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Re: [ARSCLIST] "Archival" DVD-R?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 10:30 AM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] "Archival" DVD-R?
>
> At 09:54 AM 8/9/2005, Jerry Hartke wrote:
> > >
> > > From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad
> > >
> > > ----- I shall not respect future analyses of longevity, unless it is a
> > > system
> > > analysis, not a medium analysis. I know that it is much more expensive
> > > than
> > > leaving your discs out on your desk or in a car and monitoring the
> > > progressive problems. But without a drive, all we preserve are mirrors
> > > and/or
> > > optical gratings.
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > >
> > >
> > > George
> >
> >One key problem is that there are no standards for drives, only for media
> >quality. What determines whether a drive is acceptable or not, other than
> >complete loss of functionality?
> >
> >Jerry
> >Media Sciences, Inc.
>
> Gentlemen:
>
> Great posts this morning! Thanks.
>
> George:
>
> I would agree with your statement, quoted above, if modified to
> reflect the ongoing commercial life of CD and DVD reading equipment.
>
> You touch on it when you state:
>
> > > ----- I fear that you will discover that you can only trust optical
> media
> > > while the current generation of media and equipment is industrially
> > > supported. Say five years, to be conservative.
>
> We have no way of predicting how long support will be manufactured
> for CD and DVD, but I think it might be longer than five years. I
> think there will be a huge consumer uprising if the new machines are
> not backwards compatible with the old media. For example, we see
> fewer and fewer standalone component CD players, but we're seeing
> much of the same functionality (five discs, etc) available in
> standalone DVD players that also play CDs.
>
> I think the promise of the CD/DVD has been that it's a universal
> media, that, like digital itself, can morph to a wide variety of
> uses--uses way beyond what the original developers/inventors foresaw.
>
> So, I think as long as drives that can read this media are being
> manufactured, then we can say the life might be 5-10 years beyond the
> end of that manufacture.
>
> To be more positive. I have several 10+ year old CD players that
> still work reliably. One is perhaps 20 years old--an early Philips. I
> also have two Plextor drives that are getting beyond five years and
> still seem fine (with much less use these days). I did have the power
> supply in an Apex DVD player fail, and I decided to replace the
> entire player, but the guy I FreeCycled the old player to is planning
> on resurrecting it. He found a guy who will repair the power supply
> board for $18USD (plus shipping). But I only paid $80CAD for the
> replacement. He tested the drive and it was still good. He's thinking
> of doing the hack to it that adds a hard disk drive. I'm glad he has
> the time. This was 5 years old.
>
> Jerry:
>
> I know you keep saying there are no standards for the drives, but
> there are standards for the discs and you include the implication
> that is bad. If the frive will reproduce disks that are at the edge
> of their standard tolerances, isn't that adequate standard for a
> drive? IOW you make a just-in-spec disk and if the drive can read it,
> the drive is OK. What am I missing here other than the difficulty of
> making a just-in-spec disk.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
> Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Vignettes
> Media web: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
> Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
There are nearly 100 separate requirements for media, many with both minimum
and maximum limits. Making "just-in-spec" discs for each one would be
prohibitively expensive. A few limit discs can be purchased from Philips.
Jerry