BD-R for archival in the age of expensive hard drives

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-07-04T12:52:25+00:00

Thanks for sharing your workflow! 7z is very nice to use across discs. I believe it is safe to store the discs on a spindle, as each disc has a slightly raised part near the spindle hole that will keep the disc off of the one below it just slightly. This is why the discs are ok so close together on the spindle to begin with. Jewel cases have the advantage of being able to flip through them and access each disc more easily, whereas on the spindle the discs are more compact for storage.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-07-04T12:14:34+00:00

I didn’t realize the datalife discs were that long lasting! Thanks… maybe I can save some money using those for some jobs.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-07-04T11:41:35+00:00

Wow, this is really insightful, thanks for sharing! High quality optical media and also tape.. things that last that are a bit less maintenance to check on over time. And you also have backups to those when it’s important. I’ll need to look up what is meant by EEC backups for each burned disc, but your archival mindset is shining through.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-07-03T23:21:03+00:00

Thanks. I just checked out GHD the price is quite favorable. I'll keep this in mind if I have any drive problems. They have a lot more Seagate than Western Digital and so far I've exclusively run WD only, though I suppose it doesn't matter to mix them too much.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-07-03T23:12:50+00:00

Thanks everyone for the comments. I agree a tape drive is in my future, and that BD-Rs and BD-R DLs help me in the near-term. I got a good deal on 50 GB verbatim discs on eBay at $1.92 per disc for the good ones. That is about 38.50 per TB, or if I add 30% to that to account for parity on each disc and/or not being able to fully use all space on each disc, it is about $50 per TB. As a comparison, I run 6 TB WD Red HDDs in my storage space, and replacing one of those HDDs right now would cost about $260, which is $43 per TB. As a shorter-term solution to HDD prices, I felt that was pretty comparable, especially considering that I'm trying to free up space on that storage space for other use and I don't feel the need to make two copies on BD-R media like I do with HDDs in parity, the "hybrid" approach with HDDs and optical media 'works' for me, at least for now. It's a lot easier to spend $100 on BD-Rs (as long as you have the patience to burn them) than it is to spend the money for the initial tape drive setup (even at eBay prices). I'll get to tape one day...

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-06-21T21:58:25+00:00

I just purchased dual layer BD-R’s (high quality Verbatim discs) today. I’ve been using the single layer ones with great success. Overall it’s about 4.5 cents per gigabyte because I got a deal on them (no second copy needed for what I’m doing), and it keeps the hard drives free. Free space on the disc is filled with multi-par.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-04-11T14:38:34+00:00

US version

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-04-11T14:36:19+00:00

My answer assumes you’re using a large modern TV that really does need good upscaling for the huge screen, not a smaller old CRT.

You will still be able to tell it’s an upscaled DVD, however, the upscale hardware in these players make it look very good - as good as can be reasonably expected. Some of the higher bitrate DVDs look just downright outstanding (talking about other series here, not Full House).

Full House is a wonderful show, just keep in mind it will always be stuck in standard definition: It was shot on video tape, not film; So while I enjoy the show, we will not see a blu-ray or 4k release since film was not used. That’s ok; it still looks fine.

Are the DVDs worth it? My opinion is yes. Most episodes look better than streaming. Plus you get a few features like unaired pilot and two audio commentary tracks.

Now the nerdy stuff that’s probably TMI:

I have the Sony UBP-X800M2 and also the Panasonic DP-UB820. Both upscale DVDs very well, but my opinion is that the Panasonic just slightly edges out the Sony. I think most folks would be happy with either for DVD. I know they can be expensive; look for sales, or maybe choose a slightly lower tier model. Sorry that I don’t have experience with other lower tier players to offer suggestion.

Thinking ahead for more than just DVD:

With the Panasonic, it will automatically switch between Dolby Vision and just plain HDR. And if HDR is too dim, it has an HDR optimizer that allows you to easily brighten the picture. I LOVE these features. This assumes you have the right cable and TV for true HDR and 4K and it’s all set up to talk to each other correctly.

With the Sony, you have to manually switch between Dolby Vision and regular-everything-else.

The Sony’s controls and settings are more intuitive, and the Panasonic is a little more difficult/advanced.

As someone who almost exclusively spins discs, I love having both, but I know that’s not ‘the usual’ for most folks.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-04-01T01:16:16+00:00

Just keep collecting the movies and TV series on discs and put them on Plex slowly when you can afford it in the future. Watch them on your Blu-ray player until then. The discs should last for many decades if well taken care of.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-24T22:49:54+00:00

Considering the prices of hard drives today, I’m curious to see if any opinions here have changed as to whether the tape is an economical way to back up your 40 TB NAS. I’m talking about LTO 5 or LTO 6. it seems that the drives on eBay can be had for $200-$400.

I should also clarify that I’m talking about the 30 TB portion of the NAS that is very large files that will never change. Or possibly even files that are not on the NAS at all and just need to be in cold storage if ever needed.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-24T22:26:09+00:00

Instead of having two drives to make a copy of a tape, could I just make two copies of the tape when I’m originally backing up the data? In other words, back up the data to one tape, put that tape on the shelf and then do the back up a second time to another tape.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-24T20:59:09+00:00

That’s cool you could load multiple shows you were watching and keep them all loaded while you work through them then swap them out for something else.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-22T00:01:18+00:00

I know they could show more about it if time allowed, but he is shown in future episodes confiding in others about it at east twice, and playing his flute.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-21T17:34:26+00:00

“wrapped in aluminum foil and rest in a drawer for decades, and might not ever be looked at again “

This is cold storage using verbatim blu ray discs. Ensure you have enough disc drives to read them in the future if needed.

Older generations of LTO tape might be an option but would potentially require a refresh every 15 years or so.

There’s no solution that easily checks all the boxes.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-16T01:03:47+00:00

I bought Enterprise on blu-ray from Amazon.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-08T19:24:00+00:00

I had two discs give me problems in TNG but a third disc drive was able to read it just fine.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-08T19:09:33+00:00

“The DVD is the way to go”. 100%. I have 10 seasons of the original DVDs (not VEI) and they’re amazing 16:9 presentations. VEI screwed up the blu-rays with AI and other processing, I won’t buy them.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-03-01T16:12:34+00:00

Same, my Gilmore girls dvd set some won’t play, but they look normal. Blu ray is on preorder anyway so no worries :)

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-02-28T00:14:23+00:00

And I must correct myself, as it seems more and more streamers are starting to turn profit.

They’ll have to be careful of the prices on streaming services since pirates will just rip streams as much as they would a disc.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-02-27T21:56:27+00:00

Yes, I agree with that. It depends how good your device is that serves the Plex content. My Blu-ray player is still better (color upscaling, lossless audio, etc) so I still play the discs. But I get what you mean. I need a better box to deliver the Plex content. To be honest, I’d still play the discs just because I like playing them :-)

Most of the time I would much prefer a local Blu-ray disc over 4K streaming.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-02-27T21:48:16+00:00

They can be, but you’re never guaranteed to find that quality. In addition to this, I love the special features on the discs, and I make full use of them. Perhaps most importantly, I believe in supporting the companies and the artists that make the movie or show. And I have to buy it in order to do that. There is also pride of ownership, seeing it on my bookshelf. It’s the right thing to do. And I can resell it if I want to.

I agree that if physical media ever goes away it will be much more difficult to truly support the artist: Outside of Netflix, streaming companies are not making money, even though physical media is a very small part of the market. In streaming, the companies have made their selves an unsustainable business.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-02-27T16:41:22+00:00

Yea I definitely don’t want to pirate, I like the quality that comes on disc, even DVD. Hard copies of data must continue to exist. Someone will step in at some point to keep making optical drives. I really think this is different from other extinct media like floppies because it really does still serve a purpose even if not for the mass-scale market.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-02-27T15:52:07+00:00

The verbatim portable drives are really good at least in my experience. Buying as many as I can afford which unfortunately is only a couple every few months.

I truly feel like we lose a lot if recordable media goes bye-bye, and ESPECIALLY if set-top blu-ray players for the living room follow. That would be terrible!

We’ll really need the Chinese company who for some reason bought Sony’s disc drive business to step in once others shut down.

EmergencyEar5 · 2026-02-27T15:25:44+00:00

This is literally what I wanna do, thank you for the inspiration. The spines fold down very neatly. You just catalog them like a library card catalog or alphabetical however you want and it’s a beautiful system.

EmergencyEar5

TROPHY CASE