Interesting Article on CD-R Archival life, DVD

[TimeZone]

Here is an article from a photography site I look at, that I thought might be of interest.

http://luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-05-09-04.shtml

The article talks about these MAM-A Gold Archival discs that claim to have a 300 year life. Doubt it, but interesting. Also very expensive, way more than I would pay. Ought to be good discs though, at least you would hope so...

I don't really buy CD-R anymore, but do buy DVD-R and hope the life of these discs will get better. I noticed this same place also sells a DVD-R disc of the same brand. They don't say anything about gold with them, but do claim a 100 year life. Wonder if there is anything to these or if they are just re-branded something else? They are super expensive! (at least compared to what I'm willing to pay.)

http://store.mam-a-store.com/dvd-r-media.html

I am going to try some ProDiscs myself after getting a bad Ritek batch.

[Lobe]

slightly better prices here:
http://www.cdrom2go.com/optical_media/dvdr.asp#mitsui_dvdr

anyone have a better price on MAM DVD-R?

[iooi]

but do claim a 100 year life.

100 years or 300 years does it make any diffrence as we aint going to be around to sue them if they wont play.....
All i'm worried about is that they last a few years.....

[888888]

I just read of a review of a DVD+R/W drive and they mention MAM discs.

The MAM-E discs, manufactured by Mitsui, had quite a lot of C1 errors on them and even some C2 errors (19 in total). Considering the disc was also written at a low speed of only 16x this is not a very good burn. The disc was readable after it was burned but the overall quality could have been a lot better.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/139/5

These aren't the "gold" but it goes to show you that not everyone has success with expensive media.

[TimeZone]

but do claim a 100 year life.

100 years or 300 years does it make any diffrence as we aint going to be around to sue them if they wont play.....
All i'm worried about is that they last a few years.....

The longer they can claim (based on real scientific testing by doing aging tests on the disc) then the more likely your disc will actually last a few years. 100-300 years seems pointless to many and me to in some ways, but remember in real life conditions you will most likey get much less than whatever is claimed, so its best to get those numbers way up there.

It does becomes important to me when I make a copy of someones precious old home movie memories of their family. I would like to think and I'm sure they do as well, that they will last a lot more than a few years. This does really concern me when doing video conversions for people. If your just backing up Kill Bill then its not such a big deal...

[TheFamilyMan]

It does becomes important to me when I make a copy of someones precious old home movie memories of their family. I would like to think and I'm sure they do as well, that they will last a lot more than a few years. This does really concern me when doing video conversions for people.

Amen, brother!

All my DVD video projects are archives of my family footage. I'm glad they're now digital, as some of the VCR tapes were really on their way out, as all of them will be some day. I just hope that the writable DVDs I use last long enough to make it to the next major media/format migration. But who knows, maybe my kids will throw all of it away when my wife and I pass on...