DVD retention?

[fspta]

Hi,

I am looking into the retention time for DVD+R. I am reading on this site the various DVD+R on sale and the topic of retention for the different "cheap" media. Is there a base line for retention DVDs. Should I be keeping my original DV tapes since some DVDs might not be playable after a year or so? Any help on the topic or a link for a good source of info, is highly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Tommyknocker]

The prevailing wisdom is to keep original tapes regardless of the longevity of DVDs. Simple wisdom that will someday help you, I'm sure.

[Paul_W]

Keep your videos on tape if they are too large to fit in an uncompressed format on DVD. Keep your video on DVD if the file sizes permit. Don't compress anything that you will want to use again at maximum quality.

The expected life span for DVD's is uncertain and will vary from 5 years to lifetime depending on who you talk to. Lets face it. DVD's are plastic. Plastic changes color and becomes brittle over time. Plastic is prone to physical damage due to environmental issues and handling like any other media.

If you really want to keep archives of your work, expect to re-record the data every few years. Whether it be for technology changes or the degradation of your data (especially tape), nothing lasts forever. In our shop, we duplicate the most critical work in two formats. Usually both tape and DVD. Then we store one of the backups off-site.

Once you have your data in a digital format, it's a safe bet that backing up or changing format will be easier than the analog alternatives as technology improves.

[gmatov]

Paul,

Good advice. I hate to take the side of tape as a better format, but I have 8 tracks 40 years old that still work, and I have CDs 5 years old that don't.

And, it's a hell of a note that the best advise is to keep your data intact on a camera tape cassette, what, 5 bucks or so, for safe keeping, when we want to offload to a 1 buck DVD so we don't have to go broke buying tapes.

Do you belive the marketers who tell you CDs, DVDs will last a 100 years?

I sure as hell don't.

With HDDs coming down in price all the time, I keep a lot of my stuff on the drives, copied to one of the other machines also, always at least 2 copies, would need at least 2 mchines to go belly up to lose it. Does eat up space, though. Maybe write to a + and a - RW, with a dual format, maybe one will last longer than the other. There goes the cost advantage, however.

Ah, well, they've got us over a barrell. If we don't buy, the economy of scale will never get the price down to where most of us can afford them, and if we do buy, we wind up with an inferior product.

Cheers,

George

[indolikaa]

Plastic?

Polycarbonates, please. 'Plastic' just reeks of 'inferior production technology!'

.indolikaa.
Delaminating

[gmatov]

I wonder at the "polycarbonate" ddesignator.

Years ago they began making full face shields for the "riceburner" bikers from Lexan polycarbonate and the trick from the salespeople was to take coarse sanddpper to the shield, showing you that if you took a trip down the pavement on your face shield, it wouldn't scratch.

Now, we have "polycarbonate" disks that you treat with kid gloves, else they'll scratch so badly as to be unusable.

Ever think maybe "poly" is jut a marketing ploy ( curious, ploy, poly, scramble the letters, maybe it's all garbage?) to give us a feeling of safety.

( "Riceburner", above is to ditinguish from a Harley rider, which, my kids advised me, when they bought a Harley, was the reason they needed to buy new hats. You don't wear that kind of stuff on a Harley. Skid lid at the most. Hey, since one is my daughter, I think she should be in full body armor.)

Cheers

George