BLUERAY For the TOUGHBOOK?

I know I know...I'm going out on a limb with this one and I'm probably going to get circled and skewered with this question....but.....


Do you think Panasonic will ever offer BlueRay burners for inside the CF-29-30? Or is that too much to hope for with their less than stellar record of keeping up with the latest and greatest technology?

 

Not any time soon as even the most current models do not have the video capability to handle BluRay. While it would be nice to have the ability to store 25-50GB on a disc, they won't bother to put in a device that cannot be used to it's fullest.

 

The CF-52 should be able to do it... You can get Blu-ray readers for laptops on eBay for about $60. Swap out the caddy and your golden

 

It seems as though we have been down this road before. That even the new models did not have the power in the video/graphics area and that the screen resolution would not be sufficient. Has something changed in these areas? I know the latest CF-52's have the better video and resolution, but is it high enough to show clear BluRay?

 

The cf-52 with it's capable video card will work fine with a Blu ray drive
You might have to tweak the software a bit as the hardware might not be up to the full blu ray hardware standards

I have been busy , but I will post in the cf-30 thread about my blu-ray drive that's installed in my cf-30 mk-2

The cf-29 is not able to playback blu ray due to hardware limitations,it would work for storage only, not movie playback

To answer your question , no I don't think that Panasonic will offer the drive anytime soon in the cf-30

Thats for us to Mod



Alex

 

I don't care about the HD quality video...I just want the ability to burn 25-50GB on a disc as that would help me to store my photo's much more efficiently.

Do they make a BLUERAY dvd burner that I can put in the caddy of my multi drive?

 

Yes, and the price has been coming down. I don't know about the others around here, but I was looking to do the same mod on my 29 and I found a couple of burners (bare) that would work in the caddy for $125-150. The install should not be any different than a DVD/CDRW combo, but I would imagine the software will have to be updated to allow for BluRay burning.

 

Doesn't the caddy need an parallel (PATA) interface? Not sure the new BluRay burners would have that older interface.

 

Bono -

If you're looking to archive your photos... external HDDs are both cheaper and take up less space, and they are not NEARLY as prone to deterioration caused by exposure to desert heat.

You can buy a 1TB NAME-BRAND HDD for approx $79 ANYWHERE; $99 if you get one WITH the external enclosure. That HDD Will store the equivalent of 40 BluRay discs, and it is SMALLER than those discs combined in JUST THE STACK... no jewel boxes, no spindle... JUST THE BARE DISCS.

Now... ARCHIVE QUALITY Blu-Ray media cost about $175 for a pack of 10, and they can STILL be damaged by the heat of the desert. This means that to get the storage capacity of that $99 external drive, you'd need to spend $700 in media... on top of $150 for the burner.

If you buy the CHEAPEST POS B-D discs for $2-$3 EACH IN BULK (I wouldn't even bother to burn a movie I LIKE on this crap - a waste of time since the next time I go to watch it, it'll be buggy and freezy) you're STILL talking $80-$120 for blank media, PLUS the $150 burner.

Bottom line: Optical media is DEAD, as far as archive is concerned.

I say get TWO 1TB external drives & keep one in a safe place for backup... You'll be time, weight and money ahead, AND you'll have a much more fault-resistant system with a FRACTION of the hassle of burnable media.

mnem
Let me break it down for ya...

 

I hear what you're saying about blue ray and the expense the heat and the space.

However,

I'm leaving the desert soon. I'll eventually come back I'm sure....but

A HDD still has moving parts...moving parts are what I want to get away from. I am still a believer in Blue Ray for data as they have no moving parts and I know that my data is safe. MOVING PARTS ARE THE ENEMY. With DVD BlueRay, I need not worry about moving parts..just scratches.

As far as expense of the discs....I'd buy mid road stuff. Don't need the crappy, don't need the high end stuff....mid road.

As far as space, I'm not worried about it. I will keep them in a binder of sorts at home in a safe...space is not a concern.

Technically, I just want to make sure that I can buy the BlueRay burner, put it in the caddy, and load the software onto my CF-30 Mark III, and still watch standard movies, and burn/watch regular DVD's etc etc. I don't want to lose any functionality.

 

Id just like to note here that several years ago I read an article about libraries. These libraries had millions of CDs (this was somewhere in Europe I believe). Long story short: they found out that the CDs were buggy (well kept, never used). They lost 25% of their archive. Now everything is on HDDs with moving parts of course.

The point is that optical media is a very very bad way to store data for the long term.

If you want solid state then go with SD cards, they are tiny can store a good bit of information and have no moving parts.

For someone wise to answer: in the long term which one is less prone to data deterioration? hhd vs. SD

thanks

 

Short of BluRay, maybe take a look at the professional Bluray" discs... the XDCAM. I shoot on the Sony PDW-700 XDCAM HD camera. At least in Arizona, discs left in on a car dash in the summer didn't melt and worked just fine. Maybe it works in Iraq too? Plus the XDCAM discs have an integral plastic shell to them as well as a protective plastic case which would be good for rough handling. If you have any embedded journalists they may be shooting on XDCAM discs too as it's quite popular.

The PDU-U1 drive (I THINK that's the model) is a USB XDCAM drive, and it will allow for 21GB (and 48GB for dual-layer discs). Transfers from the drive reach somewhere around 120mbps, and write is at least 70mbps in my experience. Fast enough for me anyway!

 

For some resson I keep forgetting or don't think about the extra storage capabilities of B-Ray. I am really into the video end of using them! Nothink like watching a B-Ray movie on my new Panny Z Series 54" jewel.

In regards to storage I can't see how a SDHC card can be beat? 64Gbs are right around the corner, and by Spring I believe I read where we can see 2TB. The physical size of the card is also a big plus as well.

Speaking of Sd cards... Who was talking about the Sandisk brand? I was at BB today and saw them there. What type of packaging is the real deal? These were in a red, very slim package.

 

The biggest problem with the SDHC card is only the latest/top of the line Toughbooks will recognize a card over 2GB (or was it 4GB).

 

Best Buy (And other major chain retailers) are NOT going to be a concern for counterfeit Sandisk product; they sell EVERYTHING in hermetically sealed blister pack (You know the ones - all electron welded seams, where you can't get into it without a lightsaber, and you almost cut your wrists open trying to get to your product) and everything they sell is purchased DIRECT from the manufacturer.

What you have to worry about is eTailers & Internet Discount stores (Even some vendors on Amazon) and even some smaller local brick & mortar shops; they buy from middlemen & wholesalers who may not be buying from legitimate sources.

Some estimates say that as much as 60% of the flash memory sold on FleaBay is counterfeit or repackaged Major MFR rejects & "Midnight shift" production; I don't know for sure, but I can tell you that I have unknowingly purchased both SanDisk and Sony "OEM" flash media there, and it was ALL COUNTERFEIT.

mnem
On the bright side, I did get the joy of smashing it with a hammer once we were all done with SquareTrade...

 

Bono-

Of COURSE YOU CAN INSTALL IT... I was just breaking down the math on your suggestion of using it for archive purposes. I don't know where you got the idea that once you put it on an optical disc it's safe... this is patently untrue. You are 1000 times more likely to make your data unreadable by handling an optical disc than you are to have ANY single hard drive fail on you; PERIOD. And as for the life of the data; aside from ARCHIVE QUALITY media, even the GOOD STUFF is really only good for 5 years or less - the media manufacturers will tell you that themselves. You don't believe me? Do a CRC check on ANY 5 burned discs you have that are 2 years old... odds are you have some data dropout on one or more of them.

Your argument against hard drives for archive is specious; there is a REASON you don't see banks of Optical Drives being used for archive & data backup in anybody's server farm - it's because redundant hard drives are BOTH more reliable AND easier to use.

The option I suggested gives you 3 copies of your most current work, and 2 copies of EVERYTHING. The odds of ALL 3 HDDs failing at the SAME TIME BEFORE YOU CAN REPLACE THEM are astronomically small; you are much more likely to lose a an archive B-D Disc or damage it (You are also more likely to be struck by lightning) than you are to lose your data on a double-redundant hard drive array.

You want to put a BD-Drive in a machine that's not intended to be a HD Media powerhouse; that's your choice. But doing it for data backup is... silly.

mnem<~~~ Very silly. ~~~<<<

 

My wife just doesn't understand why I have to have so many external hard drives. I tell you, it takes a long time to build up a collection that large and I would hate...oh...wait, I mean all those family pictures, what ever would we do if we lost them. Redundancy, ah yes, redundancy....

Seriously, with the prices these days on 500GB-2TB external hard drives, there is NO reason not have your data stored in several different places with at least one stored in a fireproof/waterproof storage container.

 

You guys have me thinking......maybe I will re-consider with the 64gb flash....or some solid state card....