The best way to archive finished projects for future transfer to Bluray or HD DVD?

Kevin Shaw · October 18th, 2007, 11:25 AM

I see there are even gold-layered DVDs which are inkjet printable. Interesting...

http://www.mam-a.com/products/gold/standard.html

Emre Safak · October 18th, 2007, 11:45 AM

People have to get past the analog mindset of archivalness as "avoiding degradation in perpetuity". In the digital world there are other considerations:

Media longevity
Reader + driver availability
File format obsolescence

Therefore, it is not imperative that the media last forever; merely to outlast the other two factors.

Seth Bloombaum · October 18th, 2007, 12:53 PM

Quite so. In the case of the private library I was working with, the collection is over 40 years old, and they were indeed concerned about 100-200 years.

The useful life of most of the content I deal with is perhaps 2 years. Standard DVD-R is just a little chancey, but HD is fine for that time range, IMHO.

It is important to recognize that a DVD-R that we burn today may be nothing in as little as 2 years, depending. A DVD-R with gold reflective layer is not only good for many more years, but also will have fewer errors in 2 weeks, good for sending to a replication service.

CD and DVD standards have a significant amount of error correction built-in. They'll work until one day the errors become too significant to correct, then that's it. The aluminum reflective layer is really starting to deteriorate immediately as oxygen infiltrates the DVD. Gold is *much* more inert, oxygen doesn't degrade it. There are some silver and silver/gold forumulations as well.

Kevin Shaw · October 18th, 2007, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

The useful life of most of the content I deal with is perhaps 2 years. Standard DVD-R is just a little chancey, but HD is fine for that time range, IMHO.

Why would you say HD is less chancey over the next two years than DVDs? From what I hear, Blu-ray in particular can be more fragile with repeated use than DVDs. I wonder how long before there's a gold-layer Blu-ray disc...?

Jonathan Gentry · October 18th, 2007, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

Why would you say HD is less chancey over the next two years than DVDs? From what I hear, Blu-ray in particular can be more fragile with repeated use than DVDs. I wonder how long before there's a gold-layer Blu-ray disc...?

HD = Hard Drive not High Def

Kevin Shaw · October 18th, 2007, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan Gentry

HD = Hard Drive not High Def

Which can be abbreviated HDD (hard disk drive) to avoid confusion...

October 18th, 2007, 11:45 AM	#17
Emre Safak Trustee Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brookline, MA Posts: 1,447	People have to get past the analog mindset of archivalness as "avoiding degradation in perpetuity". In the digital world there are other considerations: Media longevity Reader + driver availability File format obsolescence Therefore, it is not imperative that the media last forever; merely to outlast the other two factors.

October 18th, 2007, 11:25 AM	#16
Kevin Shaw Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 2,488	I see there are even gold-layered DVDs which are inkjet printable. Interesting... http://www.mam-a.com/products/gold/standard.html

October 18th, 2007, 12:53 PM	#18
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	Quite so. In the case of the private library I was working with, the collection is over 40 years old, and they were indeed concerned about 100-200 years. The useful life of most of the content I deal with is perhaps 2 years. Standard DVD-R is just a little chancey, but HD is fine for that time range, IMHO. It is important to recognize that a DVD-R that we burn today may be nothing in as little as 2 years, depending. A DVD-R with gold reflective layer is not only good for many more years, but also will have fewer errors in 2 weeks, good for sending to a replication service. CD and DVD standards have a significant amount of error correction built-in. They'll work until one day the errors become too significant to correct, then that's it. The aluminum reflective layer is really starting to deteriorate immediately as oxygen infiltrates the DVD. Gold is much more inert, oxygen doesn't degrade it. There are some silver and silver/gold forumulations as well.