I'm looking at Meritline but don't see any archival quality Blu-ray. Are you finding archival media there?

/jerry

all Blu-ray media will suit an untested but likely archival period. Don't get to hung up on the terms

As always, it is really difficult to find independent accelerated aging tests. I did find a few things that might be useful:

Panasonic "Archive Grade" Blu-Ray Discs

This is simply a link to the page on Panasonic's site where they describe Blu-Ray media that they claim will last fifty years. Without independent testing, this is just a marketing claim, but at least they are attempting to provide something that fits what you are looking for.


Are blu-ray blank media right for longevity?

This is a thread over in the myce forum where the OP links to several German studies on Blu-Ray longevity. My German is almost non-existent, so even with the help of Google Translation I couldn't quite understand the results, but the OP highlighted the rows and columns that, presumably, are the one dealing with longevity. Not surprising (to me, at least), the Verbatim brands seem to come out on top in most of the three tests.


Recordable Blu-Ray Periodic Survey

This is the first of three surveys attempting to figure out which media are NOT holding up well. (There are two later versions of the survey linked to at the end of the article). This doesn't tell you which media will last long, but it does have some value by letting you know, based on a small sample of actual users, which media didn't make it more than a few years. Ritek fared very badly, especially on the third survey. Verbatim, once again, appeared to be the best.


Finally, here is a link to the top-rated Blu-Ray blank media on Amazon:

Top Rated in Blank BD-R Discs

Once again, Verbatim is at the top.

So, while I have not yet purchased a Blu-Ray player or burner and therefore have zero experience with these discs, I have authored thousands of DVD and CDs and burned tens of thousands of discs, and definitely understand how to interpret these results.

Conclusion: buy Verbatim.

And of course take care of the discs once burnt: low humidity, cool temperature, in the dark, store on edge.

Some interesting info;

http://www.myce.com/news/french-research-avoid-blu-ray-lth-discs-for-data-archival-64265/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9235318/New_Blu_ray_Disc_offers_39_lifetime_of_storage_39_

I think I would just put it on a harddrive.....

"[I]I think I would just put it on a harddrive...[/I]"

I burn Blu-rays but don't really think of the media as long-term storage. I think of multiple hard drives [I]in different locations[/I] as long-term storage.

That being said, the implication from TeeTime was that the media was defined in the project deliverables. I sense that he wants to meet the terms of the agreement.

My experience with 25 LTH Blu-ray blanks was not good even though I used Verbatim media. I still use Verbatim MASL #97238.

BD Disc Information:
Disc ID: VERBAT-IMe-000
Disc Type: BD-R
Disc Size: 120mm

>That being said, the implication from TeeTime was that the media was defined in the project deliverables. I sense that he wants to meet the terms of the agreement.

It isn't really contractual terms, but rather I'm just wanting to provide the best longevity I can for a wedding video. I appreciate all the good information here, much of which I was unaware of.

John Meyer, I've decided to put the video on Verbatim blu-ray discs, and also provide a rendered file this couple (who are very computer literate) can archive on their choice of media.

Thanks all for the insights.

/jerry

One other option beside Blu-Ray and hard drive is to use a thumb drive. There was a thread in this forum recently about the longevity of this media, and none of us was able to find anything very useful, so this may, or may not, be a good long-term storage choice.

You can get a pretty decent 32 GB thumb drive for only about $20 if you shop the sales (I just bought a SanDisk Class 10 for $22). This has the advantage over the other two choices of being able to be played directly on most TV sets. It is much more likely to be easily readable twenty or forty years from now because I suspect the USB standard will be around in some form for quite a long time.

For those of you concerned about archiving on optical disk media:

Feb 20 2014 Webinar

http://moviola.com/webinars/optical-disc-archive-by-sony/?XID=E:oda:register