Back-up issue: LTO versus Blue Ray

[office@sif309]

We are shooting a feature film on RED, and editing on Final Cut with a G5 and a Mac Pro laptop. I am dubious about something. What are the pros and cons for backing up on LTO versus Blu Ray.

The Blu Ray seems to be cheaper, but what are the less obvious downfalls? Or is the LTO now the absolute standard in the business?

Also I have heard that once you have started recording on an LTO tape, you cant add material afterwards. Is that true?

How prone are these devises to malfunctioning - becasue if we have to send it for maintenance in the middle of shooting or post-prod. this might be a big hassle.

Also, since we plan to shoot in another country and we have to bring the back-up system with us (because of insurance) - do you think the LTO might break down, because of the traveling?

It would be great if you can help. Thanks in advance.

 

[Herring]

LTO:
+ Reliability, accepted by insurance
+ Redundancy
+ Backup Speed
+ Sturdy medium
+ Storage capacity per cassette: 800gig (LTO3) 1600gig (LTO4)

- Expensive drive
- No real Portability
- No (usable) laptop connectivity: you'll need a desktop computer with SCSI320 port


Blueray:
+ Cheap
+ Portability
+ Laptop connectivity

- Low Backup Speed
- No redudancy
- Fragile medium
- Max 50 gigs per disk

Cheers,
Joost

NB: Yes, you can add "sessions", so you can add files to a LTO tape.

 

[Chris Reynolds]

You can hook a LTO3A up to a laptop via ethernet works like a treat.

Cheers, Chris

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

@ Herring (Joost)

LTO-3 is actually 400GB and LTO-4 is 800GB. The 800 / 1600 numbers you have posted are assuming 2:1 compression. Which frankly does not happen when encoding most sorts of video or image data these days.

Both LTO-3 and 4 are also available with SAS connectivity, not just SCSI-320. LTO-3A also has an gig-Ethernet connectivity, but the 3A units are terribly slow and even more horrifically expensive. They are also not compatible with standard LTO formatted media, only offered by one manufacturer (Quantum) as a proprietary format and Quantum has not opened up the format so conventional LTO drives or other archive software can not not access 3A data at this time.

 

[office@sif309]

Dear Joost, Chris and Jeff,

Thank you so much for your comments and help! It's great to know you can count on help and advice.

I saw something intersting - http://www.provantage.com/quantum-tc-l42bn-ez~7QUAT08E.htm

I know the usual price for full-height LTO is about $7900. This is so much cheaper - do you think it will work properly. Why is it so much cheaper, and what are the downsides?

It says it can record with the same capacity and reliability, but maybe it is slower.

Best,
Georgi

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I saw something intersting - http://www.provantage.com/quantum-tc-l42bn-ez~7QUAT08E.htm

I know the usual price for full-height LTO is about $7900. This is so much cheaper - do you think it will work properly. Why is it so much cheaper, and what are the downsides?

Actually this is the current price point for desktop LTO kits these days. This Quantum kit you have linked to is actually the same kit I have purchased for my Mac Pro. It works rather well, but does have a couple issues. None of the issues are due to it being half-height. It's a good option for a desktop solution. If you want a desktop HH solution that is perhaps a bit more reliable, little quieter, and a little better supported, I recommend the HP 1760 HH LTO-4 in combination with the ATTO H380 (or H6xx or R3xx) SAS controller. That HP solution is more expensive and not as convenient to buy everything separately, it's also operates 30% slower than the Quantum. If you want fast, there's the HP 1840 full-height, but it's quite a bit more expensive.

It says it can record with the same capacity and reliability, but maybe it is slower.

Nope, definitely not slower. The real issue here is that the Quantum drive only seems to play nice 100% of the time with the included LSI controller and not other controllers like the ATTO cards. Which makes it a real pain in a Mac Pro where PCIe slots are already scarce and the bundled LSI SAS card is worthless for anything other than connecting this one single tape drive.

If you are willing to go a bit slower and save some money, you can buy the full-height HP LTO-4 model that preceded the current 1840 model. It with the ATTO H380 HBA, cable, etc.. are cheaper than this quantum kit and not too hard to find if you do some digging online.