Now how long do you think its going to last? I've noticed recently that a lot of people are asking about the quality of dvd disks, and life span, burning, etc. I don't want to hijack those threads so I thought I'd just posts some info here for you guys. I'd consider this hardware, but it also has to deal with audio/video and software so I just stuck it in general. I'm going to do this by trying to answer a couple of common questions on the subject... Is there a difference between x brand of blank media and y brand? Simple answer yes. Why? Well first off you should know there is a difference between Media types and Brand types. Brands are what you buy, Sony, Maxell, TY, Ritex, etc. Media types are what each of those brands use. Sony doesn't make the DVD's them selfs, they buy them from a manufacture and re bag them. Most media is made in countries like Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, India, etc. And generally the better media comes out of Japan and Singapore. And I'd stay away from Hong Kong and Taiwan made media. The main part of what separates cheap media from good media is dye type. The good types of dye include MCC and MXL. The worst type is CMC. Also, there is a lot of counterfeit media going around which is mainly produced in places like Taiwan. Thats why I'd say away from discs made there. And also, when buying discs online you can run into a lot of counterfeit discs. How long will my blank DVD's last? There is no one answer, but the general answer is a 20-40 years, made 50 if were lucky. But also it depends on the quality of media. Some of the "High quality CD's" produced in the early 90's were rated at being able to keep data for over 100 years. Now only 10 years later, or near it, some of those CD types are garbage. The best thing to do if you plan on keeping data backed up for a while or that dvd on the shelve playable in a few years is to use good grade A media, in other words the highest class. Good brands include Maxell, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, Mitsubishi, and Pioneer (in particular order). The next best kinds are things like Infodiscs, Riteks, Fuji, a some others. The following grades under those are basically no-name companies, or rebagged bad discs from better companies, or counterfeit fakes. Also be sure to keep your discs stored safely. The best way to store DVD's are in the cases that hold the CD using the center grip only, with the case stored horizontally (Vertical storage can cause warping, and also fade on the disc edges). Also never store DVDs in "sleeves" or "wallets". Mainly the paper type cases (such as the kind demo discs come in with magizines). These can cause ligh scratching on the disc. This isn't a probably for CD's mainly but it is with DVDs. DVD's have much more data to surface area then CDs ( such as 4.4gigs v. 700 megs) so scratches effect discs more more harshly. That info is all about media that uses dyes, not media that uses phase change crystals. NEVER ever back up data with DVD-/+RWs and DVD-RAM discs. DVD-RAM is the best out of the the three, but it still is not trust worthy! Phase change material will break down each time its burned or erased, and even by just time. A blank DVD-RW can become useless after time by just sitting out in the air. Why is this? Because phase change crystals are the metal. It will corrode or 'rot' over time. The term "Disc Rot" refers to metal decomposing over time and it will happen to all media like CD-Roms, DVD-Roms, and phase change media. Data lose caused by disc Rot will not happen it -/+'rs. General data decay in them is causes by USER ERROR in the burning. This isn't to say that you made a mistake burning it, but that there was a general error in the burning process. The most important thing you can do is just to make sure the movie plays fine, or that you can get copy all the data off the disc right after its burned. And i'd throw them through some programs to check the burn quality. How can I check them? The program I mainly use is Nero's CD Speed. And DVDinfopro. I'm not going to go into how to use these programs, or give a guide or anything because that'd just take way to long. And you can get better guides on their web sites or by doing some googleing. Does any of this information really matter? Honestly not to me. All of my things (mainly movies) are backed up on hard drives (something like 900 gigs worth at the moment), and I've used mainly TY and Maxwell discs to burn them all. Really at this point in time with Blue-ray and HD DVD so close your discs probably wont become unreadable if you take care of them. But if your data is important to you, then think about this information.
20-40 years, will we even still use DVDs then ? Edit: what about BenQ dvd,s i got 25 sat here they any good?
Well vhs and hi8 are getting to around the 20 year mark. I know some people still use vhs, or have old vhs tapes (home movies, etc.) so we may still be using them. Also look at CD's and DVDs. A lot of people perfer to use VCD's over DVD's for movies they make or burn. I know that when the time comes to download a 100 gig Blu-ray disk I'm going to question wether its worth it or not (the kind of tv I have and internet connection would come into concideration).
