Question about BD-Rs

[Yves]

I'm looking at buying a new Mac to replace my old G4. The new models don't come with any sort of disk drive and I still like to rip my photos to disks for viewing on my TV, or to send to people like my in-laws. I see they now make external BD-R burners. Just curious if some of you use this technology, which are the better burners on the market, what the overall quality is vs conventional DVD-Rs...

[ronmac]

Are you not able to use a flash drive?

Looks like you got a lot of miles out of that G4. I retired my last one about four or five years ago.

I assume that you're not getting a laptop. I just bought my kid a MacBook PRo and it has a disc drive. Although, it's not the newest model, because I felt the Retina display wasn't worth the extra bucks.

[Yves]

I'm a bit of a computer caveman. My home computer is used primarily for music and internet surfing. I've become a bit of a photo buff and have been just burning photos to DVD-Rs for personal usage or to send to people who prefer looking at photos on their large TVs rather than on their computers...

The G4 I currently use was basically given to me fully stocked about 2 years ago. I cannot update the IOS beyond 10.5.8... As a result I'm being left behind as I cannot update any new flash players , which required 10.6 minimum. So it's time for something new.

[tom unbound]

I'm also seriously interested in hearing some comments and experiences on external BD-R burners. My 'new' Windows laptop has no optical drive. (USB-3 please, or is that standard?? I shoot a lot of 'home movie' stuff - museums, vacations, work, the odd song at a concert, etc.)

But since I've stepped up to 1080, everything I've videoed is now obsolete.
I've got to go and shoot everything again. That's how much the overall quality has improved over the old 480.

I blowup, crop, etc. photos to DVD-R now too, (I shoot max qual.) and I'm assuming that's going to improve just as much as the vids., or am I wrong ???

[Poisoned Youth]

I'm also seriously interested in hearing some comments and experiences on external BD-R burners. My 'new' Windows laptop has no optical drive. (USB-3 please, or is that standard?? I shoot a lot of 'home movie' stuff - museums, vacations, work, the odd song at a concert, etc.)

But since I've stepped up to 1080, everything I've videoed is now obsolete.
I've got to go and shoot everything again. That's how much the overall quality has improved over the old 480.

I blowup, crop, etc. photos to DVD-R now too, (I shoot max qual.) and I'm assuming that's going to improve just as much as the vids., or am I wrong ???

If you are creating a video presentation, then you would be able to present that video in 1080 and would be of higher quality than DVDs. However, if you are using the BD-R as a storage medium and depending on software on that disc or on a TV or computer to access and play a slideshow, than it will make no difference if that is coming from a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. It also depends on your connection from the device to the television.




From my professional and personal perspective, Blu-Ray has become obsolete. At my job (managing a video production dept. and a primary sales contact for new clients), we steer most clients away from it as a deliverable medium (except for govt. here in DC which is still using DVDs for things).

Storage is cheap (Flash Drives, Hard Drives, etc.), cloud storage is even cheaper, and codecs are much more capable of providing high quality video at decent compression rates.

Speaking personally, there are many more avenues than before to access your photos or videos on your television. Streaming boxes and devices for one, or even a USB stick directly into your TV. It does require having a TV that has a USB port and internal player, which most do from the last few years.

Additionally, with Smart TVs, your TV has a Wi-Fi connection and you can either stream locally or even go the route where you upload your videos to sites like Vimeo and YouTube which can then be accessed via app on not just your Smart TV but all your mobile devices.

With all those options out there and improving year by year, there's less and less reason to invest in Blu-Ray.

[Yves]

Thanks Cozy... I thought about USB sticks. Not sure if my TV has a USB port or not. At worse I can spend 30.00 on a DVD-R and keep doing it "old school". Truth is, I didn't even know BD-R technology existed so I was curious to know if there would be a significant upgrade in quality for photos taken with a quality DSLR camera.

[ronmac]

I was curious to know if there would be a significant upgrade in quality for photos taken with a quality DSLR camera.

Photo quality would be dependent on the camera, not the storage device. I don't think any CDRs, BDRs or USB sticks would do any additional compression on photos, unless you're feeding them through some app that's compressing them for online viewing.

[Yves]

Essentially I was inquiring if a transfer to BluRay discs instead of DVDs might make me see a quality of photo I wasn't previously seeing because I was using a lower quality medium to transfer to. Cozy basically answered me.

[ronmac]

Essentially I was inquiring if a transfer to BluRay discs instead of DVDs might make me see a quality of photo I wasn't previously seeing because I was using a lower quality medium to transfer to. Cozy basically answered me.

Sure. You only get out of it what you put into it.

[JKL2000]

Take Polaroids of the photos and mail the Polaroids.

[Plasmatopia]

This is the thing I've come to dislike most in recent years about home computers and all the audio and video files that can be generated. First of all there's the significant time involved in converting old videos or audio to digital format, then...where do I put all this crap? I just borrowed a friends 4-track cassette recorder and I'm trying to capture all that stuff in Sonar. It's already starting to add up. And some of the files resulting from converting VHS to an AVI file or whatever are huge.

Cozy mentioned cloud storage was cheaper. I've always hated the idea but....now I'm wondering just how cheap.

Edit: I found a few options for about $10 a month for 1TB. At that price I might as well buy a 2 or 3TB external drive. Any services people have found that they like?

[markwoll]

An external drive dock is a pretty cost effective way to go for off line/removable storage.
1tb drives are around $50. USB3, eSata or Thunderbolt docks are not to expensive ( well thundebolt is more ) and pretty fast.
I use a ReadyNAS to store video files and music for online ( in house) access.
The Readynas can act as a personal cloud service ( sort of a dropbox like thing) with access from the internet. I don't use it for that.
The cloud is not a place I want my files.
Plus the time it takes to ship big files off to the cloud ( if not on a very fast connection ) adds up over time if you need to move them around.
There have been some cloud services that have gone under, or changed their terms that made them less desirable.
I would rather have my stuff close at hand ( or in a safe deposit box )
But that is just me.

[ronmac]

Cozy mentioned cloud storage was cheaper. I've always hated the idea but....now I'm wondering just how cheap.

I'm not a fan of cloud-based storage, either. I don't like the idea of losing access to my files, if I lose my internet connection.

I did see an ad the other day about a home-based cloud storage product. That sounds interesting.

[Plasmatopia]

I guess I just need to bite the bullet and buy an external drive.

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm a bit of a computer caveman. My home computer is used primarily for music and internet surfing. I've become a bit of a photo buff and have been just burning photos to DVD-Rs for personal usage or to send to people who prefer looking at photos on their large TVs rather than on their computers...

The G4 I currently use was basically given to me fully stocked about 2 years ago. I cannot update the IOS beyond 10.5.8... As a result I'm being left behind as I cannot update any new flash players , which required 10.6 minimum. So it's time for something new.

Or you could do it the other way 'round -- hook a computer (Mac Mini?) to your TV, get a wireless keyboard and mouse, done. Also solves your update "problem".

And yes, the long and short of it is, if you do go Blu-Ray, it depends how your Blu-Ray player handles the photos-burned-to-disk format you use. In the HTPC scenario I described above, I've removed the step of you burning the photos to disk, sneaker-netting it to the TV player, and playing it there. Sounds like a perfect solution to me (if you can get a Mac Mini cheap).

I agree with the point that BD-R is an almost obsolete format except for one thing: BD-R's will last longer as a photo backup format than disk drives. (All disk drives crash eventually. BD-Rs -- except for laser rot and potential format obsolescence -- should last.) So it depends how much you love those pictures.

And considering you're doing pictures and not video, it'd be a fine solution, especially with larger resolution images. But another point for getting an HTPC -- you can potentially go larger than 1080p (I love my 2560x1600).

[3RDegree_Robert]

Unless you're doing really intense 4k editing the new iMac 5k is unbelieveable or the Mac Book Pro Retina if you need to be mobile. Mac Book Pro Retinas have no optical drives, thus the slim body but who needs one IN the laptop? I have a BD-R burner from OWC (macsales.com) that I got to burn Blu-rays of video of the kids and of the limited release 3RDegree live videos. I'd say using BD-R as a storage medium is much better than DVD-Rs and the prices are low now, although of course, more than DVD-Rs. Hard drives are sort of killing optical media though for with a new Mac comes USB3 and Thunderbolt 2 which are very quick and awesome connections to get things quickly off your Mac and saved. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 drives are expensive but USB3 drives like the My Passport or Elements from Western Digital are really fast, small and cheap. B&H Photo has 2 TB USB3 hard drives for $90-ish every once in a while and I always have one unopened are ready for my next project.