How long will CD-R's & DVD-R's last?

Marco I was hoping you would address my comment on demagnetizing a CD-R audio disk after recording on it. Why would spinning it in my Bedini Clarifier degrade the sound? Any thoughts....

I've never thought to even try that. I stopped using my Bedini a while ago when I moved and put it in storage. I'll see if I can find it and give it a try. Interesting observation though. No idea what's going on except to say that the recordable media is different from the factory media. Perhaps the explanation for your results lie in that difference. Is it only true right after you burn the CD, or does it hold true to any CD-R/RW at any time after it has been burned?

Marco

I have had them fail.. This was not due to just useage or age, but Burned discs will make it about 2 years if in environmental conditions.. I had several in the car, from 2 winters and 2 summers, they will become very problematic, regardless of what media.. Standard CD from the store have sat in the car 10 years without failure, now of course I am sure any direct sunlight could quickly change that, but its pretty much a guarantee it will occur on CDR just from temp changes and moisture I belive. Something happens either they de-laminate, or All of a sudden posses increased amounts of Jitter and or Warp in the disc itself, they will develop skips, and sometimes not even read after a while even if protected from direct sunlight I have experienced, but for 20 cents a disc, I could care less than having a 20 dollar cd get tossed around and scuffed up in the car. However I can not comment on kept in a environment controled area like the home, they might be okay.

I was a poster in the original thread refered to by the creator of this thread. I did point out that commercially produced CDs use a stamped foil layer where CD-R/RWs use an ink layer. That is why commercially duplicated CDs outlast CD-R/RWs. Supermediastore is a great source for blank media and accessiories. I had horrible results with Maxell CD-Rs, and have had to burn copies of all of them onto other brands of CD-Rs in order to get my CD players to read them properly. My best results, both with a computer burner and a stand alone recorder, have been with CD-Rs from Taiyo Yuden, Fuji and Phillips. Oddly, Mitsui CD-Rs worked perfectly on my computer and on a Pioneer CD recorder, but had a roughly 30% failure rate on my Marantz CDR-632 recorder. I will again recommend that either the analog source be retained, or that you copy to a fresh CD-R every few years. It takes a few minutes and costs 20 - 50 cents, depending on the media. Remember to date your CD-Rs!