DVD Recordable Discs Have Shorter Lifespan than CD-R Discs

roosevelt

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May 27, 2006
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Memorex, a manufacturer of DVD recordable discs, has openly admitted that DVD recordable discs are far more sensitive to humidity than CD-R discs in environmental tests, in its whitepaper on lifetime expectations on optical discs, dated March 2006. This means that DVD recordable discs have a much shorter lifespan compared to CD-R discs.

Want to know more? Please visit the following Central Database to know more:

http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=991675
 
I'm actually going to thank you for the information unlike the other respondent, it is useful info and might be useful at some point.

Don't be put off posting useful info by some ignorant peasant who appears to have nothing more to do than respond to anything and everything with irrelevant and irreverent comments.
 

matrixone

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uhmm, this info can be true..... but if you buy a DVD whit no brand name jeje :p :p . another thing DVDs are new, remenber that Cdr had there problems before, now whit the azu blue technologys and stuff, cds are good now... :twisted:
 

nick_000000

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i had a copy of max payne on cd-r a while ago that i had for no less than a year and was kept under room temperature. The silver bit with the information on peeled right off like a sticker and right before that i tried using the disk and it was useless.
 

WilliamT

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I wouldn't recommend Memorex for long time storage even with the CD-Rs. I've have old Memorex CD-Rs that no longer can be read by my machine because the data was corrupt.

Here is some more information about the dyes used on CD-Rs to make them more stable over time. The cheaper disks use the less expensive dyes.

http://www.mscience.com/faq53.html
 

roosevelt

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I'm actually going to thank you for the information unlike the other respondent, it is useful info and might be useful at some point.

Don't be put off posting useful info by some ignorant peasant who appears to have nothing more to do than respond to anything and everything with irrelevant and irreverent comments.

Thank you!
 

roosevelt

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PDF e-books on DVD Longevity / Lifetime / Degradation are now available for offline reading.

Please note that there are some broken links in the previous versions (10 & 11 June 2006) of e-books. These broken links have been fixed in the current version (15 June 2006). All hyperlinks in PDF files should work now.

The filesizes are so much smaller now and should take less time to download. The current version of e-books also features full color graphics.




[1] Really Disappointed with DVD Discs Media

Filename: ebookv2.zip
Filesize: 46 MB
Version: 15 June 2006
Last Page of e-book: 66
md5 checksum: c00a736c524499d1f8fb70c20229fde6

Download Link:

http://s9.quicksharing.com/v/5379432/ebookv2.zip.html


[2] Experimental Data on DVD Longevity @ cdfreaks

Filename: ebookv2.zip
Filesize: 2.55 MB
Version: 15 June 2006
Last Page of e-book: 13
md5 checksum: 55957ac5fb56084f28b14e3134766bd6

Download Link:

http://s2.gimehost.com/v/5434801/ebookv2.zip.html

[3] The Unofficial HWZ Surviving DVD Media Durability Scan Thread

Filename: ebookv2.zip
Filesize: 10 MB
Version: 15 June 2006
Last Page of e-book: 12
md5 checksum: 14652c226020be65d3f41e46ac9033e2

Download Link:

http://s9.quicksharing.com/v/4618437/1ebookv2.zip.html

***Please verify the md5 checksum of the file that you have downloaded to ensure that you have downloaded the correct file.



There are some minor issues in viewing the latest version (15 June 2006) of the e-books with Adobe Reader 6.0 and 7.0.

In some PDF files, Adobe Reader will report "A drawing error occurred.".

You may want to try the FREE Foxit PDF Reader 1.3. I have tested it and there should not be any problems in viewing the PDF files.

To download the Foxit PDF Reader, click on the following link:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/download.htm
 

techhappy

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I would be more worried about CD rot, a problem that manufacturers admitted exists in CD-Rs. This problem was more relegated to cheap CD manufacturers and I fell prey to this problem back in the 90s.

As to DVD-Rs, I wouldn't think it would be problematic to store them a long time, I have many dvd-r's discs that are close to 4 years old and they work great, just like day one. The secret is to store them in a good binder with soft material in the sleeves and to handle them by the edges, not the written side, to avoid scratches and blemishes.

The other trick is to only use a fine tip marker to label your dvds. I know this might seem silly in the age of print it yourself labels, but truth be told, those sticky labels actually corrode the plastic on the disc and eventually cause refraction problems when you attempt to read the disc.

I'm surprised not too many people practice this. I've had friends come to me with good media from good brands like TDK, suddenly become unreadable. It's the sticky label, most times that is the culprit.

Last, but not least, I would buy quality media. I learned this lesson the hard way, any time you buy Office Depot, No Name brand media, you will pay the price later when your media fails.

Bigger name companies use higher quality materials and have better equipment to create better discs. These discs will last longer, so try to stick with these brands religiously: Sony, TDK, Memorex, Phillips, Verbatim and Imation.

Hope this helps!
 

Ampulla

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The life-span of a burnable CD or DVD is highly dependent upon the quality of the organic dye it uses. Not all organic dyes are the same. In fact, organic dyes will vary from one product line to another from the same manufacturer. (Want to know the technical name of the dye? Phthalocyanine. No, I can't pronounce it.)

For example, MAM-A Gold label CD/DVD discs have been shown in the lab to last 6 times longer than silver label.

MAM-A estimates their Gold label CD-R's have a life-span of 300 years and the silver CD-R's of about 50 years. Other discs that they have tested look like they'll fail in 2 years or less.

Due to differences in organic dyes between CDs and DVD's, Gold label DVD's have a lab-rated life-span of 100 years, if handled properly. MAM-A silver label CDs and DVD's can start to degrade after 20-30 years.

Also, to improve disc longevity, store CDs and DVD's in jewel cases, on edge, in a dark and temperature controlled space. For those of you old enough to remember, these are the same instructions we followed for storing vinyl records.

Here's a link to NIST which discusses the best ways to archive CDs and DVD's: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/

I'd been reading recently about a concept called "CD-ROT." CD-ROT is caused when a bacteria attacks the aluminum backing of a replicated CD. Burned discs are generally not affected by CD-ROT.

Also, MAM-A recommends that to improve data integrity and compatibility, burn your disks more slowly. My recommendation is to burn CDs at 16x speed and DVD's at 2x speed.

They felt that those numbers were a bit conservative. As their engineer, Joe Weisenbach, stated: "We see excellent results burning CDs at 16x, we have not seen significant improvements in burning DVD's at speeds less than 8X."

As a follow-up, I sent MAM-A an email asking about the correlation between "lab-testing" and "real-world" testing. They replied: "Who knows? We've only been making them for 12 years."
 

sub mesa

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bit-rot affects optical disks, and i would not trust it to rely on using it as a backup solution. Instead, solid state memory solutions like SSDs, USB-sticks or even mechnical HDDs offer superior reliability, and depending on how much space you need the costs would be acceptable. SSDs really offer supreme reliability and offer an excellent backup solution because of their resistance to vibrations, temperature variations and physical trauma and their inherent reliable storing techniques. Basically, dataloss with SSDs are very rare. Even if you exceeded its maximum write cycles you still can read the existing data on it. So for making backups these are ideal candidates.

Too many people lost stuff from their CD/DVD collection they thought would be preserved for many years, but when they wanted to retrieve the information some 2 years later they discovered the medium had read-errors all over, and although you can postpone this with high-quality products, this type of failure is inherent to the optical-chemical storage technology used by consumer CD/DVD solutions.