Today I came across an article written by Computerworld titled Blu-ray tanks in PCs. I’ve been an active follower of HD (High Definition) video and data storage for many years. I also followed the battle between Sony’s Blu-Ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD closely for several years before the end in early 2008. Here we are, half way to 2010 and I’ve only seen a handful of Blu-Ray drives (not including Playstation) and movies. According to the article, cost is one of the biggest concerns that customers face when looking to make the jump. While this is true, I believe the cost comparison between storage mediums along with faster internet speeds and the push to rid our lives of junk is the root cause of the slow adoption.

Cost

When dealing with Blu-Ray on computers, we’re looking more into using this medium as a storage device over a video viewing device. Geeks, like myself, do watch media on our computers but the general public does not. We all, however, do use our computers as an information storage device. The amount of information that can be stored on a Blu-Ray disk was actually one of the selling points of the medium. This, along with Sony’s marketing powerhouse (with Hollywood Support), is probably what drove HD-DVD out of the market. So, our cost comparisons below are only going to show the duel layer BD’s (Blu-ray Disk), because the 25GB single layer disks are too small for the files we’ll want to use with this storage medium. According to several leading hardware sales locations, if I wanted to begin backing up information today this is what I’ll be spending:

• Blu-Ray Burner: $150 (LG) – $200 (Pioneer)
• BD-r 50GB: $150 (10 Pack – Verbatim) or $20 (1 Pack – Sony)

So, to store our first 50GB of information we’re already looking at a price tag of $170, using the lowest priced BD-rw and a single 50GB duel layer BD.

The standard hard drive has come a long way from it’s roots. There are many different styles, sizes and speeds all competing for your money. Also, with the technological introductions of USB and Solid-State drives, we’re seeing even faster price drops on the latest (sometimes greatest) hard drives. 1TB (terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes) drives are now running around the $75-$100 price tag for the standard 7200rpm drive. Some 2TB drives, distributed by companies such as Toshiba and Seagate, are coming in around the $150 mark. To achieve the back-up potential of one of these hard drives (1TB model), you’d need to burn 20.48 disks of information. If you were to use the Verbatim disks (round down from 20.48 to 20, and assume Verbatim disks have a 100% success rate) you’d need to spend around $450. With that $450, you could of backed up nearly 6TB of information on internal hard drives; or slightly less for external hard drives.

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