CD Duplications or Replications ..huh?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dracon
  • Start date Start date
I found this via the CLIR.ORG site, referring to a paper published by the NIST:

"Among the manufacturers that have done testing, there is consensus that, under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more...

Few, if any, life expectancy reports for these discs have been published by independent laboratories. An accelerated aging study at NIST estimated the life expectancy of one type of DVD-R for authoring disc to be 30 years if stored at 25°C (77°F) and 50% relative humidity. This testing for R discs is in the preliminary stages, and much more needs to be done."
 
In my experience, burned CDs definitely do not last very long. However, it might very well be due to the quality of the CD and the burner. Mine are just cheap 50 for $10 types made with the standard CD writer that came with my computer. They seem to scratch very easily, and be affected greatly by the scratches. I don't think mine ever last quite a year, and that is in a best-case scenario. That is just from swapping them from my portable CD player to my car stereo. I don't abuse them or leave them exposed very often at all.

Even if one of my "real" CDs is covered in scratches (not big cuts, but just little scratches all over), they still work perfectly.

Those are just my observations.
 
billisa said:
It's funny, but I've kept about 20 or so CDR's in my car through intense heat and extreme cold, for 3+ years. None have exhibited any problems. Naturally, I'm still very careful about my recording Master CDR's and Backup CDR's. They're kept in a nice, dry metal case, in sleeves.

Still, I wonder what the real shelf life on a decently cared for CDR is. Perhaps there are differences between those first manufactured, and those of later origin? Name brand versus way off brand?

A 3 year lifespan seems rather short, at least in my limited experience...
Click to expand...

Yeah! See, does anyone know if perhaps I don't know Fuji is better or worse than say No name brand.
 
Keep in mind also that just because you employ a manufacturing company does not mean you will automatically get "replication" and not "duplication".

Many companies offer less expensive short runs that are "duplication".

Quite often any of these super deals that you see for example 200 CD's for $299 are usually duplications. Alot of times the packaging will look pretty good etc...but the discs will still be burned CDR's.

As Blue Bear said, the "replication" requires a glass master and is simply more expensive to reproduce.

Be certain to look into the details of which service and product you are buying.

Best Of Luck!
 
Dracon said:
Yeah! See, does anyone know if perhaps I don't know Fuji is better or worse than say No name brand.
Click to expand...

From having looked around more, I've found that the manufacturing process has a huge impact on durability. This involves the dyes used, the base, the coating...

On one site related to the storage of medical records, I noted a promise of 200 year durability. I believe the disks involved were Mitsui with a gold base.

Really, CDR's only need to last as long as the next storage medium arrives. In 20 years will there be any CD players around? Perhaps the real issue of "durability" is more about the playback technology. CDR's you can't play will be pretty worthless no matter what their condition is.
 
From what I understand, the brand definitely makes a difference. I have settled on a brand different from the ones I did my early CDs on, at least temporarily, but I'll try some others when I start to run out. It is very difficult to get real information on the durability of different brands. I did a search one time and ended up with 20+ links, all of which were variations of a single study.
 
billisa said:
From having looked around more, I've found that the manufacturing process has a huge impact on durability. This involves the dyes used, the base, the coating...

On one site related to the storage of medical records, I noted a promise of 200 year durability. I believe the disks involved were Mitsui with a gold base.
...
Click to expand...

Wow 200 years? That means they will last half my lifetime :) just kiddin'.
That's a considerable amount of time. I had store bought CDs that have lasted less than that (usually do to scratching on the surface), and have bought others which I wished they would have self destructed within a day (so that I could go back and get something else). :rolleyes:

So Mitsui (never heard of it) seems to make a gold base (very very expensive I'm sure) which lasts 200 years. Pretty cool, I'll try to find them and then leave one on the dash of my car for a whole day (although if I lived in Florida that would mean something but in Tacoma doesn't mean much).

I'll do my own non-scientific testing to see how that works. Hey thanks, seriously.
 
According to

http://www.mscience.com/faq53.html

"Longevity is no longer limited by the stability of the dye, but instead depends on two other issues. The first issue is the original quality of the recorded disc. Each dye and recording speed requires a different optimum recording power and write strategy. CD-R writers vary in their capability to provide optimum recording conditions. Inconsistent recorded quality is the result, even though initial quality must be high if the disc is to degrade gracefully over its lifetime."

I did a search on Google for 'Best Recordable CD media' and got some pretty good websites. Althought they still say don't expose it to heat, humidity or sunlight. However, that applies to all the CDs not just CD-Rs.

Another good source of info is this website -
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html
 
Dracon said:
So Mitsui (never heard of it) seems to make a gold base (very very expensive I'm sure) which lasts 200 years.
Click to expand...

From what I've seen Mitsui is not that much more than others. If you buy in bulk, it'd probably make a difference...

A also came across a study that said early CDR's had a problem in manufacture, allowing air to get under the exterior coating -- very bad.
 
billisa said:
.....A also came across a study that said early CDR's had a problem in manufacture, allowing air to get under the exterior coating -- very bad.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that in the link I put up. :) Apparently Mitsui is the original company who invented the CD creation process apparently (according to the article).
 
Dracon said:
Yeah I saw that in the link I put up. :) Apparently Mitsui is the original company who invented the CD creation process apparently (according to the article).
Click to expand...

I'd heard it was Taiyo-Yuden.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top