DVD/CD-RW that I use for verification, but would like to go with a couple of 16x units – one internal and one external.
That's way too complicated for the occasional, but large backups. I plan to send out about 100-120GB per month. Right now I have an old 4x Pioneer DVD and a 12x generic DVD which is burning the 8x media at 8x. Unfortunately the 8x and 4x on the same channel can only burn at about 4x each reliably, and copying back is slower than with only one drive. I have an external DVD/CD-RW that I use for verification, but would like to go with a couple of 16x units – one internal and one external.
blakerwry
Storage? I am Storage!
actually lunar, it's pretty easy. In windows you can simply drag and drop your files into smartPAR and calculate the parity. burn the parity file along with your other discs.
If your files are not zip or rar sets and instead are just misc files you can use quickPAR to calculate parity in a similar fashion.
If your files are not zip or rar sets and instead are just misc files you can use quickPAR to calculate parity in a similar fashion.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Mercutio said:
The Memorex 4x rated stuff works at 8x for me in the NEC 3500. At least the spindles of the white printable ones.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
LunarMist said:
Apparently CircuitCity has 16x DVD+R spindles from Verbatim available, around $35 for a 25 pack.
blakerwry
Storage? I am Storage!
LunarMist said:
That's usually an option in your burning software as I have not encountered a drive where that was mandatory since the 4x 2x ?x CD burning days.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
That's the one I'm using. There's not many out there with 16x DVD+R and 4x DVD+R DL capability. Local CC didn't have any of the 16x DVD+R media in stock, I'll have to order online.
Thanks, I placed the order. I also picked up a 25-pack of the Verbatim discs at the Circuit City. I could not believe that store - a zoo with a lot of crap merchandise. And what about the clueless and annoying salespeople; where do they find them? I mean, who needs a saleperson that can only regurgitate the specs listed on a box and can barely speak English anyway?
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
OK I tested the Verbatim 16x in my NEC 3500, gives me a full disc in about 6.5mins.
Also Buy.com has it available for around $22.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product_j...rm=10382152&Type=PE&Category=Comp&dcaid=15890
Agree with CC being a Zoo, I went in the other day for an OTA HD receiver and the guy kept trying to sell me a DirecTV one.
Also Buy.com has it available for around $22.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product_j...rm=10382152&Type=PE&Category=Comp&dcaid=15890
Agree with CC being a Zoo, I went in the other day for an OTA HD receiver and the guy kept trying to sell me a DirecTV one.