In the December 2011 issue of ShutterBug, a magazine devoted to photography and everything in the world of cameras, you’ll find a succinct photography tools review by David B. Brooks about his new solution to digitally save and store images, the M-DISC. David says,
I often get questions about how to store digital image files safely and securely. Although there have been a lot of options, all of them have involved compromises. Recently, however, one of our readers told me about Millenniata, and I immediately looked into this new American company. I found that Millenniata has a new DVD disc technology that provides “more than” archival life expectancy, as established by the US Department of Defense’s Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Divison at China Lake, California.
After getting a hands-on look at the M-DISC and a new LG Drive, David was impressed by the noticeable visual differences, as well as, the incredibly quiet and smooth operation of the drive. Examining the M-DISC he said, “It is the same size as a typical DVD and will run and read with most DVD drives, but it looks very different. It is a clear, see-through grayish disc, looking much like a neutral density filter.” The drive that David tested was the LG BE12LU30, our top-end drive that records M-DISCs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. To be sure no data was altered during the burn process and that his photographs stayed crisp and beautiful, he tested several M-DISCs and accessed the data using a number of different drives. “The [LG BE12LU30 drive] I used was very quiet and smooth, one of the best DVD/CD drives I have used…Checking the files recorded on the M-DISC against the originals, I could not find any differences in the content.”
The M-DISC is truly more impressive once you’ve had a chance to hold a disc, examine it for yourself and preserve your data for generations to come. David concluded by saying,
Considering the investment, especially if not a Blu-ray drive, is modest and the $3 M-DISC cost is also competitive with a standard DVD-R, it is not a great risk, so anyone who wants their photographic files preserved for those in the future is not held back by cost. Even without the Department of Defense’s testing and favorable report, I would take Millenniata seriously. By the time I use up my stock of gold-gold CD-R discs, I will be ordering an LG drive and a supply of M-DISCs.
If you would like to read the full article check out http://www.shutterbug.com/ or head on over to your local bookstore and pick up a hard copy of the magazine.
The Shutterbug article and LG’s website make no mention of Macintosh. Are there any plans for a Mac compatible M-disk writer?
You can use any of our drives, as well as read and write M-DISCs, on both Mac computers and PC’s. In fact, our products will work with most operating systems so long as your computer has up-to-date optical drive software and supports the drive interface, typically USB or SATA. Windows 7 and the Mac OSX operating systems provide DVD drive software support, including the ability to etch data onto the M-DISC. All optical disc drives, whether DVD/CD or Blu-ray, will work in any computer that supports the drive interface. The reason why some drives, especially Blu-ray drives, may be described by the manufacturer as PC only is because the bundled software included with the drive is PC only, not because of a basic hardware incompatibility. If the optical disc drive you want to purchase is described as PC only, it can typically be used on a Mac, but you may have to buy a separate 3rd-party BD burning software package. Two software packages that are well accepted for Max OSX are Final Cut Pro and Roxio Toast Titanium.
i purchased an LG BE12LU38 drive in December 2011 as a Blu-ray writer, hoping that it also has the capability to write M-disks. Could you tell me if this drive will write M-Disks, even though M-disk is not mentioned on the box.
Thank you.
Jim Matos
i purchased an LG BE12LU38 drive in December 2011 as a Blu-ray writer, hoping that it also has the capability to write M-disks. Could you tell me if this drive will write M-Disks, even though M-disk is not mentioned on the box.
Jim, unless the drive has the M-DISC, like the ones in our store, you won’t be able to write to an M-DISC. Even though LG has past versions of the same drives, the capabilities to write to an M-DISC are new and will only come with the newer drives that are specifically setup for it.
Are these drives and disks available in the UK ?
Yes, they are! We have a distributor for Europe and if you purchase through our website your products will ship from there.
The upcoming blu-ray writers won’t be able to write M-Disc blu-rays, correct? Only DVDs are available as M-Disc recordable discs? No CDs? No Blu-Ray discs?
Correct, we currently only have M-DISC DVDs available. We are currently working on a Blu-ray version of the M-DISC and will let you know as we get closer to that product launching.
CDs would also be very useful, for making audio discs. I have many hours of material on tape which could usefully be transferred to CDs. There doesn’t seem much point in doing this if the life of the CD is only a few years.
Also the very many small record companies that cater for special tastes in music, or reissue archive recordings under license, would find it ideal to be able to burn on demand CDs that last as long as pressed CDs.
Thank you for the comments Don, we appreciate the feedback!
Hi Chaps,
Fellow archivist and backup nut here
Just wanted to say: keep up the good work
Thank you!
I understand that these products are available in the UK through your EU distributer. Can you confirm that they will work on our voltage of 240 volts please?
Thanks
Hello Richard! The drives will work just fine as the power needed is regulated by your computer. Please let us know if you have any other questions.