Showing posts with label optical media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optical media. Show all posts
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
How long do burned CD-R's and DVD-R's last?
Well, I'm not the only one who has wondered this question. And I just happen to have quite a few CD-R's and DVD-R's that I burned in the early 2000's that I can do some quick tests on.
First example is a super cheap CD-R burned for me by Rob DiNapoli at CGE back in 2000. This thing is so cheap that the disc is transparent. Incredibly, it still was readable (at least, I think it is, I didn't actually try copying the file off the hard drive) but as you can see it has some problems toward the end of the disc.
Next is one of the first DVD-R's that I ever burned, back in 2002. This is a TDK with no speed rating (1X?). As you can see, the TDK has trouble at the end of the disc. Is the disc still fully readable? Yes it is, I just copied all the files off of it onto my hard drive without problems.
Finally, here is a Memorex (!!) that I burned in 2003. Lest you think Memorex is good, let me assure that I have lost entire Memorex DVD's where I could not even read a file system. I will never buy Memorex again. Still it's nice to see that some of them can last for 10 years. Note that I did not fill the whole disc; if I had there may have been massive errors at the end.
Conclusion: It seems that the end of the disc tends to go bad a lot. For this reason, I always fill 10% of my burned discs with .PAR2 files so that I can recover from bad sectors.
First example is a super cheap CD-R burned for me by Rob DiNapoli at CGE back in 2000. This thing is so cheap that the disc is transparent. Incredibly, it still was readable (at least, I think it is, I didn't actually try copying the file off the hard drive) but as you can see it has some problems toward the end of the disc.
Next is one of the first DVD-R's that I ever burned, back in 2002. This is a TDK with no speed rating (1X?). As you can see, the TDK has trouble at the end of the disc. Is the disc still fully readable? Yes it is, I just copied all the files off of it onto my hard drive without problems.
Finally, here is a Memorex (!!) that I burned in 2003. Lest you think Memorex is good, let me assure that I have lost entire Memorex DVD's where I could not even read a file system. I will never buy Memorex again. Still it's nice to see that some of them can last for 10 years. Note that I did not fill the whole disc; if I had there may have been massive errors at the end.
Conclusion: It seems that the end of the disc tends to go bad a lot. For this reason, I always fill 10% of my burned discs with .PAR2 files so that I can recover from bad sectors.
Blu-Ray burning and quality testing
Time for some blu-ray disc quality tests on various media.
"While it's still too early to know what "good" results should look like, c't magazine has stated that the average LDC should stay below 13 and the maximum BIS should not exceed 8."
Burner used is a Lite-On iHBS312 (firmware PL16).
"While it's still too early to know what "good" results should look like, c't magazine has stated that the average LDC should stay below 13 and the maximum BIS should not exceed 8."
Burner used is a Lite-On iHBS312 (firmware PL16).
Ok, first up is a PHILIPS 6x branded disc which turns out to be Memorex quality stuff (ie not my favorite). The MID is "CMCMAGBA5".
Best write speed (based on quick FE/TE test, not shown here) : 4X
This is labeled as PHILIPS BD-R 6X . On the side in the fine print, I also see "BR216B10F/27" above the numbers"8670 000 82946". Link on Amazon is here.
Used OptiDriveControl v1.70's "Create test disc" option at 4X.
Used OptiDriveControl v1.70's "Create test disc" option at 4X.
Best write speed (based on quick FE/TE test, not shown here) : 4X
Sony 6x BD-R (amazon link is here).
Used OptiDriveControl v1.70's "Create test disc" option at 4X.
Verbatim 6x DataLifePlus
Conclusion so far:
CMCMAG (ie Memorex, and Philips in this case) still is awful quality stuff.
Sony and Verbatim are decent (but not spectacular). Still, either one appears good enough for archival purposes.
A good resource to see lots of disc quality tests:
http://club.myce.com/f179/
Used OptiDriveControl v1.70's "Create test disc" option at 4X.
Verbatim 6x DataLifePlus
Conclusion so far:
CMCMAG (ie Memorex, and Philips in this case) still is awful quality stuff.
Sony and Verbatim are decent (but not spectacular). Still, either one appears good enough for archival purposes.
A good resource to see lots of disc quality tests:
http://club.myce.com/f179/
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