DVD and CD rot

[cathodraytube]

one agen its another thing thats been floating around in my head and bothering me for a while ......how long will dvds and cds REALY last?? .iv been reading about this alot i want to know if any one els has ever had a case of disc rot and what everybody elses idias are on the subject. i personaly dont own any dvds but i do have some cds that are starting to show signs of rot (brownish rings/stains and some little pinnholes in the aluminum). as far as i know about disc rot is that its caused by air getting to the aluminum/gold/silver or whatever els ther using as the reflective layer and oxidizing it ...that and inpurities in the metal eating it away . also? how long will tapes last?? ...some of my tapes (video and music) are 30+ years old and work fine ...and why dont they make cds/dvds in some kind of cassette to keep them from getting dirty/scratched ...like floppies and zip disks have???

[Lord of the Rings]

AFAIK the old Kodak Gold CD's were supposed to last 50 years. Pity they took them off the market for marketing reasons (b/c too many cheap cd's on the market.) The BASF CD's (blue I think?) are also supposed to have an extended life. At the other end of the spectrum there were the Taiwanese Princo CD's where the TOC (Table Of Contents) which is the directory that tells the reader where to locate the info./data & is located within the 1st section of the disk, were known to start corroding in under 12 months. Princo were sued & went out of business. But the co. has started up again I notice .. perhaps by new owners I don't know.

My recommendation for both CD's & DVD's is to go to cd/dvd clubs/forums & ask for the most reliable & recommended ones. These will not be your el cheapo brands. If you want a cd/dvd to only last a couple of years then get the cheapest. If you want it to last, then get the better known & recommended ones .. pay a little more. Personally I use Verbatim dvd's. I found TDK hold slightly less & are less reliable & some now having read problems. For cd's I use TDK gold but ... different people will recommend different ones. It may also depend on what's easily available in your area.

By the way, Taiwan does not have quality control on their products like in other countries & I found disks from China have also been poor.

[RaaF]

Here's some more info :
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/91/1

[cathodraytube]

i was moreless curious about the pressed pre-recorded movies and music that you can buy and not the blank recordabul ones....

[Silk]

I bought an external HD on ebay..$100 I use it for storage. I ran out of room for my floppies and CD. I had floppies from the Commadore era. Remember the 128 and 64 Commies? I had a 300 baud and thought I was the fastest kid on the block.
Anyways...I can take the external and plug it in to any computer. It protects and is great on trips.

[Lord of the Rings]

Some of the DVD ram disks are made inside cassette type cases. For any type of storage media follow the guidelines on how to look after them. Disks should be stored vertically, away from heat, moisture, humidity, light, radiation (including any type of power device), away from dust, handled carefully without handling the actual centre piece of the disk, not thrown or dropped around, lol.

All these things will help to maintain the maximum life of the disk. DVD's are similar to CD's so ... if the commercial production house uses high or reasonably high quality media then they should last a long time. DVD's are too new on the scene to make verifiable judgements about but can be compared to CD's. I'm just glad there's not as many dvd media on the market & even cd production has improved .. though there's still 'el cheapos' out there better left alone.