Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives

[John Poirier <John_Poirier@xxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe.Iraci /unix [mailto:Joe_Iraci@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 7:26 AM
To: ARSCLIST /unix
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives


A few comments.

John Poirier wrote:
The situation for DVDs, as Mike Richter noted, is unclear. We have used
Quantegy gold dye discs, but they seem to have been discontinued. The
only DVD designated as "gold dye" that I'm now able to find is made by
an outfit called 'MAM-A"  www.mam-a.com.  They make a claim for extended
longevity.

Below is part of an e-mail that I received from a MAM representative in
September of 2004:

"Thank you for your recent inquiry. In answer to your questions,
phthalocyanine dye is a dye used only in CD-R media. DVD-R media uses a
different dye that we are unable to disclose at this time.
We do not manufacture DVD-R using a gold reflective layer, since the
reflectivity is too high for the players on the market. Only silver is
used."
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Thanks, Joe. Helpful as usual.

A couple of final comments from me:

I've been using the term "gold dye" somwhat loosely because it's
commonly used in the circles where I hang out.  In that context it's a
term for discs with phtahalocyanine dye and a gold reflective layer.
Sorry if that's caused any confusion.

In an earlier message I made a semi-frivolous comment about using solid
state storage devices as successors to CDs.  Yesterday I bought a
digital SLR.  The manual clearly recommends against long-term storage
(no time specified) on SD memory cards.

With the price of memory dropping, it may not be too many years before
people start doing exactly that.  And we have the increasing use of
digital sound recorders with memory cards for things like oral history
recording...

Cheers

John Poirier
Coordinator of Technical Services
Northwest Territories Archives
Yellowknife, NWT, Canada