MIN DV TAPE / STOREAGE

[Lee Prescott]

Hi All,

Not having been a registered member of these Forums until quite recently I have been browsing and I have noted comments on the subject of miniDV tapes and video storeage
Posted around last May:

I did have an article published in FVM a little while ago: With regard to miniDV tapes etc. etc.(or sections thereof). In researching how long these are likely to last I discovered information by private letter, (from Maxell), that a miniDV tape by any quality manufacturer should last for at least 1000 head passes. - Full size pro. industry tapes about three times as long!

Further with regard to storage et al on DVDs it's claimed that 12 years is about the limit...
So there are now available at some cost Gold Discs. I found that these can be obtained via
the Internet but the minimum order was 600 discs!!!! So, for myself, I couldn't accept that so enquired of Carousel (Tonik) whose depot is not far from my home. They quoted me £12. per disc at the time, minium quantitiy 12 discs.

These Gold Discs are guaranteed for 156 years!!! (Who'll be around to question it? Probably the umpteenth descendant of your last video wedding couple)!!!!

If anyone is interested in Carousel I can happily breeze along to them and investigate further "face to face"!

Cheers.....Lee.

[Trev52A]

Hi Lee
Regarding your comments on DVD Gold Discs

Firstcall Photographic of Taunton are selling Delkin DVD-R Archival Gold discs, "safe for 100 years", at £59.99 for pack of 25. Seems a lot cheaper than the ones you were quoted for! Worth checking out!?

PS Saw some of your videos at Coast Video Club on Thursday as part of a showreel from Stroud. (I assume it is the same Lee Prescott?) Ha ha, I like your style of film-making.

Cheers, Trev

[Ian Woodward]

Thanks for this info, Trev.

Do you, or anyone else, know of any make of archival gold discs capable of 8.5GB Double Layer, so that projects lasting more than one hour can be burned at Best Quality?

Ian Woodward

[Lee Prescott]

Hi Alls,

Bit late in "coming back"...just got home and on the way I breezed into Carousel re
these Gold Archiving Discs. They only had seven left at this time! The ones were not "printable" but had the more common shiny surfaces...Hey their current price is £1.27 each plus the dreaded VAT! Guaranteed for a minimum of 100 years too. These were Tayo Yuhmaden, (if I've got the Japanese correct). Labled "Thats", They told me that Tayo are now part of JVC! I have used several hundreds of Tayos ordinary -R discs and those were, as guaranteed, faultless. They are investigating the availabilty of printable ones for me.


Trev52A: Thanks for your nice comment about my vids. in the Stroud Compilation Prog. you have seen. Pleased you liked my "infamous" way with film! Some do some - er don't in a way...I have found far more success abroad because they are not in any way as "straight laced" as most of our "ancient-ures" are here!



Ian, I'll pop back to Carousel, (it's not far from my home), and I will ask them about
Gold 8.5GB / DL and report back on here....

(Carousel part of Tonik now, are a major supplier to the pro.field).



* Bit of history: I've dealt directly with them for a long time. I first visited them when the originator set it up in a small "shed" on a local industrial estate. He worked it up for about 5 or 6 years I think is was, success story, he moved it into a large warehouse, same I. estate then sold the company for, I understand, between 2 3/4 to 4 million: Retired aged about 45 I think he was!!!

Cheers: LEE.

[Ian Woodward]

Thanks, Lee - re Gold 8.5GB archival discs.

I look forward to hearing any news, following your visit to Carousel

Ian

[col lamb]

Quite a lot of disks are going to be required to backup a good collection of MiniDV tapes.

If memory serves me well I seem to remember that to store the AVI files captured from MiniDV tapes requires 1Gb for every 4 1/2 minutes of recorded video, in the "good old days" there was a Windows 98 file size limitation of 2Gb and that equalled about 9 minutes.

Please correct me if my recollection is incorrect.

Alternatively to DVD backup based on the above a 1Tb hard disk should store roughly 75 MiniDV tapes

[Ian Woodward]

Thanks for that useful information, Col, but I think I probably confused the issue when I wrote "archival", altholigh that is obviously a crucial consideration.

Why I'm primarily interested in the idea of burning projects to gold DVD discs is so that when I present family and friends with one of my "masterpieces", I can rest in the knowledge that they'll be able to watch it far longer into the future than would be the case if it was a silver DVD.

A hundred years?

Yes, that sounds about right!

Ian

[Lee Prescott]

Hi Ian and Co:

Gold Archiving discs: Carousel don't have any 8.5GB double layer dvd discs at this time.

They're looking into it. Seems the single layer have all gone now....have to await further
supplies all round. Must've been a run on 'em , probably everyone making their "video
wills"!!!

When I get further info prob. next week now I'll re Post.

Cheers......Lee.

[Ian Woodward]

Thanks again, Lee.

Fingers crossed that your field work , re Gold 8.5GB discs, reaps some positive results.

Ian

[Lee Prescott]

Hi Ian,

I promised to come back on here re the subject of Gold Archiving DVD Discs ex Carousel.

I've left it for several days whilst they "researched" manufacturers. I went back this Tuesday afternoon but I'm sorry to state that the results were negative with regard to Double Layer Gold Archiving Discs. Seems there are only the single layer and none of those are printable. Rather they have the special glossy pen writing surface with an index card inserted in the case.

The price they quoted for those however is £27 odd plus VAT for 50 discs! (JVC).Same are guaranteed for 100 years plus!

Maybe in the future someone will wake up to the double layer type - and printable!

Cheers.............Lee.

[Ian Woodward]

Many thanks for the research, Lee.

What a pity that DL archival gold discs for those who want best quality on projects lasting, say, 80 minutes, are not available.

One would have thought that as the technology is there to produce these "100 years longevity" discs in single layer, it must be just a step away to produce them at double layer.

If anyone knows of such discs, please let us know.

Thanks again, Lee.

Ian

[Michael Slowe]

Sorry to be a doom monger but how are you planning to play these 100 year gold DVD's? Surely the whole game will have moved on many times. Perhaps portable Hard Drives (preferably solid state) might be a better archive medium. Prices are coming down all the time and I'm using them to back up camera files from S X S cards whilst editing a project from my edit drives and then to archive the finished production (in HD). Of course these may also be unplayable in 100 years but ask me that when I'm 175!

[Ian Woodward]

The idea is that I'll have a DVD that lasts a bit longer than the seven-years-or-so life of a standard silver DVD.

Nothing more brain-storming or complicated than that.

[Ian Woodward]

The gold disc option also sounds a good idea if you are going to give a treasured home-produced DVD to, say, dear Aunt Hilda, who isn’t really going to exercise her mind all that much with portable hard drives but who you’d like to be able to watch the family film you’ve given her in 15 years from now.

The world doesn’t just revolve around us keen movie-makers.

There are people out there, believe it or not, who can’t tell an SXS card from their knee caps!

[Michael Slowe]

Ian, the only way I know the difference is that my knee caps are now titanium!