Blu Ray longevity - UPDATE

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Several years ago now I tested the longevity of writeable DVDs and found that DVDs exposed to daylight and sun for 3 months on a windowsill became completely corrupt.

Since 2011 I've been trying out a similar test on a Blu Ray disc.

On NOV 2011 I burnt a Blu Ray disc with episodes of a TV series and also included an MD5 hash test file.

This was a VERBATIM METAL NITRIDE DISK NOT A DYE BASED DISK since I assume such disks will still be subject to the same corruption as DVDs since they use the same type of dye.

It was left in a folder for about 2 years (basically cos I forget it!) then when I found it again I checked it and it was perfect (apart from 2 very small discolorations on it).

Then I fixed the plastic case to a window so the daylight and the sun could shine on it all day long (when we had sun of course).

That was about 5 months ago so the disk has been subjected to varying daylight and a fairly good amount of direct sunlight.

And the results - well so far NO PROBLEMS!

All files check out as good according to the MD5 hash and they also play normally.

So if you want archival quality and an added backup medium it seems that Blu Ray Metal Nitride disks can provide it.
 
Good to hear. I've noticed a lot of older writable CDs becoming rusty and the writable material actually separating from the plastic disc.
 
I must admit I've never had problems with ordinary writable DVDs or CDs when they're stored in proper CD or DVD folders most problems seem to occur when they're just left lying around and exposed to the environment.

On the other hand I've found that cheap unbranded ones can often get corrupted no matter how they're stored so I only use branded ones now.

yup the construction of BD is supposed to make it less vulnerable to environmental changes such as damp and sunlight compared to DVD

It may well make them less vulnerable to damp but if they use dyes then I would think that they would be just as vulnerable to corruption over time as DVDs.

For any rate since the two types now seem to be relatively the same in price I will certainly only be using the metal type for any backups.

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I keep my backup CDs and DVDs in a drawer.

They go back around 14 years and so far are still perfectly fine!
 
You're lucky, I believe the tech spec for cd and DVD lifespan tops out at 10 years

Sorry, I got that wrong as I was typing on the ipad last night.

Now checked and it was 2002, so a mere 12 years, so far:rolleyes:
 
Good to hear, because CDs and DVDs have crap archival qualities. I'd never trust a dye based optical disk.
 
Just saying what the specs say.

But like everything I'm sure you have a second copy of the data.

Definitely 5 but maybe even 6 or more copies, depends if I have older HDDs in another drawer.

Mind you, not sure if the drawer HDDs still work as I reckon those will be more chancey!
 
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Good to hear, because CDs and DVDs have crap archival qualities. I'd never trust a dye based optical disk.

Will try and remember to tell you if they still work in another 3 years or so.

Kept out of the light, I'm pretty sure they will soldier on!
 
Some of mine have... some haven't. It depends on dye substrate type I think... and that can even vary among the same brand over time. Too much like pot luck for me.
 
BR may fare better than DVDs but the format is not very popular and potentially going to meet the fate of floppy disk. That is at least if you believe Apple, Google or one of the tablet makers... I haven't been able to read any optical disc for the last 1.5 years. In a few years optical disc readers will become a specialist item. The readers in TVs will be only good for movies... and even that will give way to downloads soon.

I'd stick with good old (well, the new) USB 3 keys, HDDs or SD cards for archival purposes.

I hope nobody here is keeping their only copy of files on a DVD. I'd make a HDD copy right now if I were you.
 
USB keys are (in my experience) suitable for temporary file transfer only - I've had several become unreadable over the years.

With HDDs, they will probably last a lot longer if you can connect them at least once every 6 months. Capacitors of certain types need to be re-formed every so often or they can deteriorate beyond recovery, plus it may reduce the likelihood of spindles becoming stuck.
 
I have now finished the longevity test and it has PASSED with flying colours.

For the last 10 months it has been subjected to both heat (in the plastic container) and very bright sunlight for several hours each day.

The MD5 hash has declared that all the files on the Disc are uncorrupted and readable so there seems to be little point in continuing the test.

So a resounding win for Metal Nitride discs in the longevity stakes.
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Thanks for this.
 
Hello to all.
Petersmart and others that can help me, i apologize if I reactivate a very old 3d, but if possible I would like to know if after 10 years the say blu ray is now still readable, for me it is of vital importance as now that blu ray costs like DVDs at parity of GB archived, if I can save everything on blu ray instead of continuing with DVD.
Thank you so much for everything.
 
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DVD update, I had forgotten about this.

20 years and still going strong!

Despite what neil-g said!
 
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On CD-R and DVD-R longevity tests, see this blog: https://blog.dshr.org/2021/08/optical-media-durability-update.html

"I'm getting good data from CD-Rs more than 17 years old, and from DVD-Rs nearly 15 years old. Your mileage may vary."

"They are stored in a cupboard, so in the dark, but no other special storage precautions."

"One thing I see I failed to mention in the posts is that I always verify the checksums immediately after I write the DVD. Maybe every 6 months or so a DVD ends up in the trash because it fails this test and I have to write a replacement. This happened today.

It might be the case that I'm seeing better longevity than others because they aren't doing this test and rejecting disks with infant mortality."
 
I too store them in the dark, light is a killer.
 
i thought about BR for storing a lot of my ripped film archive, a film is about 8gb, what is the cost per disk now?
 
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