How long will our Blu-ray Discs last ?

[johndoyle123]

A recent Canadian “study” has shown they believe the top end life span of a pressed blu ray disc to be 10-20 years. Despite us having numerous manufacturer stress tests and private aging study’s showing it being more likely 50-150+

https://www.canada.ca/en/conservatio...-cds-dvds.html

https://www.filmstories.co.uk/featur...blu-rays-last/

Where do you stand on this ? How long do you think your discs last

[bhampton]

I’m thinking at this point they have a good chance of outlasting me.

[RalphoR]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I’m thinking at this point they have a good chance of outlasting me.

Seriously, if you think about it that's all they need to do

[Ricky G]

Depends on how you treat them and store them. Don't let your kids use them as Frisbees or leave the discs out on your coffee table like they're coasters and they'll be around forever ever.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by johndoyle123

A recent Canadian “study” has shown they believe the top end life span of a pressed blu ray disc to be 10-20 years.

Way to many variables to predict a given life span. I have some CD's from 1983 (37 years old) and they still play just fine.

Burned disc life span is another subject.

[CSM101]

Most of my discs are just fine. I have a bunch of burned music discs that are over 20 years old and no issues. I have a few blurays that just stopped working. Hellboy 2, Enter The Dragon (first issue) , and most recently, Saw. I even have a few bronzed up discs that are still working. I personally think most of my discs will probably outlast me.

[jkoffman]

The Canadian study shared here details recordable discs, not pressed. There's absolutely no info about the 10-20 year lifespan they suggest. And the FilmStories author's "study": "It took me only 13 discs to find one that would no longer work at all, and 11 more to find another." Come on.

I was a teen in the 80s and just the right age to be an early adopter of CDs. I've worked in music stores, had my own online media resale business starting with ebay in 1998, and worked in the music business for 30 years now. In all that time of handling at least 10,000 CDs, I could count on one hand the CDs I've seen that have literal rot, and usually of known titles from the 80s. Of my own CDs -- at its height, I had about 3000 -- and 2000 DVDs and BDs, I've never had a single one deteriorate or become defective. Do I think they'll last "forever"? Of course not, but carefully stored and only removed when playing is the bar we should be judging by.

[Number 6]

Originally Posted by johndoyle123

A recent Canadian “study” has shown they believe the top end life span of a pressed blu ray disc to be 10-20 years. Despite us having numerous manufacturer stress tests and private aging study’s showing it being more likely 50-150+

https://www.canada.ca/en/conservatio...-cds-dvds.html

https://www.filmstories.co.uk/featur...blu-rays-last/

Where do you stand on this ? How long do you think your discs last

I have many DVDs that I purchased in the 1990's that are as good today as they were when I purchased them. Given that, if you use and store your Blu-rays properly they'll last a very long time.

[johndoyle123]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

The Canadian study shared here details recordable discs, not pressed. There's absolutely no info about the 10-20 year lifespan they suggest. And the FilmStories author's "study": "It took me only 13 discs to find one that would no longer work at all, and 11 more to find another." Come on.

I was a teen in the 80s and just the right age to be an early adopter of CDs. I've worked in music stores, had my own online media resale business starting with ebay in 1998, and worked in the music business for 30 years now. In all that time of handling at least 10,000 CDs, I could count on one hand the CDs I've seen that have literal rot, and usually of known titles from the 80s. Of my own CDs -- at its height, I had about 3000 -- and 2000 DVDs and BDs, I've never had a single one deteriorate or become defective. Do I think they'll last "forever"? Of course not, but carefully stored and only removed when playing is the bar we should be judging by.

It mentions pressed discs in the bottom chart

But yeah I can’t find any scientific studies or ageing tests showing or backing it up
Everything I’ve found has shown disc media lasts much longer than predicted in the case of burnt discs

And exceptions are made for bad production and bronzing discs etc

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by johndoyle123

It mentions pressed discs in the bottom chart

Yes, I saw that, and as I said, there is no further info about how they arrived at that in the study.

[BijouMan]

(Ultra HD) Blu-ray Discs should last forever if they were well-manufactured and are well-kept. Believe it or not, there is a type of BD-R called the "M-DISC" that is rated to last 1,000 years. If a disc "rots," that disc was poorly made.

[chriscreep23]

Originally Posted by johndoyle123

It mentions pressed discs in the bottom chart

But yeah I can’t find any scientific studies or ageing tests showing or backing it up
Everything I’ve found has shown disc media lasts much longer than predicted in the case of burnt discs

And exceptions are made for bad production and bronzing discs etc

Here's a a study/stress test article that someone on this site posted yesterday. The article made me more worried about the stability and longevity of blu-rays. The guy actually performed stress tests under certain conditions and blu-rays rated very poorly. In fact if you look at table 5, single layer read-only blu-rays scored even poorly than single layer read-only DVDs which means that even read-only DVDs have higher longevity than read-only blu-rays.

"The most recent generation of optical disc media available is the Blu-ray format. Blu-rays offer significantly more storage capacity than compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs) and thus are an attractive option for the storage of large image or audio and video files. However, uncertainty exists on the stability and longevity of Blu-ray discs and the literature does not contain much information on these topics. In this study, the stabilities of Blu-ray formats such as read-only movie discs as well as many different brands of recordable and erasable media were evaluated. Testing involved the exposure of samples to conditions of 80 °C and 85 % relative humidity for intervals up to 84 days. Overall, the stability of the Blu-ray formats was poor with many discs significantly degraded after only 21 days of accelerated ageing. In addition to large increases in error rates, many discs showed easily identifiable visible degradation in several different forms. In a comparison with other optical disc formats examined previously, Blu-ray stability ranked very low. Other data from the study indicated that recording Blu-ray media with low initial error rates is challenging for some brands at this time, which is a factor that ultimately affects longevity."

https://www.semanticscholar.org/pape...68bd1c8d6663ab

[chriscreep23]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

Yes, I saw that, and as I said, there is no further info about how they arrived at that in the study.

Here's how

https://www.semanticscholar.org/pape...68bd1c8d6663ab

[johndoyle123]

Originally Posted by chriscreep23

Here's how

https://www.semanticscholar.org/pape...68bd1c8d6663ab

As I’ve said before these are very aggressive tests being performed putting the medium in a process that realistically no disc will be up against.

It’s semantics, countless tests have been done prior to this by manufacturers etc and other “scientific studies” have shown replicated media and burnt media lasting far beyond estimated life spans

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by chriscreep23

Testing involved the exposure of samples to conditions of 80 °C and 85 % relative humidity for intervals up to 84 days. Overall, the stability of the Blu-ray formats was poor with many discs significantly degraded after only 21 days of accelerated ageing.

So what exactly is the fact that Blu-ray discs fail after 21 days of 80 degrees Celsius heat (which is 176 degrees Fahrenheit) supposed to prove?

[chriscreep23]

Originally Posted by johndoyle123

As I’ve said before these are very aggressive tests being performed putting the medium in a process that realistically no disc will be up against.

It’s semantics, countless tests have been done prior to this by manufacturers etc and other “scientific studies” have shown replicated media and burnt media lasting far beyond estimated life spans

Thanks for your reply. One final question. If you exclude environmental conditions, does frequent playback of a blu-ray pressed disc result in data loss or deterioration of the disc? Are Dvd's better in that department?

[johndoyle123]

Originally Posted by chriscreep23

Thanks for your reply. One final question. If you exclude environmental conditions, does frequent playback of a blu-ray pressed disc result in data loss or deterioration of the disc? Are Dvd's better in that department?

I’m not sure on this one tbh

[Anthony P]

1) I think they will outlast me.
2) that study is for recordable media so it does not apply to prerecorded
3) personal experience

a) I have BDs since 2006 (when it launched)
b) I have DVDs that are over 20 years old
c) I have CDs that are over 35 years old

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

So what exactly is the fact that Blu-ray discs fail after 21 days of 80 degrees Celsius heat (which is 176 degrees Fahrenheit) supposed to prove?

don't use it to cook your pizza on for movie night (or you might not be able to watch the film afterwards)

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by chriscreep23

Thanks for your reply. One final question. If you exclude environmental conditions, does frequent playback of a blu-ray pressed disc result in data loss or deterioration of the disc? Are Dvd's better in that department?

No. playback has no effect on a pressed disk.

That being said the more you manipulate the disk the more chances of fingerprints or scratches....