Re: [ARSCLIST] Storing Mini-Discs

["Richard L. Hess" <ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lou,

You raise good points about the M-O structure of 
MDs. I hope I was careful to address the player 
issue in my original post. Your friend may be 
correct, but I believe most life-time analysis 
has been done on industrial M-Os not MDs. I'm 
sure not trusting my stuff to MD. I consider it a 
capture medium, not an archival medium.

There have been both manufacturer and independent 
testing about the longevity of the Phthalocyanine 
dye used in the MAM-A discs. It is claimed that this is a Mitsui patent.

I suspect that the writing drive is an issue for 
both MDs and CDs. Jerry can chime in with more details here.

I'm using managed disc drives for much of my 
current storage and I am a fan of managed storage 
in the data domain. I am not a fan of dedicated 
formats in general for archiving. I make an 
exception for gold audio CD-Rs as they are 
readable in computers as well as audio players.

Cheers,

Richard

At 06:11 PM 10/13/2005, you wrote:
> Richard, I can't speak to the future players, 
> but a radio friend of mine thinks that MDs are 
> MORE archival as they have magneto-optical 
> recording and may last longer than the 
> only-chemical CDs. He took the time and trouble 
> to transfer 20 years of weekly programs to MD 
> for the permanent archive on this theory.
>
> Do you think he might be wrong? Discounting the 
> availability of players, for the sake of 
> discussion. You are probably right about that 
> the way things are going with the players though nothing is gospel any more.
>
> Thanks for your opinion!
>
> Lou Judson ? Intuitive Audio
> 415-883-2689
>
> On Oct 13, 2005, at 1:59 PM, Richard L. Hess wrote:
>
> > Digitally transfer them to two CD-Rs and store 
> > the CD-Rs. Or better yet, if you have a managed 
> > digital archive that can accept them, store them in that.
> >
> > I don't think many of us think that MDs are 
> > archival. I wouldn't worry about an archival 
> > box for a medium that probably isn't archival. 
> > I don't think we can expect the long-term 
> > availability of MD players as compared to CD players.
> >
> > Good luck!
> >
> > Richard

Richard L. Hess                              richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada             http://www.richardhess.com/
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm