Blu-Ray and Linux

[Nadav Har'El]

On Wed, Jun 12, 2013, Omer Zak wrote about "Re: Blu-Ray and Linux":
> Thanks to all those who replied (both in private and to this mailing
> list) to my Blu-Ray questions.
> 
> Turns out that for storing 1TB data, Blu-Ray is not cheaper than an

Until a few years ago, I had hundreds of DVDs laying around with
backups, movies, and all sorts of stuff. I had to spend a lot of
my time buying empty DVDs, burning them, buying new DVD drives (the
damn things don't last very long...), etc. Then a couple of years ago,
I through away all this crap, and replaced it with a single 2TB hard-disk
which can hold the content of 500 (!) DVDs.

Not only did I stop burning DVDs, I also ripped all the "legally-bought"
CDs and DVDs I had at home (almost a 1000 of them, altogether) and now all
of it is on the hard disk as well. Now I can listen to any of my CDs,
or watch any of my movies, without bothering with those flimsy plastic disks.

So CDs, DVDs, and Bluerays are dead - unless they come up with some
major breakthrough which makes them more economical or more convenient
than hard disks and USB drives.

> external disk drive of equivalent storage capability.  The only
> advantage of Blu-Ray would be immunity against EMP.  Even then, I have

Have you considered a second backup disk, in a faraday cage? :-)

Or with the advent of the cloud, just back up on the cloud and hope
the EMP doesn't hit both Israel and the remote site (e.g., the U.S.)
at the same time. I have now 150 GB of remote "cloud" storage (from
Google and Rsync.Net) and pay only $70 a year for this quota.

I can't fit everything I own in 150 GB, but you know what - if EMP hits
Israel, the last thing I have to worry about is what happens to my movie
collection or that I'll need to re-rip several hundred CDs.

> no way to ensure that the Blu-Ray media I would buy are certified to be
> immune against EMP.
> 
> This explains why the Blu-Ray format has not caught on.

I don't think the EMP threat is what explains why it hasn't caught on.
Maybe it's just that large hard disks, streamers, VOD, bittorrent,
netflix, and the similar ecosystem, are all so much more convenient
than buying physical plastic disks?

> So the only reason to buy a Blu-Ray drive would be to view Blu-Ray
> movies and TV series (such as Dr. Who).

Or look those up in bittorrent ;-)

> It also appears that region locking in Blu-Ray world is not as serious
> problem as that in DVD world.

As usual, it's not a problem to the "pirates", only to people who pay... :-)
Which makes you think they don't want you to pay for movies.
Talk about cutting the branch they are sitting on :(

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |    Thursday, Jun 27 2013, 19 Tammuz 5773
nyh at math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |"Luck is when preparation meets
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |opportunity." - Richard Sherman