Hey, I was just going through the http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html and saw the longevity our dvdr's have... I was kinda hoping to inherit my collection to my children, and them to theirs.. I wonder if one of our legally acquired dvd's goes bad, will they replace it for free? I wonder if my dvdr's will go bad in my lifetime... or my regular cdr's... hmm.... the first cdr I burnt was in 1997... maybe I'll check it every few years..

I'll give you my 2 cents worth.
True story:
My wife bought "Toy Story" (1 and 2 ), and about 6 months after she bought them, I was going to do a backup. Toy Story 1 backed up perfectly. When I went to backup Toy Story 2, the media had a defect, and I couldn't read it
This DVD had played previously, but not anymore. There are no scratches on the surface at all, but if you look at the data side viewing it from an angle, you can clearly see the smeared surface internally. We lost our money
So now, EVERY DVD we buy, I back it up.
How long will the medias last Good question
If the DVD manufacturers are creating crappy materials, 10 years from now DVDs will be worthless due to humidity and/or other atmospheric conditions.
Which brings me to this, again as I have previously posted: I have VHS tapes dated 1980, and they still play
With a lot of dropouts and noise, etc. but they still play after 20+ years.
Will DVD still play 20 years from now Probably not, as they will probably have mold on them, and you wont be able to see a thing.
Welcome to the digital world
Gives you something to think about, doesn't it

-kwag

Damn this is scary...

__________________
j3llyG0053

CD average life is 25 years. I guess DVD is the same.
I already have a DVD taht I can't read anymore. Of course it's due to a bad making but..;

All DVD are subject to the laserdisc owner well known phenomena called "laser rot". That is a rotten of the metalic material of the CD (the one taht gives the golden color. Normally there is a protective cover on this but the oxygen slowly migrate throught this and reach the metal.

Note a diff. witn VHS : a tape is not hurt if you do not use it. A DVD is hurt only by age. Whatever you do (or not do) with it.

Maybe I should design "The KVHS Machine"
Where we compress with our methods, and then copy to a D-VHS tape.



-kwag

Very soon 20H of quasi-DVD quality video on a 4H D-VHS tape

Not kidding
http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.p...JVC+HMDH40000U

Edit:

"<Main characteristics of D-VHS>
1. Enables bit stream recording of digital broadcasts, in addition to analog recording of conventional broadcasts."
http://www.jvc-victor.co.jp/english/...r/D-VHS-e.html

So we can "KVCD" and stream our data straight into the tape via Firewire
I wonder how many hours we could get on that tape

-kwag

wow! that thing's a beast!! about our media going bad... I must admit that I buy very, very, I mean VERY cheap media (fry's GQ stuff), since it has always worked great for me I have been very happy with it, but.. it's pretty scary that it could all go to waist in a few years... so maybe I should consider spending a bit more on my media.... government should make the movie (music) industry lower their prices so it could accomodate the price of a blank media disk