UPDATE ON CD LIFE

Subject: UPDATE ON CD LIFE
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 10 May 04 - 02:55 AM

looks like the nay-sayers were right after all!

not so good news on life of cds.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1585525,00.asp

Subject: RE: UPDATE ON CD LIFE
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 04 - 12:26 PM

It's still a little hard to say who's right. A couple of people have reported disk rot, but so far it hasn't been determined whether the disks in question are "current technology" or may have been some old ones - from before the latest manufacturing tricks. It probably is safe to say that "nothing is forever."

I'm a little surprised at the way eWeek flipped it up without a little more background verification - although some of the other places that published the report are no surprise.

The thing that most versions of the article mentioned, and that is probably true, is that just buying the same brand name all the time doesn't assure you get the same disks all the time.

The "rot" described sounds like the very common failures that were seen back when CDs were new - before personal burners even hit the market in any numbers. We had some trouble with it in the 80s with CD distributions of DoD handbooks. You'd sort of think they'd have it under control by now.

John

Subject: RE: UPDATE ON CD LIFE
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 May 04 - 02:35 PM

It probably is safe to say that "nothing is forever."

In the long run yes - but I'd guess that the life span of a vinyl record that doesn't get mistreated would probably be a few centuries at least.

Subject: RE: UPDATE ON CD LIFE
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 May 04 - 10:27 AM

McGrath

Some years back I was getting everything on vinyl, but wanted tape for portability. I copied all my best vinyls and put them away, with the idea that I could go back to the vinyl if I wore out a tape.

When I decided that a couple of tapes needed replaced, I found that the vinyls, stored in good locations, with no exposure to any extremes, were not as good as the tapes that I'd played on a regular basis for 15 years or so. The vinyls were all commercial recordings, mostly new in the early 1980s, and comparison to the tapes showed that the sound quality was not what it was originally.

Even vinyl ain't forever. Make a copy.

The Smithsonian/National Archives "Save Our Sounds" project is fighting to save stuff from 60 - 100 year old vinyl (and some a lot newer) before it all crumbles.

John