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DVD As Media For Digital Image Distribution?

Posted by Cliff on from the are-there-better-ways? dept.

Buran asks: "I work in a research lab at a major university. We currently record a lot of visual data from a light microscope on large Panasonic optical disks. They're so old that replenishing the supply is iffy, and we can't get replacement recorders or players anymore. We want to move to DVD for image storage because they're much smaller, players are widespread, new computers can play them, and because there's a lot of storage space on each disc. However, I'm having trouble finding information on DVD recorders (certainly we have the technology to make them!) and players with high-quality digital output (for making digital movies for sending to collaborators over the Internet.) I'm hoping the Slashdot community can provide suggestions. I'm all set up to import FireWire video from digital sources, now all we need are the recorders and players." While a neat idea, I think that it would be easier to use something more open. How about tying a video microscope to a PC, saving the images in a format like JPG for distribution on a CDR? Thoughts?

2 of 7 comments (clear)

  1. do DVD-R or DVD-RAM work on Linux at all? by Jamie+Zawinski · · Score: 3

    I'd like to use a DVD-sized device for backups, but I'm having a hard time tracking down information about using DVD-RAM and/or DVD-R under Linux at all...

    Which DVD-RAM and DVD-R drives work with Linux?

    I've heard a rumor that discs written by DVD-RAM drives tend to be wedded to the drive that wrote them, and can't be read on other drives. Is that true?

    If I don't need to re-write the discs, but just want static backups at around 4G capacity, what should I use, DVD-RAM or DVD-R? I would have guessed DVD-R, but it looks like DVD-RAM drives are around $600 while DVD-R drives are around $5000. What is there to recommend DVD-R over DVD-RAM?

    Are these discs as reliable as CD-R discs? If I verify them immediately after writing them, then put them in a box, can I count on them still being readable in ten years?

    Can DVD-R discs be read in normal DVD-ROM drives? My laptop's CDROM is really a DVD-ROM -- if I fed it a DVD-R, would it be able to read my backups, or is there a difference between video and data DVDs?

  2. Loss of data in JPG by Louis_Wu · · Score: 3
    Well, JPGs might be a bad idea, as a recent article on kuro5hin pointed out. The compression in JPGs reduces the resolution of detail, and smooths out the picture so that loss of data is less apparent. I don't think that a research lab wants to purposefuly destroy data. I don't know enough about the details of each format to know which would be better, but JPGs have a big drawback.

    Louis Wu

    Thinking is one of hardest types of work.