How large is your JAV collection?

MXS-

Active Member
Jan 6, 2009
196
34
I have drastically reduced my JAV downloading but still continue to collect ever so slightly!!! I have enough to last me for the rest of my life!!! I have a 6TB RAID5 array and a 4 TB mixed JAV and western porn collection. Both are regularly backed up to other drives as it is essential to always have two copies of your data.
 

Casshern2

Senior Member...I think
Mar 22, 2008
7,020
14,460
Because I lost a drive (436 titles!) I’m seriously considering going to a slower method of static storage. The BD-R disc. The 25GB discs hold approximately 23.28GB of data. So if my stupid math is right, that would be roughly (averaged for the size of titles I get, 1.45GB) around 16 titles per disc, which would be around 27 or discs to store the same amount of titles. I can get a 50 pack of highly reviewed BD-Rs for $24. Just need to finally install the 6X Blu-ray burner I bought TWO years ago. Then I could spool titles on my HDD or externals until I have around 23GB worth and burn to disc. The MAJOR flaw in that is that I lose the ability to easily catalog what I have with the programs I’ve already written. But, that’s a small price to pay for peace of mind that one failure won’t see the entire haul disappear. I can deal with having to get back 16 titles if a disc fails, but having to recover 436 when a drive takes an Akibalympic dive is too much for my poor little heart.


Heck, I can even get a 100 pack of generic paper CD sleeves for under $3 to keep them in. Storage folders are too expensive.


Anyone else ever consider switching to DVD-R or BD-R as their primary archive storage?
 

pikuseru

Well-Known Member
Jul 27, 2015
774
526
Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blurays are as unereliable as HDDs, if not more so... burning disc at home is not same as burning disc at the factory.

I used to store my camera RAW files on DVD-R. But a few years ago I switched to external HDD.

The key with backing up on portable HDDs is redundancy: don't store files on just one drive, especially important files. Even with redundancy, HDDs are a far more cost-effective, more compact solution than BD-Rs...

But it is hard to see how portable HDD can fail anyways, especially if used only for backup. I only plug my drives in when transferring files. HDDs fail eventually the more they operate, but if they are mostly just sitting on the shelf, unused, then drive failure shouldn't be a major concern.
 

Casshern2

Senior Member...I think
Mar 22, 2008
7,020
14,460
This is all opinion, so I'm not debating anyone, just explaining how I see things for my personal use.

I thought they got pressed instead of burned at a factory? At least they do that for Playstation games. :D

This is how I see it for my uses: HDDs have moving parts. Multiple moving parts. Optical media are like solid state drives. No moving parts. In fact, the disc is one whole part that gets moved (while spinning). Sure, the drives that read them have moving parts, but at least when those fail my files remain intact. I just need to get another reader/burner. And, much like HDDs that sit on the shelf, so, too, can discs. And if I happen to knock over my discs I'm a magnitude less likely to shock the discs enough to cause damage to them like a fallen HDD.

As for cost, $24 for roughly 1.1GB of storage is pretty comparable to a 1TB external drive for around $45 or a 1TB internal drive for around the same price. Throw in redundancy and I'd spend roughly half the money using BD-R. I would miss the speed in retrieving or reading from the HDD, but I'm a patient man.

Another thing I considered, since you rightfully mention "it is hard to see how portable HDD can fail", is that if I have a title I want to view and it is on an HDD with 200 other titles, every time I turn it on to read or transfer from it, I put the other 200 titles at risk. Yikes! I'd rather put 15 other titles at risk.

It's an experiment, to be sure. I've always used HDDs. And I know it is my fault for not having backups, but for a hobby (an AWESOME hobby, I know) I'd rather not spend 2X the money for an eventuality with those costs involved.
 
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pikuseru

Well-Known Member
Jul 27, 2015
774
526
Yeah, discs are pressed at factory, not burned. Burned discs are notoriously unreliable. They don't last a long time... there's many more variables involved with disc burning compared to transferring to HDD: the burner, the disc quality, the disc type, the software settings, the storage conditions...

HDDs fail mostly because they have moving parts, but if they are on the shelf, they should not be moving... that seems easier and simpler to control than all that stuff involved with disc burning.

I forgot you guys probably watch JAV directly from external HDD because you have so much files. I just backup 6000kbps HD files only, so I only plug the drive when transferring files. I make SD versions of all my JAVs (153GB total) to keep on my internal HDD (which is over 7 years old, btw).
 
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Blade Runner

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2015
384
268
This is all opinion, so I'm not debating anyone, just explaining how I see things for my personal use.

I thought they got pressed instead of burned at a factory? At least they do that for Playstation games. :D

This is how I see it for my uses: HDDs have moving parts. Multiple moving parts. Optical media are like solid state drives. No moving parts. In fact, the disc is one whole part that gets moved (while spinning). Sure, the drives that read them have moving parts, but at least when those fail my files remain intact. I just need to get another reader/burner. And, much like HDDs that sit on the shelf, so, too, can discs. And if I happen to knock over my discs I'm a magnitude less likely to shock the discs enough to cause damage to them like a fallen HDD.

As for cost, $24 for roughly 1.1GB of storage is pretty comparable to a 1TB external drive for around $45 or a 1TB internal drive for around the same price. Throw in redundancy and I'd spend roughly half the money using BD-R. I would miss the speed in retrieving or reading from the HDD, but I'm a patient man.

Another thing I considered, since you rightfully mention "it is hard to see how portable HDD can fail", is that if I have a title I want to view and it is on an HDD with 200 other titles, every time I turn it on to read or transfer from it, I put the other 200 titles at risk. Yikes! I'd rather put 15 other titles at risk.

It's an experiment, to be sure. I've always used HDDs. And I know it is my fault for not having backups, but for a hobby (an AWESOME hobby, I know) I'd rather not spend 2X the money for an eventuality with those costs involved.
IIRC laser not disc that moves in an ODD.

IMO HDD is more reliable than optical media.
 

Blade Runner

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2015
384
268
Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blurays are as unereliable as HDDs, if not more so... burning disc at home is not same as burning disc at the factory.

I used to store my camera RAW files on DVD-R. But a few years ago I switched to external HDD.

The key with backing up on portable HDDs is redundancy: don't store files on just one drive, especially important files. Even with redundancy, HDDs are a far more cost-effective, more compact solution than BD-Rs...

But it is hard to see how portable HDD can fail anyways, especially if used only for backup. I only plug my drives in when transferring files. HDDs fail eventually the more they operate, but if they are mostly just sitting on the shelf, unused, then drive failure shouldn't be a major concern.
+1
 

Casshern2

Senior Member...I think
Mar 22, 2008
7,020
14,460
IIRC laser not disc that moves in an ODD.

IMO HDD is more reliable than optical media.
Are you implying that in an Optical Disc Drive the disc stays still and the laser spins around it?
 

Supmop

Akiba Citizen
Oct 23, 2012
3,955
1,923
IMO HDD is more reliable than optical media.

yes HDD is more reliable for at least 5-7 years after that must aware it could have some errors

Anyone else ever consider switching to DVD-R or BD-R as their primary archive storage?

I've the same experience when my old HDD suddenly errors, now I put some of my collection in DVD-R and some in HDD

I have the same opinion, I know HDD is more reliable and more easy to use, but if its suddenly error we can lost the entire data, while in DVD-R we only lost that in the disc (around 4 Gb per disc), from my own experience I put 50 or 100 discs, the error risk only around 1-3 disc from 100
 
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Supmop

Akiba Citizen
Oct 23, 2012
3,955
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I'm gonna go that route this time. Ordered a 50 pack of 25GB BD-R discs for $24 free shipping. We'll see how it goes...

good luck, hope the BD-R is more durable than DVD-R

it could be the best option to backup our collection from HDD
 
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Casshern2

Senior Member...I think
Mar 22, 2008
7,020
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Got in my little black 24 disc holders. Aside from the advantages of no moving parts and any single death being only 20+ GB of lost data vs 1TB…

· I paid $26 less
· I have 233GB more space
· I can archive 132 more avg size SD titles (or 62 more avg size HD titles)

IMG_20160829_161101.jpg

For me that outweighs the possible inconvenience of having to switch out discs to get at multiple titles.
 
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LoliKing25

Active Member
Jan 9, 2017
312
130
Got in my little black 24 disc holders. Aside from the advantages of no moving parts and any single death being only 20+ GB of lost data vs 1TB…

· I paid $26 less
· I have 233GB more space
· I can archive 132 more avg size SD titles (or 62 more avg size HD titles)

View attachment 762681

For me that outweighs the possible inconvenience of having to switch out discs to get at multiple titles.
As someone who was notoriousy into downloading onto external drives (8tb), BD-R is now cheaper than external and internal drives by far. I pay 170 for 8TB drive, or 128 for 8TB worth of blu ray, which is about what 8TB drives used to cost before Thailand and China spiked their usage, and lowered output, plus shipping blocks by CCP. On top of that, losing 25GB is better than losing 8TB at once. I can drop kick a blu ray/dvd/cd, and its fine. Can you really say the same for a hard drive (ouch!)?
 

LoliKing25

Active Member
Jan 9, 2017
312
130
Oh, and @Casshern2 , one other thing. I found clear 100g disc sleeves on amazon, and they work great. Combine them with mailing labels, and you can easily label your entire collection, no need for a binder!
 

r00g

Member
Jul 25, 2009
84
70
As someone who was notoriousy into downloading onto external drives (8tb), BD-R is now cheaper than external and internal drives by far. I pay 170 for 8TB drive, or 128 for 8TB worth of blu ray, which is about what 8TB drives used to cost before Thailand and China spiked their usage, and lowered output, plus shipping blocks by CCP. On top of that, losing 25GB is better than losing 8TB at once. I can drop kick a blu ray/dvd/cd, and its fine. Can you really say the same for a hard drive (ouch!)?
Nice! BD-R definitely wins when you need your JAV to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Price and physical stability is not the only driving factor though. I have all of my JAV on spinning disks so that I can access anything at any time. Having to catalog and manage physical media, especially when looking for that one particular scene or actress is just not fun. Much better to throw it into a video management system like Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, or Stash so you can search on names, keywords, IDs, etc and then just kick back and watch.

(Currently have ~18 TB right now, all cataloged, organized and accessible via Jellyfin)
 

LoliKing25

Active Member
Jan 9, 2017
312
130
Nice! BD-R definitely wins when you need your JAV to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Price and physical stability is not the only driving factor though. I have all of my JAV on spinning disks so that I can access anything at any time. Having to catalog and manage physical media, especially when looking for that one particular scene or actress is just not fun. Much better to throw it into a video management system like Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, or Stash so you can search on names, keywords, IDs, etc and then just kick back and watch.

(Currently have ~18 TB right now, all cataloged, organized and accessible via Jellyfin)
One thing that really psychologically screwed me up, was (ironic enough, considering my old profession of Digital Archival on HDDs) instant access to data (jav/porn included). The ability to find exactly what I wanted (or didnt want) contributed to my mental instability in an unforeseen way. I greatly took it for granted that I had this stuff, and it became too common-place for me. I hope that with discs, I mentally restrain myself to at least having to browse through hundreds and thousands of discs before finding what I want (shortly, all will be re-bagged in plastic cpp sleeves, and given a printed out mailing label with the contents of the disc on it - all for ease of use). Its easy to manage (for me) when you keep a list of what you have (for JAV, I have a simple word document that just lists all the JAV I have, so I can ctrl+f to verify I either do or do not have a copy), though this is easiest to do towards the start of one's collection (starting from scratch gave me this opportunity, though I admit that for my western stuff (specifically the individual videos I have on discs, rather than full siterips), I haven't really been keeping up with a list, like I should, though my siterips are easy to organize and create a list for - just that the single videos can be a pain because of all the typing one must do).

I think most of us who archive/save with discs sort of view ourselves as kin to those Peruvian "dvd pirates" that VICE made a documentary on, and our collections we tend to wish looked like those in that aforementioned documentary's dvd stall/shop. The truth is that we are more like the stereotypical Russian with a Windows XP machine, who is afraid of the police kicking in the door at anytime. We all tend to build up an image of ourselves, and this tends to be "holier than thou". I simply look forward to the day when all my discs are properly bagged, with labels, and easy to find, but not easy enough for me to descend into madness once again. The CD/DVD/Blu-Ray offers us the ability to burn and forget about it, by putting it into a binder or dvd/cd box (snap n store), and basically forget about it. I have no clue where I will be in 5 years, but wherever I am, it is safe to say that somewhere, I will have at least 1000 discs full of JAV goodness (Also considering burning full discographies of music to blu-ray/dvd) somewhere nearby.

Sorry for my long, rambling stream of consciousness, as with topics like these, my ability to write academic sounding reports for online forums is sub-par to say the least.