ISO-Certified Optical Discs from JVC Advanced Media
A Q&A with Tim Knapp, President, Reflex Technologies
JVC Advanced Media USA
Reflex Technologies is the only archival motion imaging company providing its digital access/viewing copies on ISO-certified optical discs. Currently, the DVD-R versions of the discs – from JVC Advanced Media and written and checked on the JVC-specified system – are certified; the Blu-ray versions are in the certification process. Tim Knapp, President of Reflex Technologies, discusses the importance of the ISO certification.
How do the JVC discs fit into the Reflex scanning process?
Everything begins with the film. Our unique scanner has the capability to fully and gently scan 8mm/16mm/35mm film in almost any condition, including highly-distressed film – and to produce an uncompressed file – for long-term storage – on a hard drive. For more immediate use, we also provide access and redundant archival storage copies on ISO-certified JVC optical media. We write the discs in the JVC-specified recorder and verify their quality in the JVC-specified disc integrity inspection module. Because the images on those discs are typically used for many purposes — editing into other materials, licensing to other producers, viewing by museum visitors — it’s vital for archivists to have a measure of the quality of the media and the recording before those discs are distributed. JVC discs are the only ones with the ISO-certification to verify that.
What does the ISO-certification mean?
It provides a high level of assurance of the quality of the media and an actual baseline to archivists of what they have. ISO/IEC 29121 defines the quality of the media and its suitability for longer-term storage. ISO/IEC10995 specifies the test method for defining the longevity of the disc when stored at a temperature of 25° C (77° F) at 50% relative humidity. Using ISO specifications, JVC media and JVC-specified equipment and procedures, we can verify that the recording and media meet ISO-standards — and can provide an ISO-supported recommendation on when the data may need to be migrated. Reflex can also re-check those discs — later – at any point in their lifecycle to measure data degradation. We’re all used to seeing images on film as validation that the photochemical process worked. A major concern with digital is that we’ve been blind to what’s on the optical disc, hard drive or other storage media. With this new technology, we’re no longer blind.
Are the JVC discs different from other DVD-Rs?
JVC discs play in any standard DVD or Blu-ray player, but they’re manufactured to much higher levels of quality. Their reflective layer uses an innovative silver alloy to resist oxidation; the organic dye layer is optimized for storage quality; their hard coat is much more resistant to scratches, fingerprints and dirt; and their overall production control, testing, and inspection criteria are much more demanding than for regular DVDs. JVC-specified recorders have firmware and software to optimize the JVC discs by selecting the most suitable laser writing power; and the JVC-specified disc integrity inspection module can provide a hard copy print out that looks at the entire disc, sector by sector, and tells when the data should be migrated.
Will you provide that hard copy print out to your customers?
That’s our plan, because the hard-copy print-out will provide assurance of the quality of the media and the recording. We know that most access copies are not intended for longer-term storage – they’re working copies for more immediate use. But longevity and widespread playability both require error-free discs – and the print-out provides archivists with a baseline on the quality of the digital media and images they have in their archives.
Are you providing all of your archival scanning on JVC discs?
No. When we scan, we scan directly to the uncompressed AVI format and provide that very large file on an external hard drive. That serves as the high quality “digital master;” it’s intended for storage – and is used to render multiple other formats, for working/access copies, on various external media – including the ISO-certified JVC optical discs.
Why not provide everything on optical discs?
Some studies suggest that optical media may have better long-term stability than solid state hard drives, but their capacities are vastly different. The Blu-ray discs from JVC can hold up to 50 gigabytes of data. With normal Blu-ray compression, that’s about 360 minutes of 16mm film at HD resolution. If that data were in 2K uncompressed form, it would take 80 of the 50-gig Blu-ray discs to hold the same amount of information – but that fits completely on just one hard drive. What we recommend – and what we do routinely – is to create peace-of-mind redundancy: we provide the uncompressed file on a hard drive; a Blu-ray disc copy that’s put into storage so it stays in pristine condition; and a second optical disc that becomes the day-to-day access copy when the data needs to be used. And the film goes back into storage, unharmed, for the future.
So there’s still not one storage medium to replace film?
Welcome to the digital dilemma: archival film is deteriorating, but the long-term stability of digital media is still an unknown. Waiting for answers before making transfers may not be the best option. To store large uncompressed files, some organizations that are worried about the error rates and stability of hard drives, are talking about using the Cloud – although that’s actually just a very large hard drive. But, regardless of how or where it’s stored – and it should be stored securely and in uncompressed form — if the information is going to be used, viewing/access copies need to be made. Reflex Technologies is the only company making them on the only media with tools to evaluate their quality and longevity against a set of international standards. That gives archivists one more assurance of what they have in their archives – it takes away some of the “blindness” and uncertainty usually associated with digital media.
Do you regularly provide access/viewing copies in DVD-R or the Blu-ray format?
We do both. The industry is moving toward more use of Blu-rays and for good reasons. A DVD-R disc has a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes; a JVC Blu-ray disc has ten times that capacity. Since we’re putting the same amount of data on each, you can imagine how much less compression there is on a Blu-ray. But all Blu-ray is not created equal. There are many disc manufacturers and they offer a large range of quality levels. We use the best quality materials so the images on the access/viewing copies preserve – as much as is possible – the filmmaker’s original vision and the discs last as long as possible. We do that because we’re film people. We’re on the side of archivists. We’ve looked at many different media and processes, and we still have lots of questions, but JVC is serious about developing data-driven solutions to the digital dilemma. Working with JVC is consistent with our philosophy – to use the best technology and processes to deliver the highest quality, most trusted digital transfers in the industry.