Archival system Sony ODS77 at DVinfo.net

Svein Rune Skilnand · January 22nd, 2016, 12:57 PM

Hi all.
I am looking for a solid and trustworthy archival system, as my media library is growing rapidly. Does anyone have any experience with the Sony ODS 77 optical disc archival system? Any thoughts? I have organised most of my media on HDDs, a Raid system and a lot on HDV/ DV tapes.

It looks like a solid and robust system, a little expensive perhaps, but with a life expectancy of 50 years.

Jim Andrada · January 23rd, 2016, 01:21 AM

I'm always VERY suspicious of claims for archival life for any non-stamped optical media.

One of my Japanese friends was for several year the VP in charge of optical disk development for a different major Japanese DVD drive maker. He told me that there had been several attempts to quantify the life of various "archival" DVD's but the results were so strange that they never published them - el cheapos outperformed the "gold" DVDs sometimes and sometimes not - it depended on specific disks.

One of the really major online service/cloud providers was trying to make optical media work as their archival storage - they eventually gave up and went back to magnetic tape.

Since I'm primarily in the magnetic tape business one could claim that I have a bias against optical, but I'm just reporting what people in the DVD business have told me.

Sony has a lot of ultra sharp technical folks, but I think the fundamental issue is that if they make the media so it can change state easily with the tiny amount of power they can focus on a microscopic area of the disk it won't take much to make it revert to its more stable state.

Of course if you get one let me know how the data looks in 50 years or so. I'd be happy to be proven to be too suspicious.

Svein Rune Skilnand · January 29th, 2016, 01:06 PM

My second option would be a hard drive raid system from Lacie at 20 TB, but HDDS are known to fail sooner or later so not sure if I want to make that investment. I have a Raid system today which has run out of space.
I have also been looking at M- logic`s LTO 6 system which is cheaper, but seems more cumbersome to work with.

There are not many reviews online on the Sony ODS system. Not that I am able to find anyway.

January 22nd, 2016, 12:57 PM	#1
Svein Rune Skilnand Major Player Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Fidjeland, Norway Posts: 289	Archival system Sony ODS77 Hi all. I am looking for a solid and trustworthy archival system, as my media library is growing rapidly. Does anyone have any experience with the Sony ODS 77 optical disc archival system? Any thoughts? I have organised most of my media on HDDs, a Raid system and a lot on HDV/ DV tapes. It looks like a solid and robust system, a little expensive perhaps, but with a life expectancy of 50 years. __________________ SRS Media http://srsmedia.blogspot.no

January 23rd, 2016, 01:21 AM	#2
Jim Andrada Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Tucson AZ Posts: 2,211	Re: Archival system Sony ODS77 I'm always VERY suspicious of claims for archival life for any non-stamped optical media. One of my Japanese friends was for several year the VP in charge of optical disk development for a different major Japanese DVD drive maker. He told me that there had been several attempts to quantify the life of various "archival" DVD's but the results were so strange that they never published them - el cheapos outperformed the "gold" DVDs sometimes and sometimes not - it depended on specific disks. One of the really major online service/cloud providers was trying to make optical media work as their archival storage - they eventually gave up and went back to magnetic tape. Since I'm primarily in the magnetic tape business one could claim that I have a bias against optical, but I'm just reporting what people in the DVD business have told me. Sony has a lot of ultra sharp technical folks, but I think the fundamental issue is that if they make the media so it can change state easily with the tiny amount of power they can focus on a microscopic area of the disk it won't take much to make it revert to its more stable state. Of course if you get one let me know how the data looks in 50 years or so. I'd be happy to be proven to be too suspicious.

January 29th, 2016, 01:06 PM	#3
Svein Rune Skilnand Major Player Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Fidjeland, Norway Posts: 289	Re: Archival system Sony ODS77 My second option would be a hard drive raid system from Lacie at 20 TB, but HDDS are known to fail sooner or later so not sure if I want to make that investment. I have a Raid system today which has run out of space. I have also been looking at M- logic`s LTO 6 system which is cheaper, but seems more cumbersome to work with. There are not many reviews online on the Sony ODS system. Not that I am able to find anyway. __________________ SRS Media http://srsmedia.blogspot.no Last edited by Svein Rune Skilnand; January 29th, 2016 at 01:06 PM. Reason: Typo