OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed

Some of the older re-writeable discs weren't that stable.
I had one Memorex CDRW disc that went "transparent" in
about three months. Of course Memorex doesn't make the
media, and just bought lots of blanks from the lowest
bidder. Verbatim on the other hand, seemed to test what
they were selling, and the media tags would indicate
quality sources for the discs. Quality sources
might be Taiyo Yuden or Ritek.

There used to be two forums that did nothing but
discuss optical discs and burning, and you could
get good info there on which medias were good and
bad, as they'd do error scans to see which is which.

*******

The write-once stuff should be more stable.

There's no reason a -R won't work.

It has a lot to do with chemistry.

Paul

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

On 5/11/2018 8:45 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed


I take old discs that I no longer want, drill a very small hole near the
edge, and hang them with kite twine from the branches of my fruit trees
just before the fruit is ripe. As the discs turn and flash in the
sunlight, they tend to keep birds away from my fruit.

--
David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

First you say you do, and then you don't.
And then you say you will, but then won't.
You're undecided now, so what're you goin' to do?
From a 1950s song
That should be Donald Trump's theme song. He obviously
does not understand "commitment", whether it is about
policy or marriage.

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

David E. Ross wrote:
On 5/11/2018 8:45 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed


I take old discs that I no longer want, drill a very small hole near the
edge, and hang them with kite twine from the branches of my fruit trees
just before the fruit is ripe. As the discs turn and flash in the
sunlight, they tend to keep birds away from my fruit.


Cool! That's a nice change from using them as coasters.

Ed

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

Paul wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago,
Windows 95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored
in a back bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've
been examining these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable;
and that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed

Some of the older re-writeable discs weren't that stable.
I had one Memorex CDRW disc that went "transparent" in
about three months. Of course Memorex doesn't make the
media, and just bought lots of blanks from the lowest
bidder. Verbatim on the other hand, seemed to test what
they were selling, and the media tags would indicate
quality sources for the discs. Quality sources
might be Taiyo Yuden or Ritek.

There used to be two forums that did nothing but
discuss optical discs and burning, and you could
get good info there on which medias were good and
bad, as they'd do error scans to see which is which.

*******

The write-once stuff should be more stable.

There's no reason a -R won't work.

It has a lot to do with chemistry.

Â*Â* Paul

Have you ever seen "Logan's Run"? I was impressed by the spinning
storage discs, and it made me think about ancient papyrus, vellum, paper.
Medieval monks had a bad habit of reusing classical manuscripts, after
scraping them. Modern technology is finding all kinds of things behind
psalters and prayer-books. Boccaccio and Petrarch wrote about well-worn
paths between monastery libraries and the scriptoria. Umberto Eco's "The
Name of The Rose" revolves around something similar. Euripides wrote 95
plays, and 18 survive; while many famous Greek and Roman writers survive
by one manuscript alone, often dug up in some place where there was an
earthquake or eruption.

Still, I guess that paper has greater longevity than laser-burnt discs.

Ed

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

Paul wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed

Some of the older re-writeable discs weren't that stable.
I had one Memorex CDRW disc that went "transparent" in
about three months. Of course Memorex doesn't make the
media, and just bought lots of blanks from the lowest
bidder. Verbatim on the other hand, seemed to test what
they were selling, and the media tags would indicate
quality sources for the discs. Quality sources
might be Taiyo Yuden or Ritek.

There used to be two forums that did nothing but
discuss optical discs and burning, and you could
get good info there on which medias were good and
bad, as they'd do error scans to see which is which.

Were http://www.cdmediaworld.com and
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm the ones?


*******

The write-once stuff should be more stable.

There's no reason a -R won't work.

It has a lot to do with chemistry.

Memorex was an awful brand to me.

I have more problems with burnable DVDs. Many readers can't read my
burned DVDs compared to CDs!

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OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

Ant wrote:


Were http://www.cdmediaworld.com and
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm the ones?

One of them was called cdfreaks, but they changed the site name.
It has reviews and a forum.

https://www.myce.com/review/Plextor-...ing-dvdr_rw-5/

This is another that comes to mind.

http://www.cdrlabs.com/forums/

One thing you'll notice, is they don't seem to care about
their original topics all that much, as burning of optical
media has dropped in popularity. It's also one of the reasons
that my single remaining computer store is stocking "crap"
for media. The Ritek is gone.

Paul

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

On Fri, 11 May 2018 20:32:44 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

David E. Ross wrote:
On 5/11/2018 8:45 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed


I take old discs that I no longer want, drill a very small hole near the
edge, and hang them with kite twine from the branches of my fruit trees
just before the fruit is ripe. As the discs turn and flash in the
sunlight, they tend to keep birds away from my fruit.


Cool! That's a nice change from using them as coasters.

I remember back in the 90's hearing the "coaster" reference being
applied to AOL CDs and bad burns, both of which were fairly common back
then. I set an ice cold beer on an AOL CD and it very quickly became
apparent that optical discs don't make good coasters. So yeah, I fell
for the trick, but just once.

They actually do make good clock faces, though. Clock movements are just
a few dollars, and there's no end to the customizations you can apply.
That, too, is a fad that has come and gone. Flea markets used to be
brimming with CD clocks, but now I can't remember the last time I've
seen one.

--

Char Jackson

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

On Sat, 12 May 2018 02:16:14 -0400, Paul wrote:

Ant wrote:


Were http://www.cdmediaworld.com and
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm the ones?

One of them was called cdfreaks, but they changed the site name.
It has reviews and a forum.

https://www.myce.com/review/Plextor-...ing-dvdr_rw-5/

This is another that comes to mind.

http://www.cdrlabs.com/forums/

One thing you'll notice, is they don't seem to care about
their original topics all that much, as burning of optical
media has dropped in popularity. It's also one of the reasons
that my single remaining computer store is stocking "crap"
for media. The Ritek is gone.

It's almost surprising that they stock any optical media at all. I can't
imagine there's much of a market for it these days.

--

Char Jackson

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

On 05/12/2018 12:58 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

[snip]

It's almost surprising that they stock any optical media at all. I can't
imagine there's much of a market for it these days.

I always see DVD+R at the local Wal-Mart, in spindles of 100 and
sometimes smaller packages as well. They may be putting less out than
they used to, but there's always some there.

BTW, I completely forgot the last time I saw blank T-120 (VHS) or L-750
(Beta) tapes there.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"So, how come there are no "talking snakes" nowadays? ... Because you
are not righteous enough to hear them talk." [Raoul Newton,
net.fundie.idiot]

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

In message , Mark Lloyd
writes:
On 05/12/2018 12:58 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

[snip]

It's almost surprising that they stock any optical media at all. I can't
imagine there's much of a market for it these days.

How things have changed! Here in UK, optical media were at one time a
staple of "computer fairs" - in fact in the north of England, I'd say -
certainly in terms of table area on the stalls - they accounted for more
than 50% at that time. (Such fairs have declined considerably, sadly; I
know of one, on Sundays in Stratford [London, not On Avon], but most
have died out. As has Tottenham Court Road in London.)

I always see DVD+R at the local Wal-Mart, in spindles of 100 and
sometimes smaller packages as well. They may be putting less out than
they used to, but there's always some there.

There are usually some - packs of four or ten - in our poundshops, and
in many supermarkets.

BTW, I completely forgot the last time I saw blank T-120 (VHS) or L-750
(Beta) tapes there.

Me neither. (E180s or 240s I think it was here - Beta died out earlier.
[V2000 never really caught on, which was a pity.])
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go. - Oscar Wilde

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 05/12/2018 12:58 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

[snip]

It's almost surprising that they stock any optical media at all. I can't
imagine there's much of a market for it these days.

I always see DVD+R at the local Wal-Mart, in spindles of 100 and
sometimes smaller packages as well. They may be putting less out than
they used to, but there's always some there.

I bet they're cheap quality too. :(

I recently got cheap priced and sometiemes free blank optical discs from
local estate sales. ;)

--
Quote of the Week: "Cheerios: Hula-hoops for ants." --unknown
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OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote:
In message , Mark Lloyd
writes:
On 05/12/2018 12:58 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

[snip]

It's almost surprising that they stock any optical media at all. I can't
imagine there's much of a market for it these days.

How things have changed! Here in UK, optical media were at one time a
staple of "computer fairs" - in fact in the north of England, I'd say -
certainly in terms of table area on the stalls - they accounted for more
than 50% at that time. (Such fairs have declined considerably, sadly; I
know of one, on Sundays in Stratford [London, not On Avon], but most
have died out. As has Tottenham Court Road in London.)

I still remember all those floppy disks in stores and fairs. :P
--
Quote of the Week: "Cheerios: Hula-hoops for ants." --unknown
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit-
| |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link.
\ _ /
( )

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

In article , lid says...

Ed Cryer wrote:
I've been sorting out a box of old discs from twenty years ago, Windows
95 days. There were about a hundred in two CD wallets, stored in a back
bedroom, unheated in winter. Ten of them I kept, and I've been examining
these on this Win7 computer.
Everything I've tried is readable, utterly readable and executable; and
that includes CD-Rs and DVD-Rs burnt elsewhere.
¡Viva Win7! ¡Y vivant discos viejos!

Ed

Some of the older re-writeable discs weren't that stable.
I had one Memorex CDRW disc that went "transparent" in
about three months. Of course Memorex doesn't make the
media, and just bought lots of blanks from the lowest
bidder. Verbatim on the other hand, seemed to test what
they were selling, and the media tags would indicate
quality sources for the discs. Quality sources
might be Taiyo Yuden or Ritek.

There used to be two forums that did nothing but
discuss optical discs and burning, and you could
get good info there on which medias were good and
bad, as they'd do error scans to see which is which.

*******

The write-once stuff should be more stable.

There's no reason a -R won't work.

It has a lot to do with chemistry.

Paul

Well I for one am counting on cd's and dvd's to last a very long time if
properly stored. I have literally thousands of them as I make backup
copies of pretty much everything passes thru my hands. I also have a
very very large library of music and videos all backed up onto optical
disk that are backups basicly to the two copies I keep of most of it on
portable/external separate hard disks (movies also get burned as
standard playable dvd). The optical disks are kept stored in cases in a
cabinet except for the most common ones used a lot, e.g. Windows
install/backup disks etc. I validate every disk when burned and I have
yet to have one I can't read ... yet.

I exclusively use writable disks for backup. I find re-writables can't
be trusted and I use them only for my hardware dvd recorder for
"taping' tv. If I want to keep that I rip it using the pc.

OT; old CDs and DVDs
 

On Sun, 13 May 2018 02:31:44 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Well I for one am counting on cd's and dvd's to last a very long time if
properly stored. I have literally thousands of them as I make backup
copies of pretty much everything passes thru my hands. I also have a
very very large library of music and videos all backed up onto optical
disk that are backups basicly to the two copies I keep of most of it on
portable/external separate hard disks (movies also get burned as
standard playable dvd). The optical disks are kept stored in cases in a
cabinet except for the most common ones used a lot, e.g. Windows
install/backup disks etc. I validate every disk when burned and I have
yet to have one I can't read ... yet.

I exclusively use writable disks for backup. I find re-writables can't
be trusted and I use them only for my hardware dvd recorder for
"taping' tv. If I want to keep that I rip it using the pc.

+1 on everything you wrote, except that I no longer use CDs,
DVDs are cheaper. I go by brand names, like HP, Philips and Sony and
very, very rarely get a coaster.
[]'s
--
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We have a new policy - Google 2012