CD's

[talos]

Just watched on Click about the life expectancy of CD's, apparently its about 5 years before the surface starts to deteriorate and data loss occurs regardless of make or quality. I wonder if the same applies to DVD, and will that valued film collection slowly disappear

[Steve]

I found this article http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4.html which is more optimistic I think the discs which may fail early are of the cd -r and dvd -r variety with the rw and ram having the shortest life span especially if rewritten many times.

[Rik]

I've got some 25 year old CDs which still sound fine.

[Steve]

I've seen 300 years quoted for the blu ray disc, the pdf below quotes 500 years for the materials used in their study. Typical BBC drama

http://www.optical.com/optical_storage/IEEE_Bluray.pdf

[Rik]

Horrible thought - put it on Bluray and it lasts 10 generations. 

[Simon]

I've had a few CDs that have turned a browny colour, like the first one I ever bought, Dire Straits Love Over Gold, but it still plays OK. 

[Steve]

They get oxidised over time, they're ok whilst the error correction copes

[pctech]

I have some that are about 10 years old and still play ok.

[Steve]

The Love over Gold CD came out in 1983,time flies

[Rik]

Doesn't it.

[Simon]

Indeed!  I had a Fisher CD player, which cost over £400 at the time.  I could only afford to buy one CD for a while after that, so I got to know Love Over Gold very well!

[Steve]

Didn't realise they were that expensive

[Rik]

Meridian were worse.

[nowster]

There was a problem with a handful of  CD mastering plants in the late 1980s. It mainly affected those "Made by PDO". At one point there was a scheme run by the manufacturer to replace any bad ones, but that closed a few years ago.

[Rik]

Thanks for that. 

[vitriol]

Aaaah DVD rot !

[john]

Meridian were worse.

A bargain though compared to these 

[pctech]

Nice kit but nice price too, think I'd need a mortgage for one of those.

[Rik]

Plus another for the extra large house.