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  1. Member
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    If one wants the data not to go away, what is best choice price no concern for discs and format for very long term storage, i.e. R/RW/DL +/-, whatever, based on evidence and results?
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  2. When it comes to DVD's, I will only use verbatim they are the best IMO very high quality discs and fairly scratch resistant.
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  3. Member Crazyj32's Avatar
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    What about for DL's?
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  4. Define "long term" and describe the storage environment in terms of temperature and humidity, and most especially changes in those, also exposure to light.

    There is no available "evidence" or "information", only guesses based on experiments. Other media have been used and tested for this type of storage, and may be a better solution.

    Are we talking data or video, how important is it (translation - what budget is available to make this happen?).

    Using burned disks for periods longer than 3 to 5 years would not be something I would recommend for data storage.
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  5. Member dadrab's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Crazyj32
    What about for DL's?
    The general consensus in these parts is that Verbatim is the leader among DL discs.
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    DL DVDs are too new for there to be any hard evidence. It wasn't all that long ago that the manufacturers were saying that it was "impossible" to ever produce such discs for consumers. To get them to work they had to do some funky stuff with dyes and honestly, nobody knows how long these discs will last. There is an unspoken fear that they may not last very long at all. If you have anything that you must preserve, at this time I personally cannot recommend using DL discs because they may not last more than a few years. We just don't have the data and they haven't been around long enough for anyone to have any hard evidence one way or another. If you feel like risking it, stick with Verbatim ONLY because their standards are so much higher than everyone else's for DL media.

    If you are rich, you might consider the MAM-A brand of gold DVD discs, but a fairly recent discussion of them wasn't exactly glowing. In theory under the proper conditions the use of gold should be ideal for archiving, but the discussion had some suggestions that MAM-A's standards weren't as high now as they used to be, so caveat emptor. Verbatim does make some pricey single layer DVDs that are highly scratch resistant and these might be ideal for long term archiving if you don't feel like trying the MAM-A gold DVD discs.
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  7. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    I worry about the long-term readability of secondary layers myself. I don't think archival material should be written to DL media. If have DVDs that I've authored DL, but the data files that created those DVD-Video discs are archived on SL media.

    Verbatim has some high grade media, with an upper gold layer, a silver reflective, and anti-scratch coatings. They cost a lot, but I'd buy one for a wedding or something along those lines, if it was important. Generally, any MCC or TY media would be good. Test it, of course, don't assume, ever, for any disc that is important.
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  8. Member oldandinthe way's Avatar
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    I worry about DL media as well but I am also fearful of all writeable DVDs. The jury is still out, the industry still hasn't agreed on how to measure long-term readability.

    I'd record multiple copies on both TY and MCC media, and also on an external USB hard disk if I was truly concerned about the data going away. I might place all of these in a plastic bag in my refrigerator if my paranoia worsened. In fact I might consider multiple refrigerators in multiple locations.

    I also might consider an online backup website.
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  9. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    The jury is only out to people in online forums who know next to nothing about optical media. Professional organizations, companies, and pros in the media field are pretty well rested with the "several decades" timeline. It ranges from 20-100 years, although readability might be suspect after 30-40 years. Cheaper made discs made have concerns in 10 years. Sometimes less, but that's a minority, not a majority.
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  10. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by lordsmurf
    The jury is only out to people in online forums who know next to nothing about optical media. Professional organizations, companies, and pros in the media field are pretty well rested with the "several decades" timeline. It ranges from 20-100 years, although readability might be suspect after 30-40 years. Cheaper made discs made have concerns in 10 years..
    My very conservative view: We won't really know until we know, given the passage of enough time. It may well all be moot, though: the hardware that creates or reads data storage becomes obsolete and very scarce much sooner. If I handed you (LS, or almost any of you) IBM punchcards or 8-track tapes -- even if there was something very important on them that you wanted to retrieve -- would they be of much practical use ?
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  11. Member oldandinthe way's Avatar
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    Lordsmurf

    You know good and well that the trade organizations are still studying DVD longevity and have not taken a firm position or even provided firm estimates. The Commercial Optical Storage Applications Group. (COSA), a sub committee of the Optical Storage Technology Assn. (OSTA), shows findings which are hardly conclusive.

    You also know that what was generally accepted as CD longevity has been shown in practice to be unduly optimistic.

    On top of all of this coatings are still evolving to provide for improved speed and last years media may have very different properties than this year's or next year's.

    Seeker47

    You points are well made, but money makes the data on punched cards or 8-track or 8" floppies or 5.25" floppies available. There are people out there who will convert from these antique media to modern media. I have little doubt that if DVD's containing data are readable, someone will read them for a price.
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  12. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    They've all made preliminary conclusions and really don't expect anything to drastically change. There is a margin of error, but it's not this "in 6 months" bullshit you see online from joe-blow forum users.
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    refrigerator
    What is scientific reasoning for refrigerating the disc? I have heard of refrigerating film, but a disc??
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  14. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Firelog
    refrigerator
    What is scientific reasoning for refrigerating the disc? I have heard of refrigerating film, but a disc??
    That would undoubtedly ruin the media. The moisture and cold temperatures are not good for the dye, the glues, the metal or the plastics.
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  15. Member zoobie's Avatar
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    This is probably one of those urban legends...
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  16. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by zoobie
    This is probably one of those urban legends...
    Indeed. Somebody imprinted it from hard drives. With hard drives, there was some degree of success in doing this, although I'm not aware of there being any hard reasoning on why (and it may have well just been coincidence). But it's 100% myth, when applied to optical media. It does not carry over.
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