IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Thanks again, Dave.

This particular forum has finally convinced me that in future I will be burning my valuable projects to gold discs.

Some of my projects run to around 75 min and so, because 100% is the only quality I can live with, and that therefore means dual-layer stock, I'll be going for Verbatim DVD-R 8X UltraLife™ Gold Archive Grade (43634).

APR Media Centre sell them at 1.04 each (inc VAT), though I suspect there'll be cheaper examples elsewhere.

Verbatim is my preferred manufacturer.

Ian

Double layer discs are just one more thing to go wrong I feel, and require yet another aspect of the decoding tool to be active when these discs are being replayed in 2050.

75 mins will happily fit onto a single layer at 8 mbps Ian. And recording at such a high bit rate is yet another aspect that will make it more difficult to recover the info in the future.

tom.

http://www.Nierle.net has Kodak Gold dvd's at a unit price considerably over the standard dvd's. (25 pcs in cakebox. 32,50 EUR)

Kodak Gold should be a one of the best for archiving.
Link: http://www.nierle1.com/en/article/6985/ ... -pack.html

Data:
* Archival Gold Protection Layer
* Up to 16x write speed
* Storage capacity of 4,7 GB
* Wide Inkjet Printable Surface
* Recording time up to 120 minutes in standard mode
* 25 Pcsin cakebox

[Ed - that works out about £1.14 per disc at current exchange rates.]

Many thanks Tom, Leif, but I'll probably be opting for Verbatim DVD-R 8X UltraLife™ Gold Archive Grade.

The Verbatim website explains its combined silver/gold manufacture in impressive detail and claims that material archived on it will "last a lifetime", while other research areas state it will last a hundred a years.

That's good enough for me to be going on with!

Ian

Perhaps I've been lucky, but as a user of CD-Rs since they were first introduced and cost £17 trade, I have yet to loose any data. Perhaps the fact that they have been stored in a humidity controled and essentially dark environment has helped.

Geoff

How many years are you talking about, Geoff, in terms of "since they were first introduced"?

Ian

Can't be certain, but it must be getting on for 20 and at least 15.

Geoff

That's very interesting, encouraging and enlightening - many thanks for your input, Geoff.

Ian

Cheap as chips blank CD media bought and burnt with photographs in 1991 and totally, totally abused by moi still fine and dandy here.
Costs pennies to duplicate the CD as newer media is made available.

I still have 5.25inch floppy discs written to in 1984 which are readable by my geriatric TEAC Disc drives!

The age old 'puter saying never changes

Back it up laddie! Back it up!

DAMHIKIJK

More encouraging and positive news from Stephen, for which many thanks!

There seems to be no international standard for estimating longevity of recordable and rewritable DVDs, but most manufacturers claim at least 30 years for normal silver discs, and and it appears that this is generally accepted to be the case.

This link below is from the website of OSTA (the Optical Storage Technology Association) – DVDs and similar.

http://www.osta.org/technology/dvdqa/dvdqa11.htm

A significant quote from the site is:

“Generally speaking, manufacturers claim life spans ranging from 30 to 100 years for DVD-R and DVD+R discs and up to 30 years for DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM.

“Ultimately, since writable DVDs embody digital information, contents may be transferred to future storage systems as becomes necessary to preserve whatever has been stored on the discs.”

I am now using UltraLife Gold Archival Grade DVD-R 4.7GB 8X.

The following info from Verbatim’s impressive website might be of interest to some IAC members:

“Verbatim’s proprietary dual reflective layer technology is comprised of a silver layer for broad compatibility and a gold layer for long archival life.

“The gold reflective layer, naturally resistant to corrosion, prevents oxygen from coming through the DVD bonding material and corroding the silver reflective layer. Silver oxidation can be a primary factor which limits the lifetime of DVD media.

“The combination of MKM’s patented Metal AZO DVD recording dye, revolutionary Dual Reflective Layer technology and proprietary hard coating enables Verbatim UltraLife archival-grade DVD-R discs to deliver new levels in longevity and performance without sacrificing compatibility.”

They claim that archived material on these discs will last anything from “a lifetime” up to a hundred years.

Ian