On 26 Aug 2004 at 9:46, Mick Maguire wrote: > You may not have the problems so much (as you are prepared to look after the > output carefully) however, I am finding increasingly that my old music CDs (some > go back to the mid 80's) are degrading - sound quality is impaired but some have > even started skipping and a few are unplayable. This isn't due to dirt or > scratches (I am extremely careful with them), it's down to oxidation. The same > is going to happen to CDRs and DVDs and when it does the likelyhood of getting > the data off of them may be very slim. I think this will be more of a problem > for Joe Public digi-snappers (as we have been talkign about). I think serious > amateurs and pros will be better able to deal with it.
I think DVD (in all forms) will prove to be a more reliable media than CD and its derivatives if only for the fact that the construct is a polycarbonate sandwich unlike CD. I too have pressed CDs with holes in the reflective coatings and I also have examples with their edges eaten by fungus. None are yet unplayable and very few cause C2 errors on my various CD readers. I have a wedge disc for aligning CD decks and I suspect that most people would be very surprised at just how much track can be obscured before any problems can be detected at the audio out-puts on a good deck. My archive CDs however have had very little handling and have been kept in near optimal conditions unlike many of my audio CDs (many of which have also been purchased second hand to make it worse). I think the problems cited relating to Joe Public digi-snappers are over-rated somewhat. Like others have mentioned I beleive that most people treat their films pretty poorly if they actually keep them at all and if they do most couldn't find the one for the print that they actually want to enlarge. I recall vividly that my array of aunts and uncles never seemed to have negs for any of the family pics I would have liked to have copies of. Dad however always looked after his negs, as a consequence I have a great record of my early years, except of course the ones where the negs have faded into oblivion. A you suggest anyone who is serious enough will attempt to protect their images by whatever means satisfies their paranoia level :-) Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
