Imation CDs light sensitive

[David K]

I was foolish enough to leave some VCDs and SVCDs in a place where direct sun light hit them over time. The only discs that suffered damage were Imation discs. The last third of these discs was completely gone and irrecoverable (I ran ISObuster on one for 12 hours and all I could recover was part of the audio track). Memorex and Hi Val didn't suffer any damage.

I'm pretty sure it was the sunlight because other Imation discs that were stored away in binders seem to be OK. The manufacturer of the Imation discs was CMC Magnetics, but I think that they were also the maker for the Memorex ones as well.

[SaSi]

I have done a test on this...

Found out that the brand doesn't really make a difference on this, what makes the big difference is the top (label side) coating.

The disks that have a silky feel coating (several brands and ALL printable disks) are the most durable in direct sunlight and heat. The ones with silver like coatings suffer the most (the coating actually peels off and renders the disk unusable).

[David K]

Thanks for the interesting info!

My experience seems to confirm your theory, since the Imation did indeed have a silvery top, while the Memorex had a smooth white printable top. (The Hi Vals had a smoother sliver top. I'm not quite sure what you mean by silky in this context.)

Could you share a bit more information on which brands and top coatings you found the most durable?