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Peter
August 31st 03, 07:03 AM
I have recently read, I don't remember where, that some people found their
"burnt" CD-Rs "unplayable" after about two years.

If this is indeed true, then CD-Rs are certainly not the equivalent of
"pressed" CDs which supposedly have a life span of about 100 years as long
as they are treated well and stored properly.

Perhaps others could comment "with authority" about this CD-R life
expectancy matter.

Thank you in advance.

Arny Krueger
August 31st 03, 06:58 PM
"Peter" > wrote in message
et

> I have recently read, I don't remember where, that some people found
> their "burnt" CD-Rs "unplayable" after about two years.

Worse than that, some of my "burnt" CD-Rs are unplayable after a few weeks.
However, that's under abusive use conditions.

I can still play some of the earliest CD-Rs I have, which are about 5 years
old.

> If this is indeed true, then CD-Rs are certainly not the equivalent of
> "pressed" CDs which supposedly have a life span of about 100 years as
> long as they are treated well and stored properly.

IME the same rules of use apply to CD-Rs.

Jón Fairbairn
August 31st 03, 06:59 PM
"Peter" > writes:

> I have recently read, I don't remember where, that some people found their
> "burnt" CD-Rs "unplayable" after about two years.
>
> If this is indeed true, then CD-Rs are certainly not the equivalent of
> "pressed" CDs which supposedly have a life span of about 100 years as long
> as they are treated well and stored properly.
>
> Perhaps others could comment "with authority" about this CD-R life
> expectancy matter.

It depends on the particular formulation of the CD-R in
question. I read recently (in a camera magazine) that
Fujifilm had announced a long-life CD-R, but all I could
find on-line was this <URL:
http://www.fujifilmmediasource.com/specs/cdrspec.htm >,
which is dated 1999. Even so, they claim 70 to 100 years.

--
Jón Fairbairn

Bart Tijmensen
September 1st 03, 06:47 AM
I know that CD-R's have to be handled with more care than pressed cd's. A
couple of light scratches or finger prints and a CD-R can't be played
properly anymore. But when handled with care they should last longer than 2
years. I'm not an authority on the subject, but I've got lots of CD-R's.

Most of them are older than 2 years, some of them are 6/7 years old, and
they still play with no problems whatsoever.

Bart

"Peter" > schreef in bericht
et...
> I have recently read, I don't remember where, that some people found their
> "burnt" CD-Rs "unplayable" after about two years.
>
> If this is indeed true, then CD-Rs are certainly not the equivalent of
> "pressed" CDs which supposedly have a life span of about 100 years as long
> as they are treated well and stored properly.
>
> Perhaps others could comment "with authority" about this CD-R life
> expectancy matter.
>
> Thank you in advance.
>

Nousaine
September 1st 03, 06:49 AM
wrote:

>
>"Peter" > writes:
>
>> I have recently read, I don't remember where, that some people found their
>> "burnt" CD-Rs "unplayable" after about two years.
>>
>> If this is indeed true, then CD-Rs are certainly not the equivalent of
>> "pressed" CDs which supposedly have a life span of about 100 years as long
>> as they are treated well and stored properly.
>>
>> Perhaps others could comment "with authority" about this CD-R life
>> expectancy matter.
>
>It depends on the particular formulation of the CD-R in
>question. I read recently (in a camera magazine) that
>Fujifilm had announced a long-life CD-R, but all I could
>find on-line was this <URL:
>http://www.fujifilmmediasource.com/specs/cdrspec.htm >,
>which is dated 1999. Even so, they claim 70 to 100 years.
>
>--
>Jón Fairbairn

Several years ago a representative of a magnetic tape company gave a talk to
the Chicago AES Section about archival media. He said that the accelerated life
tests conducted at that time suggested that the then current dyes, media
material and burning processes suggested that CD-R was the most robust medium
with a life expectancy of 70 years or more.

Of course, daily usecmay introduce other problesm and formulations/burners/etc.
will change with market conditions and other factors.

That said, I still have cd-rs dating back to the early 90s that play perfectly.
Some were made on a Yamaha machine that belonged to Ford Motor; and the others
were made my own Marantz stand alone burner that is still in service (although
not in my system.)

I have had more problems in initial burning with different batches of blanks
of late. But once successfully burned longevity doesn't seem tobe a problem
except for physical damage to the discs.

Dalibor Bauernfrajnd
September 1st 03, 05:01 PM
In article >, Peter
says...
> I have recently read, I don't remember where, that some people found their
> "burnt" CD-Rs "unplayable" after about two years.
>
> If this is indeed true, then CD-Rs are certainly not the equivalent of
> "pressed" CDs which supposedly have a life span of about 100 years as long
> as they are treated well and stored properly.
>
> Perhaps others could comment "with authority" about this CD-R life
> expectancy matter.
>
> Thank you in advance.

All the CD's I've burned still work.

That would be around 100 cd's ranging from 1 day to 7 years old on
different burners (HP, Yamaha and most recently, Ricoh).
I usually write from 2-4x.

--
"We still have much to learn about the art of sound reproduction;
ultimately, our responsibility is to our ears,not to established
precepts." - Martin Colloms, January 1998

Rusty Boudreaux
September 2nd 03, 05:24 PM
Do a search on long strategy dyes (long lifetime) vs short
strategy dyes (3-5 yr life).

A general rule: Phthalocyanine(gold, light green bottom) discs
will last longer than cyanine/metal azo(green, blue, dark blue
bottom) discs. Cyanine tends to degrade faster with UV and heat.

Not too long ago most manufacturers used long strategy dyes.
Most are switching or have switched to short strategy due to
economics (those cheap 100 disk spindles at best buy). Most
won't tell you what dyes they use. However, there is a program
floating around that will read the strategy off the media (I
can't remember the name).

Unless you use a program to check each CDR batch for long
strategy dye or buy long life discs (like Verbatim's
DataLifePlus) then I wouldn't assume more than a few years of
normal life before data errors.

September 2nd 03, 05:30 PM
I too have had a few CD-R's fail within a year or two, and not due to
scratches or poor handling. They turned brown, starting at the outer
edge and working inward. A couple of those that were turning brown
wouldn't play in the last tracks (that's how I discovered the problem).
Some would, but those had less on them so the brown part hadn't gotten
into the data yet. I found about half a dozen of them - must have had
a whole 10-pack of bad ones, maybe the others got used for computer
data. All were Sony branded, and recorded within the last couple of
years. I have many other Sony CD-Rs, and lots of other brands, that
have not shown any problems.

Bob

Nousaine
September 3rd 03, 04:50 PM
"Rusty Boudreaux" wrote:

>Do a search on long strategy dyes (long lifetime) vs short
>strategy dyes (3-5 yr life).
>
>A general rule: Phthalocyanine(gold, light green bottom) discs
>will last longer than cyanine/metal azo(green, blue, dark blue
>bottom) discs. Cyanine tends to degrade faster with UV and heat.
>
>Not too long ago most manufacturers used long strategy dyes.
>Most are switching or have switched to short strategy due to
>economics (those cheap 100 disk spindles at best buy). Most
>won't tell you what dyes they use. However, there is a program
>floating around that will read the strategy off the media (I
>can't remember the name).
>
>Unless you use a program to check each CDR batch for long
>strategy dye or buy long life discs (like Verbatim's
>DataLifePlus) then I wouldn't assume more than a few years of
>normal life before data errors.

This is interesting and also may have storage strategy implications for
archival.

Rusty Boudreaux
September 4th 03, 04:46 PM
"Nousaine" > wrote in message
...
> This is interesting and also may have storage strategy
implications for
> archival.

I totally agree.

I think I made a mistake regarding Cyanine (long strategy) vs
Phthalocyanine (short strategy). After some double checking
Cyanine does reportedly degrade faster. So for archival you want
SHORT strategy (not long strategy as I originally stated).
However, Cyanine seems to be more tolerant of CDR burners/players
so may work on more players.

Manufacturers rebrand all the time. Memorex for one uses Taiyo
Yuden (Cyanine) and Prodisc (P-Cyanine) in identically marked 100
packs. One afterdawn forum member bought two 100 pack spindles
at the same time and the disks were different.

The program I referred to is called CDRIdentifier. I couldn't
find their homepage but you can get it here
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/cdrident
ifier.cfm

Excerpt from the readme:

This small tool was developed to read the ATIP from a CDR media
using a CD recorder - right now there´s no CDROM reader that can
do this (At least I don´t know of!). The ATIP tells who has
manufactured the disc and what dye type they used. (The ATIP
doesn´t tell the exact dye type - it just tells if the recording
strategy to be used for this media is a "long strategy type"
(e.g. Cyanine) or "short strategy type" (e.g. Phthalocyanine).

MarkZimmerman
September 8th 03, 08:34 PM
>I have it on good authority that nobody will really know for a hundred
>years!

When I switched to a new player about a dozen discs would suddenly not play,
skipping etc. Most were Telarcs, so I called them up and the people there at
customer service said that a CD's life expectancy is only about 20 years. UGH!
Best,

Mark Allen Zimmerman * Chicago

Peter
September 9th 03, 04:47 PM
> When I switched to a new player about a dozen discs would suddenly not
play,
> skipping etc. Most were Telarcs, so I called them up and the people there
at
> customer service said that a CD's life expectancy is only about 20 years.
UGH!
> Best,
>
> Mark Allen Zimmerman * Chicago


Did the people at Telarc perhaps tell you what the failure mode for their
CDs might be after 20 years?