Richard wrote:
4) All RW media (DVD-RW DVD+RW CD-RW) have poor
archival life.
Think about it: with RW, instead of burning a pit in the data
layer, you are fooling around with glossy or matte finish
depending on how quickly a melted liquid re-freezes. Official
tests, and my own tests, show poor life. A little sunlight-UV
can erase it.
It was my understanding (perhaps wrong?) that RW media uses a phase
change to store the data, and that it takes significantly more energy
to induce the phase change than to induce a chemical change in dye
for write-once media. That's why it can't be written as quickly.
If it really works that way, one would reasonably expect RW media to
have *better* longevity than write-once media.
So is my premise wrong? Does rewritable media not use a phase change?
Or is the activation energy comparable or lower than that for write-once
media?
My least favorite factory is CMC Magnetics
They seem to make about the worst CD media, so it's unsurprising
that they make poor DVD media.
I think Pioneer and Verbatim buy their media from
the good Japanese companies, Mitsubishi, Taiyo Yuden, and Mitsumi.
By "Mistumi" you must have meant "Mitsui"? For CD media, Taiyo Yuden
and Mitsui are definitely the best.
TDK seems to be only advertised brand that makes their
own
I used to buy TDK CD-R media at Costco because it was made by
Taiyo-Yuden. Then they switched to CMC Magnetics, and after
using one spindle of that (with >50% reject rate), I refuse to
ever buy media from them again.
I'm surprised that TDK would make their own DVD media when they don't
make their own CD-R media. More likely they're contracting out
manufacture and getting the vendor to mark the metadata as TDK.
Eric