[78-L] "archival" CDs?

[fnarf at comcast.net]

CDs are obsolete NOW, let alone in 300 years. If it's still around then, you won't be able to find a player for it. Might as well stock up on old 8-inch floppy disks.

The information on CDs, being in a digital format, is quite independent of the media. The only real archival format for CD data is electronic, i.e., computer hard disk, with backups onto a variety of media as technology changes (Ultrium backup tapes, for instance or even internet backup). If you want it in 300 years, CDs will be about as relevant as cuneiform tablets -- and so will today's hard disks and backup tapes. If your archivist is expecting to be able to pull your media out of a drawer in 300 years and play it, he or she is dreaming.

I'm pretty skeptical of any long-term advantage from "gold" CDs, anyways. It sounds like marketing-speak to me, along the lines of the green marker pens and the directional speaker wire.

Because of the electronic nature of the equipment, even in 50 years, archaic digital music formats like CDs will be much less usable than 78s or other grooved records. Acoustic wind-up phonos, or even older electric turntables and amps, much easier to keep alive than a CD player or other circuit-board gear.

--
Steve.

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Rodger Holtin <rjh334578 at yahoo.com>
> Thanks, David - anybody ever used any of these?� Burn time the same or are they 
> one-to-one?
> �
> OK, I knew they wouldn't be cheap, but 300 year life span?� Did they not say 
> similar things in the days of LP records that would "never become obsolete"?� I 
> know obsolete is not the same as anticipated time of deterioration, but c'mon, 
> who really has any authority to make such claims about anything?!?
> 
> Rodger
> 
> For Best Results use Victor Needles.
> 
> .
> 
> --- On Thu, 1/29/09, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> 
> From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] "archival" CDs?
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 3:49 PM
> 
> Try these guys..
> http://www.american-digital.com/prodsite/default.asp?source=20090129
> Not cheap (at least on the one gold product I see there) but I find them good 
> to deal with.
> 
> dl
> 
> Rodger Holtin wrote:
> > I've recently transferred some reels to digital for the university
> where I work and the archivist says she wants them on GOLD CDs as they are
> "archival quality."
> >  
> > Since they don't carry those at CheapIsUs Office Supply or Radio
> Shark, this is new to me.
> >  
> > True?
> > 
> > Rodger
> > 
> > For Best Results use Victor Needles.
> > 
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