The Short Lives Of CD-Rs

According to an article on cdfreaks.com, a test done by the Dutch PC-Active [Dutch Language] magazine showed that among 30 different CD-R brands tested, a lot of them were already unreadable after twenty months, comes via Slashdot.

August 24, 2003 by Uncategorized 2

You may also like...

2 Responses

  1. bibliothecarius says:
    August 25, 2003 at 5:11 pm

    CD-Rs
    I suppose in the aftermath of the digital revolution more and more people are starting to realize that “you get what you pay for.” I always try to stick with brands that I am familiar and happy with, however, I have also been bitten by the “super sale” bug where I find an incredible bargain on CD-Rs, only to find out later on that more than half the discs do not work.

    Sigh…

    Reply
  2. Walt says:
    August 25, 2003 at 7:59 pm

    CD-R Longevity
    There may be several factors here:

    1. There are three different dye systems used for CD-R. From reports I’ve seen, two are much more stable than the third. The most stable is used primarily in premium brands (e.g., Kodak Gold) that you don’t see on the 50-for-$10 rack.

    Fortunately, the second most stable (azo) is available in moderately-priced CD-Rs, those from Verbatim (or Mitsubishi), and that’s all I use these days. (Medium-green color, and you can very easily tell which portion of a disc has data on it.)

    Most cheap brands, unfortunately, use the least stable dye formulation. (Phtalocyanine? I’d have to look it up…)

    2. Based on my own experience only, the biggest problem is a combination of heat/light (leaving CD-Rs in exposed parts of a car for a long time or, even worse, leaving the data side in strong light) and marginal drives: Before I switched to azo, about 1 out of 10 CDs left in a car for a week in California sun would become “scratchy” on the car player–but not necessarily on other players. (Says to me that the CD-Rs are now marginal, and the player’s also marginal.)

    I wouldn’t bet that this wouldn’t weaken azo CD-Rs as well.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

LISNews Archives