How long should DVD-R media last?

[DVantrease]

What is a realistic life expectancy of a good quality DVD-R disc? I mean assuming you keep it in good care, guard it from scratches, no direct sunlight, etc. Are we talking 2 years or 20 years or 100 years?

[Hardcoreruss]

Obviously no one really knows as the media has not been around long enough for people to say hundred years. Some manufacturers state on their discs that they will last 50 or 100 years but this is yet to be proved. I still have my first burns from about a year ago and they all play no probs.

[LeoNapier]

I agree with hardcoreruss.
No real info to support life expectancy on DVD-r as yet.
My oldest burns date 2 yrs back and still work ok.

[ebenton]

If I still want to watch my backup copy of "Dude, Where's My Car?" 50 years from now (if I'm still alive), and the disk won't play, I'm gonna be really pissed off and write the disk manufacturer (if they're still in business) and get my $1 or $2 back!!

Actually, using one of these disks 50 or even 25 years from now will probably be a lot like trying to use a 78-RPM vinyl record today. You might not even be able to find anything to play it on.

Of course, some CDs and DVDs have already been reported to deteriorate after a year or so. In this case, there is cause for concern.

[Hardcoreruss]

I can't believe you actually took the time to back that film up and as for watching it again, sod that.

[ebenton]

I can't believe you actually took the time to back that film up and as for watching it again, sod that.

It's one of my most treasured movies, along with "Ishtar", "Shanghai Suprise" and "Who's That Girl?"

[Hardcoreruss]

Ishtar is cool but dude wheres my car has got to be one of the worst films ever.

[ebenton]

You also can't argue that "Beavis and Butthead Do America" didn't deserve an Oscar.

[Hardcoreruss]

That was funny, I liked that, even went to the cinema but dude wheres my car, come on. I here they are making a sequel to that

GOD PLEASE !!!!!!

[mob]

I keep my dvd backups in paper sleeves, inside a shoe box under my bed.

so far they still work after one year

ill give you guys an update on them in 25 years...

[DVantrease]

Haha ok I know we don't know yet, I was wondering what the theoretical, estimated lifespan was, based on what we know about the materials etc.

The reason I asked, I thought I heard long ago that CD's would "last 100 years", I thought the comment included CD-R but not sure. Anyways, last week on TechTV they were talking about archiving your data onto CDR/DVDR, and said (quote) "CD-R's will begin to deteriorate after about 2 years, so you want to re-copy your discs at least every 2 years". I'd just never heard that before, and it got me thinking about how long my DVDR collection would last.

[johns0]

cdr`s or dvdr`s will only deteriorate if they were made bad to begin with,the statement about backing up after 2 years is very subjective cause
no one knows how long good quality media will last,ive had cheap generic cd`s go bad 3 weeks after burning them,work good first week then not working at all 3 weeks later.

[freak_in_cage_10k]

I can't believe you actually took the time to back that film up and as for watching it again, sod that.

It's one of my most treasured movies, along with "Ishtar", "Shanghai Suprise" and "Who's That Girl?"

i couldn;t agree with u more man!!!! its an AMAZING film!!!! however, you must add "the big lebowski" to your list of amazing films, thats a classic!!!!

[epo]

I currently reburn my 1.5 year old Bulkpaq's 3 patches of 4 I have, have been deteriorated to the point, where half of the disk is not readable by my JVC player. No problems with ripping them.

[gmatov]

According to the CD faq page, the mfgs tell you new blanks have a 7 year shelf life.

If that's so, how long can you expect them to last after you subject them to several thousand degree bursts of laser light?

I think the people who put this info into the mainstream should be kept alive for 100 years, and if we can't find a disk that is still readable, hang him.

What the hell, billions of bucks worth of unuseable disks? Hanging might be too good, but none of them lethal injections, OD on "happy juice".

Cheers,

George

[BigMatty]

how about dvd-RW? same life expectancy as dvd-r?

[Alan69]

Check the facts gmatov..

The 7 years comes from the dye deterioration. In other words they may not BURN in 7 years. Once burned, the specs are much longer with good care.

Problem is there can always be unforseen interactions. Once in a while something that passes very rigorous tests for aging will still age differently in real life from the actual slow long term exposure. Some older videotapes had this problem, and some CDR's that are burned and not too old are already unusable.

Once burned, if they last a few years they'll likely last 10 or 20 or 50. But it's a gamble on are they stable the few years, and even then a small percentage will drop out as you go along.

DVD-R should be better even. Plastic on both sides. Aging tests should be more reliable since it'll be a very slow process for oxygen etc to get beyond the very edge of the disc. Short of the polycarb darkening or chemical problems in design in the layer itself, I'd expect them to last a very long time.

And I bet a lot of the unreadable ones just have darkened etc. Only would need an archival reader with a stronger laser to read many of them. The data is blown in pits with heavy error correction on data discs. Should take hundreds of years before it's actually 'gone' if they're stored ok. Just varying levels of difficulty to get it back off of the disc.

And of course, just like everything else computers, by the time your 'Dude, Where's My Car?" is dead there will be a new SuperDuperTripleSuperBit version that you couldn't live without anyway. Only need to worry about your own data, something that doesn't have a few million other digital backups floating around.

Alan

[vivisimonvi]

I can't say much about DVD media but the first CD-R I've ever recorded was in high school on my teachers CD-Writer (I think it was a Memorex writer). I still have the disc from this day I recorded it early in 1999 (the Media ID is "TDK Corporation"). I hardly knew what I was doing but I put several recording sessions on it.

I take good care of my CD's most of them stay in the jewel case after use, although this one has a few visible marks and scratches.

Out of curiousity of this post I ran a scandisc check on it and found there are zero errors (using both the surface and file test scans). I have a few thousand files on there, all have read fine.

I'll say that is a really good idea to back up your CD's again after a few years, for stuff really worth saving. I have about a hundred VHS home videos that I really want to get rid of, but can I really trust optical media to last?

[TurboRunner]

It should Last Longer than Video Tapes and if you need to make another copy of it later on it will be a whole lot easier since its already digitalised.

With video tapes they can get dirty and damaged easily

Ive got a video tape that i recorded well over 10 years and it jitter and jumps and you can hardly see a picture i took the tape to get cleaned and now you can see the picture but jitters and jumps alot

[vhelp]

what a waist :P

"Dude, where's my car" has gotta be a great :P though I haven't
seen it yet. Its somewhere's next on my list hehe.. Ta think I had it right
in my hands the other day.. instead, I got "Freddy Got Fingered" though I
didn't watch it yet. I like corney movies, how about "Duce Bigalo" That's a
great movie !! speciall the car scene still cracks me up.
..or, my 80's movie collection. hmm.. one movie I can't seem to find..
"Cherry 2000" w/ M. Griffith (spelling) anyways.. back on topic.. ..

As to media longevity, I really can't say. I think I found a few disks that
no longer played (all my once (LOL) great VCD's I made w/ my DVC I,
some of ST - Voyager) can't be read any mores. I think it was my dvd
plaer though.. but I've got TONS of CDR's I burned of many tv shows, and
all in VCD format It hurts to even watch them now - - get my drift ??
Mind you, I chaulk it all to to wonder experience.. Thanks Dazzle :P

-vhelp

[gmatov]

Alan,

Great!!!

The dye goes bad before you burn it, but AFTER you burn it, it will last hundreds of years. How about a HA-HA, here?

I HAVE CDs that are no longer readable, and I go back to the 2X-1X era, 2X write, 1X rewrite,,SCsi to boot.

Noone knows how long they will last, all they have to do is convince you it will last damn near forever, and we'll jump on it.

BS, pal,

AND, I have VHS tapes 30+ years old that still play, hell, they're the ones I want to PUT on DVD.

Cleaning them to make them put out a better signal is not what I consider a requirement. Hey, they work.

I don't know if my CDs/DVS will work next month, let alone next year, or 6 years down the road.

My opinion.

Cheers,

George

[Hardcoreruss]

I can't believe you actually took the time to back that film up and as for watching it again, sod that.

It's one of my most treasured movies, along with "Ishtar", "Shanghai Suprise" and "Who's That Girl?"

i couldn;t agree with u more man!!!! its an AMAZING film!!!! however, you must add "the big lebowski" to your list of amazing films, thats a classic!!!!

Now that IS a classic.

Amazing film ?, good drugs are they !!!

[Hardcoreruss]

what a waist :P

"Dude, where's my car" has gotta be a great :P though I haven't
seen it yet.

Trust me, don;t bother

[Rookie64]

hmm.. one movie I can't seem to find..
"Cherry 2000" w/ M. Griffith (spelling) anyways.. back on topic.. ...

That was a cool movie - I have it

You can rent it from Walmart's Online DVD Rental service.


Worst movie I've ever seen is Caddyshack 2 - nothing could be worse than that one

AND, I have VHS tapes 30+ years old that still play, hell, they're the ones I want to PUT on DVD.

George, was there a such thing as VHS 30+ years ago?

I agree, though - I still have all of my VHS tapes that go back as far as 1979, and those held up fine over the years.
I don't even worry that anything will ever happen to them.


I've had CD-Rs go bad on me in less than a month - it's always the data disks that go bad - never had any trouble with VCDs or Audio CDs.