Any News on Updated Firmware to allow other brand SxS Cards?

[Evan Donn]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Here's an affordable archive solution... the Iomega Rev Pro. One 70GB cart holds the contents of four 16GB SxS cards. The cost of the drive is between $300 and $400 (either USB2 or FireWire, Mac and PC compatible). The cost of a 70GB cart is about $70. So compare that to DVCPRO HD or HDCAM tape... a $400 drive replaces a $20,000 VTR, and the cost to archive that data is less than $20 per each full SxS card.

Aren't the Rev Pro drives essentially removable hard drive platters? I can't see how that would be more reliable in terms of long term storage than a standard hard drive. It seems like now you're taking all the issues a hard drive has (susceptible to magnetic fields & shock), removing the platters from their sealed metal enclosure and putting them in a plastic box with a door on it... and charging more than a hard drive would cost. I get that the heads aren't near the platters if you drop a Rev cartridge, but most laptop drives park the heads off the platters when they are powered down so I can't see much advantage.

Seagate's momentus laptop drives have operating shock tolerances of 350 Gs and 900 Gs non-operating, cost $1/gig or less, they're smaller than the Rev cartridges, and come fully enclosed in a metal enclosure with no door to allow dust/moisture in. That seems like a much better archive option even before you start considering Iomega's track record - I've had far more zip and jazz disks fail over the years than hard drives, and that makes me very wary of any of their products when it comes to long-term reliability for archiving.

[Phil Bloom]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Here's an affordable archive solution... the Iomega Rev Pro. One 70GB cart holds the contents of four 16GB SxS cards. The cost of the drive is between $300 and $400 (either USB2 or FireWire, Mac and PC compatible). The cost of a 70GB cart is about $70. So compare that to DVCPRO HD or HDCAM tape... a $400 drive replaces a $20,000 VTR, and the cost to archive that data is less than $20 per each full SxS card.

Have you used this Chris? Is it reliable?

[Kit Hannah]

I think one of the cheaper ways to go storage wise is just a straight up raid 5 array. Only a snowball chance in hell that more than 1 drive would go bad at the same time. You would probably have a much better chance of having a fire or water damage destroy all your stuff than 2 drives going out at the same time. If 1 drive goes bad, you can rebuild the drive from the others in a matter of hours. You're talking a 2TB redundant solution for around $500, which is only around $.25 per GB.

I'm all for removeable media, But the cost to archive the footage on this solution for a full 16Gb SxS would be only $4.

[Phil Bloom]

i still think the only reliable way to long term store is the xdcam hd professional discs. They are so solid and reliable. As soon as the usb drive will record in full hd i will buy it.

I sometimes work for Sky News in London, my old company, they will completely switch to p2 in January. That's like 60 odd cameras. They are archiving on XDCAM as they don't trust their servers or hard drives. Kind of would have made sense to just buy XDCAM!

[Simon Duncan]

Interesting Phil about Sky News going to P2 since TF1 in France have also gone over to P2 with a large purchase of these cameras to Digibeta SX. Not sure about TF1's archiving plans.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ok - the cards are expensive, but how much does a service cost on a tape based system? How much is a set of new heads? The income Sony get from service has virtually vanished overnight - one of my old Betacam SPs that still has really nice pictures now needs $1500 spending on it - which isn't worth it. apart from buying the new cameras, what running costs are there? none worth mentioning - so why all the moaning about media costs?

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Phil Bloom

Have you used this Chris? Is it reliable?

I've had one Rev Pro drive in the house for about nine months... so far so good. It's handy.

Just mentioning it as one of several possible options. Certainly not ideal but maybe useful to someone.