AFAIK the old Kodak Gold CD's were supposed to last 50 years. Pity they took them off the market for marketing reasons (b/c too many cheap cd's on the market.) The BASF CD's (blue I think?) are also supposed to have an extended life. At the other end of the spectrum there were the Taiwanese Princo CD's where the TOC (Table Of Contents) which is the directory that tells the reader where to locate the info./data & is located within the 1st section of the disk, were known to start corroding in under 12 months. Princo were sued & went out of business. But the co. has started up again I notice .. perhaps by new owners I don't know.
My recommendation for both CD's & DVD's is to go to cd/dvd clubs/forums & ask for the most reliable & recommended ones. These will not be your el cheapo brands. If you want a cd/dvd to only last a couple of years then get the cheapest. If you want it to last, then get the better known & recommended ones .. pay a little more. Personally I use Verbatim dvd's. I found TDK hold slightly less & are less reliable & some now having read problems. For cd's I use TDK gold but ... different people will recommend different ones. It may also depend on what's easily available in your area.
By the way, Taiwan does not have quality control on their products like in other countries & I found disks from China have also been poor. |