What's Better? Standard or Archival DVD's?


What About "Gold Archival"?

First off, there is no standardized test to determine how long blank DVD(-/+)/CD(-/+) R's.  Whenever you see any business advertising that they are using discs that have been proven to last for "100 years", this should be taken with a 'grain of salt', as the disc manufacturer was only using their own testing apparatus'.

Archival DVD's and CD's, while they do contain metal in the disc, are practically the worst of the worst, since the manufacturer only used half the amount of metal as in a pressed DVD/CD, and they only use half the chemical layer as in a regular DVD-/CD-R.  As a result these discs are more prone to DVD-/CD-Rot.  Also for Archival discs, the laser never once touches the metal, so nothing is burnt into the metal, so once you have a hole in the chemical layer, you've lost the information!  There is no way to get this back.  Plus, with Archival DVD, the metal, in theory, is suppose to give a better reflection of the laser than non-metallic discs.  This is simply not true, it is actually the opposite, as the chemical layer basically acts like petroleum jelly on a mirror: it dulls the reflection.

With a standard pressed disc (such as the pre-recorded CD's and DVD's that you buy at the local department store) the information is actually etched onto the plastic of the disc (this is called "Replication"), while the metal just acts as a mirror for the laser; for one disc with just 2 hours of video, you'd be looking at a price in the five digits.  In this instance the metal does reflect the laser, while with "Gold" or "Platinum" Archival discs the metal is a poor reflector, due to the burnable chemical being in front of the metal; you might as well be trying to reflect light with a mirror covered in petroleum jelly!

This is why at Trevor Thurlow Productions I only use Verbatim AZO DVD-R's for recording your special tapes and events.   
Copyright 2013 Trevor Thurlow Productions