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Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays (revised 2019)

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:34 pm
by bassman81
Hi,
longtime registered user of MakeMKV finally joining the forum!

Have you read the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) Notes 19/1 Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays?
https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-i ... -dvds.html

This part is especially interesting:

Table 2: the relative stability of optical disc formats
CD (read-only, such as an audio CD) 50 to 100 years
DVD and BD (read-only, such as a DVD or Blu-ray movie) 10 to 20 years


This seems very low to me in comparison with pressed CDs.
Has anyone here experienced old BDs/DVDs failing even if in pristine condition?

Re: Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays (revised 2019)

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 7:05 pm
by Woodstock
Generally, recordable disks have little to do with MakeMKV, other than some companies are now doing "burn on demand" DVDs. I haven't seen that much outside of porn titles, though.

Does it address the problems with storage of pressed disks and chemical deposition from the packaging?

Re: Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays (revised 2019)

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:03 pm
by bassman81
Yes, what I quoted is about PRESSED discs (10 to 20 years for DVD/Blu-rays).

Re: Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays (revised 2019)

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:04 pm
by Woodstock
The pressed disks themselves are still "usable", but require cleaning more often.

This is a common problem, as the disk density goes up (UHD) and the packaging gets more careless. You would think the packaging would be "cleaner".

Unless the chemical contamination is really a preservative... like Cosmoline for optical disks...

Re: Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays (revised 2019)

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:01 pm
by Username1267
On old disks I have often found a thin film of some substance. Maybe it's the plasticizer of the package. But at an age of about 10 years they get harder to read.