The Library of Congress and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have published the results of a long-term study on the stability of optical media (CDs and DVDs) exposed to various levels of light, humidity, and high temperatures [105k PDF link] in the September/October NIST Journal of Research.
Preliminary results show a lot of variation in long-term stability of DVDs and CDs, primarily due to differences in quality of types of dye used in manufacturing media. But as the authors point out, although they were able to identify specific types of dye that appear to be more stable, they can't recommend specific products (and it's difficult to find out what specific dye composition is used in any specific product).
[via Macintouch]
Posted by johndan at December 21, 2004 12:15 AM | TrackBack