Storage of material from CD's and DVD's: cloud?

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A user seeks advice for a friend who wants to transfer a large collection of CDs and DVDs to USB and cloud storage, as his laptop lacks a drive. Recommendations include hiring a reliable service or a knowledgeable individual to assist with the process, as ripping old CDs can be time-consuming and challenging due to identification issues. While cloud storage options like Google Drive are available, concerns about upload times and potential copyright issues are raised, suggesting that offline storage on external hard drives may be more reliable. Compression techniques for music and video files are discussed, emphasizing the importance of maintaining quality during the transfer. Ultimately, a combination of external storage and careful management of files is recommended for long-term accessibility.
  • #31
Tom.G said:
over 200,000,000 finds with:
https://www.google.com/search?q=digital+media+transfer+service+-video

(Hmm, maybe finding them isn't a problem after all)

Cheers,
Tom
One from the google has a good narrative description of the types of requests they get:
http://www.leavealegacytoday.com/digital-media

I used a similar service to convert my grandpa's old 8mm home movies to DVD. That's one where I didn't have the needed equipment, but even if I did, it's still time consuming/labor intensive. It wasn't cheap, but I suspect CD-MP3 services would be because as you say, there's automation for that.
 
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  • #32
Sure. Who can afford a jukebox?

If your answer is "not an individual, but a service", you now have the problem of shipping tens of thousands of dollars worth of disks, handling tens of thousands of dollars of disks, opening up 1000 jewel boxes, the insurance for what to happen if something breaks or is lost, etc. I'm not saying this is technically impossible - I am saying going outside is cost prohibitive. People expect the cost per disk to be measured in cents when in fact it is measured in dollars.
 
  • #33
Vanadium 50 said:
Sure. Who can afford a jukebox?

If your answer is "not an individual, but a service", you now have the problem of shipping tens of thousands of dollars worth of disks, handling tens of thousands of dollars of disks, opening up 1000 jewel boxes, the insurance for what to happen if something breaks or is lost, etc. I'm not saying this is technically impossible - I am saying going outside is cost prohibitive. People expect the cost per disk to be measured in cents when in fact it is measured in dollars.
There are plenty of services that offer this at less than GBP/USD 1 per CD including insurance in transit etc.
 
  • #34
FactChecker said:
I don't recommend storing large amounts of data on DVDs. Large collections would require a large number of disks and any updates, backups, copies, etc. are a hastle.
I gave up using DVD-R's for archiving anything, at least five years ago. In addition to the reasons you noted, there's also cost. I used to buy good-quality blank DVD-R's in bulk online for about $30 per 100. At 4.2 GB per disk, that's about $0.07 per GB. At Walmart, I can buy 4TB Western Digital or Seagate external drives for $120, which works out to $0.03 per GB. Even when the $120 price point was occupied by 2TB drives ($0.06 per GB), they were a bit cheaper than DVD-R's, and took up a lot less space.

I keep two duplicate sets of archive drives, so as to have a backup in case a drive fails.
 
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  • #35
I didn't read the whole thread, but here's my $0.02 on it:

1.) Don't use cloud storage (especially for video). You could potentially run into legal issues even if you aren't sharing.
2.) A USB hard drive would most likely suffice. If the person isn't getting rid of their source materials (ie, just keeping their DVD's and music CD's in storage tucked away) then this method would be the most reliable IMO, and fastest. a 2 TB drive isn't overly expensive these days/

Like what @jtbell said - use a secondary drive for redundancy. Nothing is "forever", so it's always good to have a secondary backup.

Also, have none of you used dual sided DVD's? 8.4GB is better than 4.7GB :-p
 
  • #36
elusiveshame said:
Also, have none of you used dual sided DVD's? 8.4GB is better than 4.7GB :-p
And Blu-Ray disks are 25/50Gbyte...
 
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  • #37
Svein said:
And Blu-Ray disks are 25/50Gbyte...
Yep! It's amazing that in almost 2019, that thought didn't even occur to me for a storage option. Probably because optical media isn't as reliable (or efficient) as hard drives these days.
 

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