DVD archiving / useful info

Bob Bell

I was looking around for DVD archiving info and what harm, if any, a felt tipped sharpie will do to a CD / DVD. I started searching and came upon this site / page:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

I think it is pretty interesting that there are different grades of media (assuming this is all true) and most of DVD's are TDK, HP, and Imation. The TDK's are good quality but the HP and Imation are 3rd, which worries me.

So I started at the list of DVD's at the top and searched for comments and Taiyo Yuden comes up a lot as very high quality, so I just purchased a 100 pack of them to make 3rd/4th copies (2 copies on DVD and 1 on HD's, although I only have like the last year on HD's) of pictures. I think I have been burning DVD's for 2 years or so, so I will find out how well they are holding up.

So I continued looking for Sharpie info, and some sites say Sharpies are fine and some say Sharpies have a new version that are CD/DVD safe. I keep reading and came across on what the gov thinks for Libraries.

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf

Im curious what everyone is using for Media and how you are labeling discs?

David_S85

Bob, I am moving to DVD now from CD's. Those printable versions with the white side (while they're very cheap) seem durable on the printable side. Instead of any sort of pen or marker, I have been using a common pencil, as there's no ink to leak through. I doubt anybody is going to break into the house, find an eraser, and rub out my writing, so I feel that's a fair bet.

The disks themselves I don't trust! I have been burning them at the slowest speed, as I've read that the burning is more reliable that way - but am unsure if that's really true. I burn more than one copy if the pictures are something important.

Richard

David_S85 wrote:

The disks themselves I don't trust! I have been burning them at the slowest speed, as I've read that the burning is more reliable that way - but am unsure if that's really true. I burn more than one copy if the pictures are something important.

I remember reading on a tech BB that while it seems to be intuitively appealing, burning at the slowest speed is not necessarily a good idea. The hardware is optimized to work at its rated speed. Going slower than the optimal speed may produce as many errors as going faster. FWIW.

In any event, keeping at least two copies is always prudent. I keep one copy on CD and another on DVD at the moment, but as soon as the "next big thing" comes along I will migrate to that, keep the DVDs and stop making CDs.

Cheers,

Lyle C

Great information Bob. I just began making the move to DVD, but I have been concerned over the quality and longevity of some of these disks. This helps clear some things up. Placed an order this morning for a spindle of Taiyo Yuden DVD disks.

Lyle
www.countryroadsphoto.com