So, I just bought a Panasonic TM900 video camera. It records in 1080/60p (and is beautiful!).. I have editing software that I think I can render the footage to Blu Ray specs.

Sample footage of my kid (change the setting to 1080 I guess..):



So I have a Blu Ray player - now I suppose I need a Blu Ray burner right - to burn the Blu Ray footage. What is the latest and greatest? Anything I need to look for or be cautious of?

Thanks!
BeachAV8R

I got my 12X LG burner at Fry's for 79 bucks retail with the only downside being some crappy low-spec burning software from Cyberlink. Cyberlink does make some decent burning software, but you have to pay for it. Nero is the best IMHO and I would beware of Roxio because it was just sold for the umpteenth time. Corel bought it, but they will come out with a new one for sure.

So the caveat on buying a burner, even a retail one, is the software it comes with. And the price for Nero varies greatly. On their site and the egg, it goes for 109.99. On Amazon through Beach Camera, it's 48.79. Same software, just at a fair price instead of a rip-off.

Also Fry's generally has some name brand 25Gb media like from Philips on sale every week. Generally decent media is at least $1.50 a piece. Beware of the super cheap stuff because you don't want to spend thirty minutes or more of your time and money burning a coaster.

I only use my burner for backups.

http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2012/01/27/56716/LG-12x-SATA-Blu-Ray-Writer

ASUS makes a good burner too. It's based on the Pioneer model with ASUS firmware. Don't waste your money on a Plextor as it will be a re-badged burner with their Firmware. Plextor quit making their own drives years ago.

Nice info there, thank-you. I noticed the big price difference between ones you can buy at Best Buy and the ones you can get at Newegg.. Like you mentioned, it must be because the Newegg one's are bare drives and the retail stores are probably packaged with software. Thanks for the tips on what to look for..

There are quiet a few free and very good BD-R burning softwares. I use burnaware for my BD-R (data file) burning.

yeah LG, had the First,

I still have my LG GGW-H20L somewhere in my storage unit, which is:

6x, D-DR BluRay Burner,
16x, DVDRW, DVDR,
52x, CDRW, CDR, CD

My Version also plays HD-DVDs, this feature was removed in later versions after HD-DVD was retired, i think you can flash the firmware back to the old version though.

Are there any reservations about using Blu Ray to archive data (like home movies?). Are there archival quality Blu Ray discs suitable to that purpose. Right now I'm using a triple hard-drive (dual internal, one external) system to archive home movies and photos, but I'd imagine with HD footage from my new recorder I'll be using a LOT more space.

Saw a Liteon Blu-ray burner in the electronics closeout section at Walmart for $76. Have had a LG blu-ray burner for years now.
Still the only place you can find BDR disks is online, good deals at NewEgg.

As for data storage on a BDR disk, single layer you can put 25gb. Double density 50gb. But you will pay twice as much for them to.
Authoring a Blu-ray video is an entirely different process. Much more time consuming since file sizes are so huge.

There are some archival quality discs but you will pay dearly for them. 50 years is what they say they will last. I expect a regular disk to last at least ten.