Do disks degrade over time?

[MutinyFever]

Disregarding trauma, dirt and scratches, do disks degrade over time? Do certain media brands degrade more than others? Does backup media degrade faster than the factory originals? Does media degrade faster before or after being burned, or does it matter? What conditions (e.g. sunlight, dampness, dust, toddlers) most promote disk destruction?

Opinions? Facts? Both welcome. I apologize in advance if this topic has been done and done again. I searched. I didn't find.

Michael

[blutach]

Cheap crap certainly does. You may not be able to play it a few months down the track. High quality stuff like Verbatim and Yudens should last a long time.

Factory originals are pressed and do not degrade.

You got it right - UV light is badddddddd for them. Keep em cool and under cover.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/longevity.htm

Regards

[Steve83]

I read an article years ago about "DVD rot" affecting pressed DVDs, but I think a lot of it was BS. It was used as an argument FOR hacking/backing up encrypted DVD-Videos.

[MutinyFever]

You got it right - UV light is badddddddd for them. Keep em cool and under cover.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/longevity.htm

That was a good article, Blutach, right up until the author tells us that it is a waste of time backing up factory disks, hehehe. Lots of good information, though. The article sort of pooh poohed the idea of rapid degradation, except when other forces are at work. I'm willing to accept that with good quality media, but I suspect that bad gets worse as you indicated.

Another question for you, following up on the idea that bad media fails quickly. Is the quality of the initial burn a good indication of how quickly the media is likely to fail? (This is important, because I now know I have a stack of fake TY's sitting by my computer, and I am wondering if I should do anything with them other than play frisbee with the kids.)

Thanks.

Michael

[blutach]

The quality of the burn will be affected by lotsa things, but let's focus solely on the media. Fake Yudens will not match the real deal in terms of error correction/jitter. So they are, by definition, poor to begin with.

Chances are they will also degrade quicker, but that has little to do with the fact you burned them - just the fact that they are cheap imitation media.

Give 'em to the kids - or better still, to someone you don't like.

Regards

[Vaios]

Some years ago when still Verbatims were a little expensive I tried 3 or 4 other brands like Creation, Ritek and another I don`t remember now (the -R couldn`t be burnt from the start). Most of them can`t be recognised by any drive now. Cheap media therefore is just a waste of time and money. Some Maxel and Plextor I tried are still very good. Some first 4X Verbatims had some problems and do have read errors now but later never had the slightest problem with the Verbatims. I don`t know if Maxell, TDK, Plextor and Sony are equal quality. That other brand mentioned a lot in the site, TY, I never saw it anywhere.

I put some cds and dvds up in the terrace for the pigeons and a few weeks the dvds are destroyed. It remains only a transparrent plastic. The most waterproof and sunproof are the pressed cds.

[Gary D]

I give my 3&2 year olds the memorex discs. Estimated time from me giving them a disc to being unplayable in a DVD player is about 3 months. (Less if it is one of their favourites like Madagascar). That is why I make copies is for them to use! The original is up high and out of reach.

[daman]

Yes they do,,memosux are the worse.

i have some from my early years of burning that pixlate and skip now,
they didn't do it back then.

i've been trying to catch up on redoing my older ones but some of my
origanals are gone or famly has them so i been doing what i can.

[Mr_Freakybig]

Do they degrade?
I think they do quicker if you do not take good care of them.
Yet. I still can remember I got my first CD of software when I
was in highschool. It was brand-spanking sparkling new.
Yet now, about 14 yrs later, I look back at it.
It still reads, so it was good media. But the disk has
now become very oxidized. Like it has rusted with old age or something.
(it became from bright silverlooking to a weird golden brownish color)

But it still plays heheh..

[daman]

Do they degrade?
I think they do quicker if you do not take good care of them.
Yet. I still can remember I got my first CD of software when I
was in highschool. It was brand-spanking sparkling new.
Yet now, about 14 yrs later, I look back at it.
It still reads, so it was good media. But the disk has
now become very oxidized. Like it has rusted with old age or something.
(it became from bright silverlooking to a weird golden brownish color)

But it still plays heheh..

freak what brand??? remember

[NightTran]

all disc will degrade but how fast it degrade is depend on how you keep them and what medias they are

[Vaios]

Perhaps I`m wrong but I think cds are more stable with time passing than dvds. Perhaps something to do with the size of the track ?
If that`s true imagine problems with the new more dense media.

[Mr_Freakybig]

freak what brand??? remember

Its at my moms place, I'm going over there this weekend, so Ill tell
you what it is next week k! (lol, these smilies are awesome)

[discman]

Yes they do,,memosux are the worse.

i have some from my early years of burning that pixlate and skip now,
they didn't do it back then.

i've been trying to catch up on redoing my older ones but some of my
origanals are gone or famly has them so i been doing what i can.

hey daman why not loan out your copies and keep your originals?ps i am the discman and i'm degrading over time.LOL

[Mr_Freakybig]

freak what brand??? remember

Update:

Cannot find the disc, but I am pretty sure it was a Maxell cdr.
Because today I opened another box of old CD backups
and behold, the same thing has happened to my 6 to 7 yr old
Maxell discs (CD-R 80XL 1 to 32 speed, GL70217)