how soon after purchase should blank DVDs be burned?

[roryBorealis]

Have started having probs with burned dvds, and I'm wondering if it's 'cause I didn't burn them right away, but let them sit around--sometimes for months.

Am using industry standard Taiyo Yuden, so I'm assuming the initial quality is as good as it gets--but I've heard vague rumors about how--though there burned shelf-life is quite good--their pre-burned shelf-life is not.

Any thoughts?

Best,
M

[Tolyngee]

While I can't comment on TY in particular, I just burned hundreds of DVDs this past month (mass back-up of TBs of data...) using generic Ritek media that I bought over two years ago, and not a single coaster.

I've also had cd-r that took years to get around to burning it all... (also generic cheap cd-r)

(I buy in massive bulk to save, and soon after buying a ton of cd-r, I switched to dvd...)

I'm not aware of any of it going bad...

Just to be sure, are you certain that whatever hardware you are trying to read it with isn't the problem? I once about started pulling my hair out when I thought I had some bad media, but when I did a cd burner upgrade I realized the problem...

Just from experience, I am not convinced your media is the problem...

I should note: I have NEVER burned at max speed... Not certain what speed I used for cd-r (slow), but for dvd-r I have never burned at more than 4x speed...

That fact may influence my burn success and media life...

[BobK]

I am still using some TYs I bought 2 years ago without any problems.

[MOVIEGEEK]

As long as you keep them away from sunlight and heat they should last along time.If every burn is bad then I'd buy another batch,if that doesn't help then your writer is fried.

[Firewire60]

May be the DVD burner laser is dying as happened with me. Most burners will burn any disk these days if the burner is OK.

I had situation where the burner started to take forever to burn a DVD, then refused to burn it at all, it could not read any burned DVD-R even the ones burn when it was operating normally but it would still read pressed DVD9. Must have been the laser dying.

Ditched it and got the next model and everything fine again.

Shelf life of the DVDs not a problem and the best opinion I have heard is that burnt DVDs should last at least eight years but the fact is no one really knows. We will know when they start to become unreadable and has never happened with me yet.

[roryBorealis]

Just found this, in a .pdf document at a government site. Think the document was care and handling of cds and dvds--something like that:

"Manufacturers claim that CD-R and DVD-R discs have a shelf
life of 5 to 10 years before recording, but no expiration dates are
indicated on CD-R, DVD-R, or DVD+R packaging, nor are there
published reports of tests to verify these claims. Still, it would be
prudent, in light of these claims, to purchase new discs as they are
needed rather than to order large quantities and stockpile them for
future use."

As both my 100-disk cakes of TY's are less than a year old, I guess should assume it's my burner--an optorite. It is over two years old, which is several centuries in pc years.

The bugger is, it gives no indications that anything's wrong, during the burn.

Sensible thing would be to start dating all my burns, and check them periodically.

Oh, and thanx to whomever, for that "never at the fastest speed" burn suggestion. My burner's 16x--but I've never burned anything at greter than 4x.

[lordsmurf]

I think you were reading OSTA, not a government site. Anyway, about 5-7 years is max timeframe suggested for having unbunrt media.