On Thu, July 19, 2007 10:49 am, Carl Lowenstein wrote: > On 7/19/07, Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Since TV is only TV, the only data of any real (irreplacable) value on >> these drives are family photos. These will be burned to DVD this >> weekend. >> 3 - 5 years is a hell of a lot better than "oh shit!" > > Here is some partially relevant information from National Institute of > Standards and Technology: > > Whole article is at < > http://www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.05/docs/StabilityStudy.pdf > > > Excerpt below: > - - - - - - > While there are a number of factors that may contribute to the stability > of the CD-R and DVD-R media, dye type is generally considered one of > the more important ones. Based on the test results for CD-R media, this > expectation appears to hold true, even with mixed results for the dye > types. Samples containing phthalocyanine performed better than other dye > types. In particular, phthalocyanine combined with a gold-silver alloy > as a reflective layer was consistently more stable than all other types > of CD-R media. Discs using azo dye as the data layer had less stability > in light exposure and temperature/humidity stress testing. Media using > cyanine dye performed well when exposed to light but had problems when > under temperature/humidity stress conditions. > - - - - - - > > They also say that it's not easy to determine dye type from the outside > package. > > I saw some "long-life" gold CD-R media at Fry's a few days ago. I > wasn't looking for recordable DVDs so I didn't see any. > > carl > -- >
<sigh> as always, I buy the cheapest so I probably have the worst. But even so, having DVD copies of any life expectancy seems like a very high priority at the moment. -- Lan Barnes SCM Analyst Linux Guy Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
