Archive for the ‘Recordable DVDs’ Category
Archive media, what does that mean?
Will I be around for 300 years?
It's an excellent question and more complicated then just the survival of the optical disc (or me ;) ). Not only does a disc have to survive 300 years but the drive and operating system (OS) that could read the data. So archiving your data, be it pictures or documents, spreadsheets or your audio collection requires careful consideration.
There are two distinctively different coatings for the reflective layer on CD-R and DVD-R & DVD+R blank media. Silver and Gold. These are not colors but actual metals in silver and gold. Each has unique characteristics that effect the playback of the media. Silver has the highest reflectivity and tends to be less problematic in older drives. Gold coatings have slightly less reflectivity and can be difficult to playback in some players.
The reflective layer is how the laser reads the disc. As the laser light beams onto the surface of the CD or DVD it needs to reflect back at the pick-up which shows the variation of pits (or spots) on the disc. This is how your data is 'read'. With recordable discs the pits are created by laser light that causes a change in the recordable dye. If the the reflective layer appears to be similar to the pit then the disc reader skips over the data causing an error in playback. Generally a silver reflective layer is the best surface to go with. However with archival type media the issue becomes oxidation. Silver oxidizes, gold does not.
Oxidation happens when air chemically reacts with the metal. So the silver surface that had the high reflective properties becomes far less reflective then the gold. To the point of being unreadable. Now the question of 300 years does not mean it takes 300 years for this to happen. It actually happens much faster. Depending on the manufacture of the disc and type of disc. CD-R and BD-R use a single layer of polycarbonate. DVD uses a sandwich with the dye and reflective layer in the center. Interestingly enough the DVD has the shortest life span because air can get into the sandwich fairly easily. It's essentially "glued" together and any imperfections can allow air to get in (both the inner hub and outer disc area present an issue). Also air can slowly penetrate the polycarbonate at a higher rate then the disc coatings which are far more 'dense'.
How fast can this happen? days, weeks, months. Several years. Far shorter then 300 years. So if you have important data you want to preserver then Gold surface media is the way to go. The premium manufacturers of Gold archival media is MAM-A and FTI (Falcon). MAM-A offers a wide range of gold surfaces in DVD and CD-R. Currently Falcon offers a product line in CD-R with the gold surface.
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It is interesting to note that Digitimes had an article on Thursday, August 7, 2008 about the Optical Recordable Disc manufacturer, Prodisc, with CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and Dual Layer production lines in Taiwan and mainland China, clarifying it's position about the "rumors" that they were discontinuing optical disc product.
company chairman Ming-fa Lin:
""..Prodisc has invested more than NT$10 billion (about US$300 million) in production equipment of blank CD-R, DVD+/-R discs and has maintained a steady client base consisting of international vendors and overseas retail channels, the reason for not quitting production, Lin explained. Prodisc is negotiating with lending banks to seek their support for the company's planned turnaround and continuing production of optical discs.."
As reported by Digitimes IT news
This is after a report a day before in cens.com that Prodisc would be exiting the Optical business.
Essentially Prodisc is without capital and has plenty of troubles with Philips. It certainly would not be in Philips interest for Prodisc to exit the business although the issue is really with recordable CD production which is not as large a market as DVD which is not under the Philips royalty. The real issue is with the razor thin gross profits that translate into a loss every year and yet CMC, Ritek and Prodisc keep slugging it out. It's hard to imagine how Prodisc can continue but then it's hard to see how any of the Taiwan Optical manufacturers can continue. They continue to drop the cost of blank discs even though the manufacturing costs keep going up leaving no profit at all. They all are scrambling to shift over to other storage products like USB flash and flash cards. Prodisc has been working on a film production project producing brightness enhancement film (BEF) as well as LED lamps and aspherical polycarbonate ophthalmic lenses with a Japanese company, Omron.
These are the major manufacturers of inexpensive recordable CD-R, recordable DVD, and at least for CMC and Ritek: Blu-ray recordable manufacturing. They have driven the market hard in OEM and branded media making it a very non-economical operation. I'm certainly amazed that Prodisc would invest 300 million dollars for production equipment expecting a return on the investment.
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One of the greatest challenges with CD and DVD manufacturers has been the inkjet printable surface of a recordable disc. Many improvements have been made over time but the greatest achievement is the water-resistant surface of Taiyo Yuden. Taiyo Yuden has created a glossy and water resistant printable surface called "Watershield". Imation offers a matte white ink-jet printable surface under the brand name: "AquaGuard". Depending on your requirements each has it's place.
Imation AquaGuard matte surface gives a more muted color spectrum, helping to hide any imperfections in the label image. AquaGuard's surface is very similar to a regular inkjet printable surface in some ways. The product line spans CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and now recordable Blu-ray or BD-R. It features a hub printable inkjet printable disc surface.
Taiyo Yuden's Watershield surface is glossy and dries very quickly. Image resolution is good and color vibrancy is high. It resembles silk-screened (although silk-screen is limited in color mixing) resolution. It's very much the surface everyone compares their attempts at copying Watershield media. Taiyo Yuden manufacturers Watershield in both CD-R and DVD-R and is distributed by Microboards Technologyin the United States. Watershield CD-R and Watershield DVD-R are hub-printable. Taiyo Yuden CDs are 52x and the DVD-R is 16X.
It's important with any print job to make sure one is putting down the right amount of ink and not too much. Many times this contributes to drying issues and in the long run financial issues ;)
It's best to use just the right amount of ink for best results. Too little or two much ink can make even the best printable disc look amateurish.
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CD Dimensions is offering free sample packs of the thermal and inkjet printable CD-R and DVD-R Falcon Media, made by FTI
Free Sample Offer
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There is a new manufacturer of CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, Dual Layer and Blu-ray (BD-R) called Falcon Technologies International.
FTI is a new bred of recordable disc manufacturer with an eye on consistanly superior printable surfaces in both thermal printable and inkjet printable discs.
I have printed a lot of discs and I was blown away by the color reproduction with our HP based CD printer. Unlike Taiyo Yuden, Falcon has a phthalocyanine based dye that appears as a silver gold on the burning side. Swiss and Japanese engineers.
There has not been a lot of choices out there (outside of Taiwan). Don't get me wrong Taiwan is a great but the "big three" have been caught in non-profitable struggle for a few years and consistency has been an issue. All depends on who they are making the product for and at what price. There is a saying in many languages that you can have cheap or you can have quality but you can't have both ;) CMC, Ritek and Prodisc are the "big three". Lot's of second tier manufacturers (smaller operations, some better, some worse). There has been a lot of consolidation in recordable CD-R media and recordable DVD industry. Imation has taken over TDK production except for Blu-ray and the magnetic tape group. Most of the brands you know are actually OEM'd to the big three or a combination of second tier manufacturers in China and Taiwan. It's really an economy of scale solution.
So with great excitement I have been running Falcon Technologies CD and DVD recordables through their paces. It costs a little more and you are not going to find it at your
local paperclip store just yet but if you need some good printable recordable discs then Falcon Media is the way to go. The product is engineered with quality as the number one priority.
Easy to say I know. They really do it.
manufacturer site:
http://www.falconrak.com
Reseller:
http://www.cddimensions.com
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