Having spent many years working in Data Storage, I'll venture my opinion....
While I cannot say what the effect of these sprays is on video/audio media, in the world of data storage, they are considered to be a gimmick at best, and at worst shorten the shelf life of digital storage media (tape, CD, and DVD). In general, when the goal is to keep the data integrity for as long as possible, the less that is done to the media the better. The only possible advantage I can see in a video/audio environment would be if the spray cleaned off the fingerprints and other surface dirt that results from the inevitable mishandling of the media. Depending on the composition of the spray, it may or may not be more effective than distilled water, and may or may not cause microscopic pitting of the surface (this is A Bad Thing). I don't think that any spray could do anything to help protect the surface of the media from damage resulting from poorly aligned read heads in a cd/dvd reader (very common in home cd/dvd players). The scratches and surface damage that results is from the physical contact of either read head or some particle between the read head and the surface of the media, and no spray is going to protect from that.... In general, my recommendation would be to use these as a way to possibly extend the life of a marginal cd/dvd. Don't use them until the media is already starting to degrade, then use the sprays in an attempt to buy a bit more life for the media. That way, you aren't accidentally damaging "good" media (and you're not spending a lot of money spraying down media that doesn't need cleaning anyway). Once the media is starting to degrade, the worst you can do is cause a tad more microscopic damage, which probably won't be noticeable in degraded media anyway. If you're lucky, it will actually get some extra life out of the degraded media..... _James Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
