CDR Media Quality comparison

[widemouth]

I have a question that I hope someone can help me with.

How long does the data on a CDR last??

I know this is a "How long is a piece of string" type of question but I am interested in understanding the different types of CDR media and there prospective lifespans.

I am storing Home videos as SVCDS and in 21 years time at my daughters 21st Birthday I would like to be sure that the CDR of her first few days of life will still be viewable. (Assuming that MPEG2 decoders are still around!!)

There are cheap blanks and more expensive blanks. Should I be using the more expensive blanks or would I just be wasting my money.

Thanks in advance.

[MpegEncoder]

Try this: http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5

P.S. You might want to try google.com

[hwoodwar]

I have done some extensive searching about this subject on the internet. One day I spent over four hours, trying to find a general consensus as to which CD-Rs are the best quality blanks. During my search I found more people recommended Fuji, Kodak (no longer being produced they dropped their CD-R line) and Taiyo Yuden. Fuji's latest 48x CD-Rs are made by Taiyo Yuden.

My research also showed that CD-Rs are kind of like VCRs in that there are lots of different companies that put their name on a product, but in actuality there are much fewer manufacturers and many are relabelled to a particular companies' name.

There are utilities out there that will do a test and tell you the "true" manufacturer of a CD-R disk. I use one called CDR Identifier.

I am a firm believer in "You get what you paid for." I expect you will get some answers like "I just buy the cheapest I can find" or "I have never made a coaster with XXX brand." Consider this: there is a lot more to quality that just, can I do a successfull write the first time. Some other charcteristics to think about are: scratch resistance, will the dye fade with time or heat, will the surface peel with time, will random errors appear with time, etc.

Now that I have found out the above mentioned information, I only buy Fuji CD-Rs as they are the only ones of the three that I mentioned that I can readily find in my area. The cheapest I have ever found these is $15 USD/50 CD spindle.

Here are a few links for you:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=4248

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=ce7d76fe3a1f62a20424e6dc3cc06afa&threadid=57462

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=ce7d76fe3a1f62a20424e6dc3cc06afa&threadid=42...5&pagenumber=1

[tastypoison]

Put me down as another happy FujiFilm user.

I bought the first spindle because they were super cheap with a rebate when BestBuy first started carrying them. I burned through that spindle with no problems...then another...and another...

I currently have 10 empty Fuji spindles piled up in my office that I haven't thrown out yet (my current spindle is also almost empty). Not a coaster out of the bunch.

It wasn't until much later that I discovered they were actually Taiyo Yuden disks - The ones most recommended by Plextor - at a better price than Imation, Memorex, TDK, or Verbatim.

[puertorican138]

Verbatim and Fuji (The ones manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, though) are the best brands of CD-R to use. :P

[Nelson37]

Ditto on the manufacturer/brand variation, brand name is only a temporary indicator of quality.

Of the two kinds of dyes used to make CD's, the blue ones tend to be less long-lasting. Colors are also added to the lens layer so disk color can be misleading.

Avoiding sunlight, temperature and humidity extremes and variations, a burned CD made with quality dye should last 50-100 years. Even if some degradation does occur, likely you could read it accurately in a PC, which will make multiple read attempts, so that it could be copied.

Consider that in 10 years you will almost certainly copy them to DVD, and by 21 years you will have every video you ever made in one cubic inch on your Super Whizzo 3000.

[Craig Tucker]

Dont you mean 1 cubic 25.4mm

[widemouth]

Thanks everyone, Exactly the information I was looking for.

Now I need to find what type and actual make of Disks I've been using.

Best Regards
Chris.

[widemouth]

I've Been thinking about the other problems I might have in 21 years at my daughters 21st playing her newborn SVCD.

I'll have to scour the archives for a MPEG2 decoder to convert the video to XXXMPEG15 to play in the Super XXXXDVD player. Will also have to work out a way of stopping the tiny 480x576 video image from appearing only in the corner of the standard 30 MegaPixel holographic projector screen!!!!

[puertorican138]

I've Been thinking about the other problems I might have in 21 years at my daughters 21st playing her newborn SVCD.

I'll have to scour the archives for a MPEG2 decoder to convert the video to XXXMPEG15 to play in the Super XXXXDVD player. Will also have to work out a way of stopping the tiny 480x576 video image from appearing only in the corner of the standard 30 MegaPixel holographic projector screen!!!!

You could use TMPGEnc or CCE as they are the best MPEG-2 encoders.