One of our top pro A/V hard drive manufacturers was a sponsor at the recent "From Home to Studio" conference held at the world-renowned studio The Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, CA.  From what we hear and read it was a big success.  The conference was started by David Hampton, author of the book "So, You’re an Audio Engineer. . . Well, Here’s the Other Stuff You Need to Know".  The book is a must-read for anyone working on the recording side of the music industry.

The conference is a perfect fit for Avastor since their current product offerings are built with pro A/V in mind.  People outside of the recording industry might not yet know about Avastor but that will change soon as upcoming products will target multiple storage markets.  

From the Avastor site:  Avastor – offering a broad range of storage and integration solutions for the professional digital content creator. See why Avastor should be your storage supplier

For information on the conference and book visit www.soyoureanaudioengineer.com

We get questions every week from hard drive users wondering why they should spend extra on an A/V hard drive.  For those outside of the pro A/V industries the term "professional Audio/Video hard drive" might seem a little odd. A drive is a drive, right?  Not exactly...

Why spend extra when I can get a great deal on a brand X hard drive at my local chain electronics store?  That depends on what you are using the drive for.  If you are simply backing up your latest digital camera pics or your new MP3 purchases then a cheap USB drive will likely be fine.  Always have at least one copy of everything...drives can crash.

If you are using the drive for large data transfer applications like music, TV and film production don't use your budget cuts on storage.  Ask anyone who has worked on a few projects and odds are you'll hear horror stories of lost data, defective drives etc.  

Since Glyph Technologies is one of our top pro A/V drive lines I pulled some useful information from the Glyph site:

Internal power supplies and fans.

Glyph uses pro-quality internal power supplies in the GT Series, and sturdy IEC type connectors like those used on server-grade computer gear. To keep the drive mechanism cool, we use whisper-quiet fans that produce no more than 20 dBa noise. Some companies offer "fanless" drives. We believe "fanless" is not something to brag about. Without a fan, and in heavy-duty cycles like audio and video production, your drive has a higher likelihood of failing. There's just no other way to put it.

Warranty & Replacement

We offer what we call an Overnight Advance Replacement Policy, which basically states that if your GT Series hard drive fails within the first year of it's warranty, we will send you a replacement drive overnight. Now, who else can make that claim?

Unbeatable Support

We have the industry knowledge to keep up with today's computers and systems, and if you need to call Glyph Support, you get directly through to a tech who is prepared to help you. If your drive does need to be repaired, we have a 48-Hour in-house turnaround time on most repairs, which means that you'll be up and running again in no time.

No wall-warts in the GT Series.

Don'tcha just hate them? You can't just use any adapter with any drive -- you have to use the one that it came with. And if you lose it, you're out of luck. Big, bulky wall adapters take up more than their share of the power strip, not to mention that the fragile connector from the wart to the drive is anything but professional.

Quietmetal

Glyph's Quietmetal is our time-tested solution to quieting noisy hard drives. It's a tri-laminate material (two layers of metal separated by a polymer core) which mounts the disk mechanism to the chassis, and dampens disk vibration before it reaches the chassis, thereby reducing the overall noise of the hard drive system. And it's dead quiet. Really. Glyph is pleased to offer Seagate hard drive mechanisms in our hard drive products. Seagate has the best reputation and the lowest failure rates that we've seen from any disk manufacturer.

I hope this helps.  Definitely do not buy more storage than you need but be sure NOT to buy less. 

Finally we have more Panasonic LM-BE50DE rewritable 50GB blu-ray discs available again. This particular capacity in the rewritable format has been very hard to find but here at Encore Data Products we have stock today!

	Data Capacity		50GB 1
	Recording Speed		1x - 2x
	Disc Type (Layer)		Dual Layer
	Single Side		Yes
	Rewritable		Yes
	Case/Cartridge Type		Full-size jewel case
	Country of Origin		Made in Japan

The 50GB is currently the highest capacity blu-ray disc on the market; having the rewrite ability makes the LM-HB50DE a very popular disc. 

Please call us at 866-926-1669 and ask for Jeff if you are looking for a large quantity; I'll see what I can do for bid pricing.  That goes for all formats of recordable blu-ray discs, both 25GB and 50GB capacities.

To see our complete selection of recordable blu-ray and HD DVD media (we do not sell the pre-recorded movies) please visit Blu-ray / HD DVD Media page.

One of our choices for advertising is Mike Johnston's Online Photographer blog. His long-running site got "hassled" by some spam fighting robots...so now he has an excellent new site www.theonlinephotographer.com.

Odds are if you are reading this entry and are a photographer you knew about the photography blog long before Encore Data Products.  If not, please visit his site for news, tips, tricks, reviews, etc. on the world of photography.  National Geographic picked The Online Photographer as one of the best online sources for photography information.  It is definitely wort a visit; odds are you will keep going back.

Glyph Technologies manufacturers professional grade hard drives, hardware and accessories for the pro A/V storage markets.  Our contact at Glyph, Josh Sularski, was kind enough to partake in one of my e-mail interviews; he had some excellent info:

Hey Josh...What's the latest at Glyph?
We are always moving forward at Glyph.  Right now we are working on transitioning our removable GT Key and Rack systems over to FireWire 800 (don't worry FW 400 fans, there will be a legacy port for you).  A lot of people are anxious to see us release the FireWire 800 versions of the GT 051, GT 103, GT 205, and GT Keys, but our testing is so thorough that we will not release our new products to the market until they have passed some very rigorous benchmarks in reliability and performance.

Besides transitioning the GT Key system to FireWire 800, we have a relatively new product out called the GT 062.  The GT 062 is actually two hard drives in a single tabletop enclosure. It is the drive to get if you do a lot of work with video, you know, stuff like Final Cut.  It is provides great performance for virtual instruments and sampler software.  Examples of these kinds of products include Synthogy Ivory, Native Instruments, Vienna Symphony, BFD, etc.

It is available in sizes from 500GB up to 1.5TB and has the same physical footprint as a regular GT 050.  It can be set to one of three modes.  RAID0/Striping, JBOD, or Spanning.

For those who are new to hard drives, I'll explain the differences briefly:

RAID 0 / Striping: The two drives in the GT 062 work together and show up on your computer as one volume.  This helps shorten seek times and maximizes the bandwidth of the FireWire 800 bus.  Very good for streaming video and samples.

JBOD: Literally stands for "Just a Bunch Of Disks".  The two drives will show up as two independent volumes on your desktop.  The advantage here is that they work independently of each other and still only need one cable to connect them to your computer.

Spanning: The two drives will show up as one volume on your desktop.  However, this is different than RAID 0.  In Spanning mode, the drives do not work in harmony together.  As one drive is filled to capacity, the GT 062 will simply start storing data on the next drive.  It's like having a 1.5TB single hard drive.  Pretty cool!

Where are Glyph drives being used?
Glyph drives are used in many high profile environments.  They are in most major label studios.  Check out this link for our client list.  And these are just the ones we know about!  While we are primarily geared towards the entertainment industry, our drives are used in many IT environments where reliability and performance are paramount.  Our system integrator market has grown very nicely in recent years.

Demand has been great this year for Glyph.  There have also been some supply issues that are almost worked out...when can we expect the GT Keys to be available again?
We know it's been difficult for those who are fans of the GT Keys.  Our target date for having stock again is July 11th, but we hope it is sooner.

Any new products on the horizon?
Our team is very focused on the FireWire 800 transition right now, but we are also working on adding RAID 1 capability to the GT 062.  This will act as an automatic "backup" for your data, providing the data mirroring that many people desire.

Besides storage Glyph makes some great products like a personal monitor and CD/DVD duplicator.  Overall what are the most popular Glyph products?
By far our most popular product is the GT 050Q.  The most popular size is probably 250GB.  People like the quad connectivity options.  These are FireWire 400, FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and eSATA; all in a professional and sleek enclosure.

Any closing comments...?
In this era of large music and movie files and just larger file storage in general, it is easy to go out and purchase an inexpensive external hard drive for your storage needs.  However, 99% of the brands out there do not manufacture a product that is conducive to safeguarding your data in the long term.  While all hard drives are mechanical devices (and so they are guaranteed to malfunction at some point), Glyph has gone through great lengths to provide you with a reliable product with which you will be storing your priceless data.

Check out this quick fact check on our GT Series products:
5 Year Seagate Warranty on the  hard drive mechanism 
3-Year Glyph Fully Backed Warranty
2-Year Free Data Recovery
1-Year Free Overnight Advance Replacement

Our warranty and service are unrivaled within the industry.  We always use Seagate drives, an internal power supply for the most reliable power source, and a quiet fan so that your data and drive are protected from the number one killer of hard drives, heat.

Glyph drives are just among the most reliable out there, and if you have a problem, we'll help you get your data back and get you on your feet again.  Thanks for reading!

Thanks Josh for all the latest.  Check out our complete Glyph product selection today.  Need more info?  Call us at 866-926-1669.

The Encore Data Products blog was designed to offer some extra news and information to current and future customers. Since we sell a wide selection of products and to a diverse clientele my blog entries are not exactly focused on one thing. I have noticed the little google ads on the right side of this screen change some as the entry content does. Traffic spikes sometimes when I write about a specific product ( see our ITTUSB turntable). What happens when the blog mentions people or products that most of the world seems to be interested in? I don't know....we'll see based on the above title. At least Britney Spears has used some of the products we sell since she does record music on occasion.

This week we have added new product lines which I will feature next week; the 50GB Panasonic blu-ray LM-BE50DE seems to be going fast too.  Thanks for reading! 

I'm not really announcing a sale on blogs...I wanted to say we are offering our readers $10 off any order over $100... Today Only. With 55+ manufacturers Encore Data Products will have what you need!

Top sellers include products by Delkin, MAM-A Mitsui, Glyph Technologies, Avastor and Rimage.  

To take advantage of this promo please use coupon code ENCORE during checkout.  Valid on every in-stock item!  Save a little more on gold archival CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R media.  Buy that hard drive today...anything we have available you can take $10 off as long as the order total is $100 or more.  Thanks for shopping!

I'm happy to report we are currently adding the Hamilton Buhl line of education products. We will have headphones, listening centers, CD DVD Cassette players & recorders / duplicators, PA systems, overhead projectors, AV carts and even megaphones. 

Our IT department is working hard this week to list everything. Prior to adding Hamilton Buhl we had a limited supply of Telex headphones and headsets; we are looking forward to greatly expanding our offerings to schools.

Purchase orders are accepted for most educational orders or you can pay by credit card and order online.

Hamilton Buhl has been working with electronics for education since 1933.  With a wide product selection to choose from educators will find exactly what they need.  Odds are those great film strips I used to watch in the 4th grade were shown on a Hamilton projector!  

If you have any questions about the line or would like to discuss your upcoming hardware needs please call us toll-free at 866-926-1669.

Don't forget we also sell the media for all your computer backups too...from CD-R & DVD-R to all formats of data tapes.   

School Fundraising:  One benefit of not being a huge corporate entity is we have the ability to respond to customer requests quickly and efficiently.  One idea that was presented is fundraising for schools.  We are looking into using our products for fundraising opportunities and would LOVE to hear from you if this is something that might work for your school.  Please call:  866-926-1669 and ask for Jeff Burgess. 

LTO Ultrium tape is a best-selling data tape format. With storage capacities now at 1.6TB on the LTO-4 format users can store a ton of data on each cartridge. The LTO-3 format packs a lot of data too and is our most popular format.

Good news! We just lowered the cost on some LTO-3 tapes and have an incredible deal on the Sony LTO 3 part LTX400GWW. Of course ground shipping is free on 1 tape or 100; stock up now and save!

We carry LTO tape By Sony, Maxell, Fuji, TDK, Verbatim, Sun, HP, Imation, Quantum and IBM.

Looking for an LTO tape drive as well?  Encore Data Products recently added drives by Tandberg Data!

I have seen LTO tape prices on the market for well below any dealer cost.  I don't know if these are repackaged used product, rebranded tapes, etc.  Be sure to know exactly what you are buying; purchasing a deal that is too good to be true often turns into just that... 

If you are looking for large quantities of any format of LTO tape please give us a call at 866-926-1669. 

I was updating our media storage case products this morning and thought a quick note about Turtle Cases would be good. Perm-a-Store offers a wide selection of solid, rugged media transport cases. Since some of the cases are not exactly light the Encore Data Products Free Ground Shipping program can save you expensive freight costs.

The most popular cases we see are for LTO transport:  

and hard drives:

 If you use media storage cases please contact us with any questions.  We will continue to add turtle cases in the near future.  Our phone:  866-926-1669.

We just added a great new line today:  Yoggie makes the latest in hardware for computer security.  The Yoggie Pico Personal "stops security threats before they reach your laptop. As a dedicated security hardware appliance with no PC-related vulnerabilities, Yoggie Pico provides unmatched security by physically keeping threats away from your PC." 

This is the ideal laptop security solution for mobile computing.

Other products we just added are the Yoggie Gatekeeper Pro and the Gatekeeper SOHO. 

Visit Yoggie for complete product information.  Ready to order?  Visit our Yoggie page right here! 

Digital Audio for Consumers is a format of recordable CD-R that was developed to combat unauthorized music copying. At one time stand-alone Audio-Only CD-R burners were on the market for consumers to burn their music discs. These discs have an extra layer of protection called Serial Copy Management System (SCMS) that prevents multiple illegal copies of a music CD.

The stand-alone recorders are still out there so we carry a couple of products by MAM-A Mitsui for our audio clients.  MAM-A has a great technical paper that explains in detail the digital audio format.

From MAM-A: "Digital Audio for Consumers" is the term used to describe CD-R media and recorders that incorporate a copy protection scheme known as SCMS (see below). The idea is to limit unauthorized copies of "intellectual property", i.e., music owned by recording companies or musicians. CD-R discs that are recorded with these drives can not be copied with another drive that complies with SCMS. --You can't make a copy from a copy. CD recorders that comply with these requirements use built in software that looks for information on the CD-R and either rejects or accepts it. If it finds the copy protection coding, the recorder identifies it as "Digital Audio for Consumers" and recording begins If the CD-R is not coded, the disc is rejected. This system was adopted by manufacturers at the insistence of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Royalties are paid by the manufacturers to the recording industry for each CD-R sold. 

Read the complete story... 

Buy Digital Audio CD-Rs here. 

Our Yoggie products which I mentioned earlier this week are shipping now with Free 2nd Day Air. This introductory promo will not last too long; product is in stock and 99% of Encore Data Products orders ship the same day we receive them!

Anyone who travels with a laptop can benefit from the Pico Personal.  Here is the data sheet from Yoggie.com that details the Pico:

Stop security threats from ever reaching your laptop

Protect your laptop from the outside

Yoggie Pico stops security threats before they reach your laptop. As a dedicated security hardware appliance with no PC-related vulnerabilities, Yoggie Pico provides unmatched security, by physically keeping threats away from your PC. This powerful, yet tiny USB key-size device packs 12 built-in security applications, including Firewall, Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, and more, you will not need to purchase additional security software for your laptop. It is easy to carry and use – simply plug it to your laptop and you are completely secure.

Connect to any hotspot with complete piece of mind

Internet Hotspots are notorious for their security risks. The fact that you are connected to the same network shared by hundreds of users reveals the identity of your computer, exposing it to security threats. With Yoggie Pico you can connect to any unsecured hotspot knowing that you are completely protected. It hides your laptop’s IP Address, revealing only its own, and creates a physical barrier from incoming threats, protecting it from unknown attacks by dropping the connection as they are identified.

Boost your laptop’s performance

It is widely known that security software installed on a PC can dramatically reduce its performance. In fact, PC World has recently revealed that one of the top selling security suites “may slow your PC unacceptably”*. Yoggie Pico frees your PC from security tasks. All the security applications operate in coordination with no security software conflicts or failures.

* PC World UK – May 2007

You don’t have to be a security expert

With Yoggie Pico you don’t have to be a security expert to enjoy “Titanium Grade Security”. All you have to do is simply plug Yoggie Pico in and you are completely safe. Yoggie Pico even features automatic security updates and upgrades, so you don’t have to worry about downloads.

Built-in Parental Content Control

Yoggie Pico offers built-in parental content control, protecting your household from inappropriate content and suspicious sites. Finally the Internet can be a safe place for members of your family.

Complete protection against

• Viruses
• Worms
• Identity theft
• Data theft
• Phishing
• Spyware
• Spam
• IP Spoofing
• Denial of Service attacks

All-in-one Security

• Anti Virus
• Anti Spam
• Anti Phishing
• Intrusion Detection
• Intrusion Prevention
• Firewall (Stateful Inspection)
• Web Filtering
• Parental Content Control
• Adaptive Security Policy™
• Multi-Layer Security Agent™
• Layer-8 Security Engine

Here is the latest storage offering from Norco Technologies:

DS-1240 12 Bay Ifiniband Multilane SATA Hard Drive Storage Array

NORCO DS-1240 with 3x Infiniband Multilane 4-channel interface storage array, supports both 1.5 Gb/s and 3Gb/s Serial ATA transfer rates. The enclosure comes with twelve SATA 3.5" hot-swappable drive trays and directly plug-in backplane, providing optimize performance and scalebility RAID solutions. With the optional third-party RAID controller, it can be configured as RAID level 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 or JBOD external RAID Array.

Features:

• 3U rack height;
• Three Infiniband Multilane 4-channel external female connectors, thumbscrew-type, total 12 external SATA channels;
• DS-1240 doesn't have a storage limit;
• 1.5 Gb/s SATA Gen 1 and 3 Gb/s SATA Gen 2 host and drive support.
• Supports up to twelve 3.5" SATA-I or SATA-II disk drives;
• Excellent cooling system ensures drive reliability;
• Hot-swappable disk drive tray with special designed power-off and lock mechanism;
• Monitor and alarm indicators for temperature and fans
• Additional trays available
• Optional third-party RAID controller cards* support RAID level 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD

*Compatible third-party RAID Controllers: HighPoint RocketRAID 2322 Host Adapter (PCIe, 8 lanes), HighPoint RocketRAID 2224 Host Adapter (PCI/PCI-X, 4 lanes), Areca ARC-1110ML (PCI-X, 4 lanes), Areca ARC-1120ML (PCI-X, 8 lanes), Areca ARC-1130ML (PCI-X, 12 lanes), Areca ARC-1210ML (PCIe, 4 lanes), Areca ARC-1220ML (PCIe, 8 lanes), Areca ARC-1230ML (PCIe, 12lanes)..etc

In stock and shipping today!  Call us at 866-926-1669 or order online.

How do you back up your data?  Do you back up your data?  Both business and home computers have to have some sort of system in place; data loss due to a computer failure can be a huge inconvenience or even devastating.  I found out the hard way this week when my home laptop decided turning on was not something it wanted to do anymore.  Luckily that machine did not have much on it and I got it working again with minimal data loss.

I recently added more backup options to our store; one of the new ones is the Imation RDX removable hard drive system.  This is a perfect backup solution for small to medium businesses that will grow with you.  The system consists of a docking station and removable hard drive cartridges; you can back up over 125GB per hour and the removable cartridges are rugged and portable.

From the Imation site:

"Features:

• Removability, portability and reliability - protects your data no matter how your
  business grows.
  
  
• Secure - includes the full version of EMC® Retrospect® software featuring password protection and 256-bit AES encryption (U.S. government approved) to help prevent unauthorized users from accessing data
  
  
• Expandable and flexible - docking station is compatible with existing 40GB, 80GB, 120GB, 160GB and forward compatible with higher capacities
  
  
• Easy to use backup solution - the device is mounted as a removable drive icon allowing simple drag-n-drop backup operation
  
  
• Fast - Accessing data is almost instantaneous minimizing backup and restore time"

Right now the cartridges are available in capacities ranging from 40GB to 160GB.  The docking stations come in both external USB and internal SATA formats.

Description		UPC		Size (LxWxH)		Weight
RDX External USB Dock - 40GB Cartridge		26611		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		3.3lbs
RDX External USB Dock - 80GB Cartridge		26612		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		3.3lbs
RDX External USB Dock - 120GB Cartridge		26613		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		3.3lbs
RDX Internal SATA Dock - 40GB Cartridge		26707		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		2.75lbs
RDX Internal SATA Dock - 80GB Cartridge		26708		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		2.75lbs
RDX Internal SATA Dock - 120GB Cartridge		26709		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		3.3lbs
RDX Internal SATA Dock - 160GB Cartridge		26710		10.125"x5.375"x8.25"		3.3lbs

You can't run out of storage space...just add cartridges as needed.  If you would like more information please visit our Imation RDX page or give us a call:  866-926-1669.   

I am expecting to see the first shipment of Green Tune Audio CD-R for Mastering in another week or so .

From Mitsubishi:

""Green Tune" is a mastering disc that maximizes sound reproduction quality and meets every requirement for professional operations in the music studio....

To record and reproduce sound with the highest possible fidelity, "Green Tune" discs offer newly developed labels with green "silent coat"*1, AZO*2 recording layers and high-precision molding technology*3 which have a well-earned reputation for fidelity and reliability. These elements all work together to bring the new "Green Tune" CD-R discs to the level professionals demand....

As the DDP format^*4 penetrates further into the world of mastering, MKM will continue to develop "Green Tune" DVD-R that meets the exacting standards of music industry and respond to needs of customers. "

This disc is supposed to be the cream of the crop for audio mastering; we'll post complete information as soon as we receive it.   Interested in pro audio tape and drives?  Check out our selection...

This just in...

* Avastor expands the HDX product line, lowers prices and doubles its warranty period

* Avastor HDX-1500 Quad drive available soon:   USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA ports.

* New Two Year Warranty:  Includes  IRP (Immediate  Replacement Policy)

* Lower prices:  No  explanation needed here! 

Visit our AVASTOR page for full product listings.  We will add the HDX-1500 Quad hard drive series as soon as they become available.