Posted by Hebee Jeebes on 11/16/29 11:47

It isn't a very stable technology. The dye layer on the disks are affected
by many things. Things like heat, light, humidity and even manufacturing
problems like they don't get it even, etc.

Unlike commercially pressed discs that not only don't use dye (they use thin
layers of metal often aluminum, but sometimes other things). Also
commercially pressed disks have another clear coat of protection over the
data layer, something that consumer burned discs DVD +/- or CD doesn't have.
All of this adds up to a media that isn't very long term stable. Nothing
like the 100+ years that manufacturers were touting early on. Now they don't
even mention life spans on these discs.

They only thing you can do is to make sure and buy good discs and this
doesn't always mean name brands. Most name brands like Sony, Maxell, etc.
don't make their own discs any more, someone else does and they just slap
their names on them.

For long term storage I use Delkins Archival Gold discs. The write layer is
made from gold and it has an anti-scratch layer. They claim 100 year life
for DVD and 300 for CD. We will never know if this is true and won't even
know if they are better than the other discs for a few years. But, I figure
they are a better bet than the ones I know won't last.

I also suspect that the higher writing speed plays a part too. I have more
usable discs from my 1X CD-R drive than I do from any other drive I have
had. I think the slower speeds gives a better write, but that could just be
a coincidence too.

Robert

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