This week, I received our first delivery of the latest Kodak Archive discs sleeves. These thin synthetic sleeves have been silverised with a metal finish and shield against damaging daylight and heat - the packaging says they are a 'metalised nano layered sleeve and protect against light and temperature and are environmentally friendly. The main two factors to be concerned about when you are observing the archive lifespan of recordable discs and in particular DVD-R, Compact disk and Blu-ray discs - their shelf lifespan and their longevity after burning. You wouldn't want to burn a discs and then pop it securely into a case only to return to it a couple of years later to achieve a few treasured photographs or a backup only to find there were media read errors due to media degradation - no one, and in each occurance this would be more than a disaster, taking all that into account I still have Cds that I burned more than 11 years ago and are still top quality - they were not even specifically archival media and not stored in any particularly special environment!. Media shelf life is something you have little influence over but the numbers of discs sold these days means that every discs you buy should be relatively 'fresh' so to speak. Burning media for archive backup reasons is a different matter from recording for presentation or short term data hand over between locations. The most widespread use of DVD-R currently is for archival of video and audio tracks, photographs, images, etc, this means that you want to be entirely confident the files can be read or played back in the distant future without the discs giving data reading errors. Suppose it or not but the tangible life cycle of a recorded piece of media whether that be a CD, DVD-R or Blu-ray media depends on storage quality, if moisture and particularly heat are not within manufacturers specs disc will weaken and data will be gone as the burning layer on these types of discs is as a rule an organic dye. Then again, the guidelines for tolerance on these specs are fairly tolerant as far as CD, DVD-R and Blu-Ray disc media are concerned. heat as infrared and UV Light as UV light are established to have the most acute effect on disc damage, the most simple explanation is to look at how a photograph will depreciate if left in the sun on a window sill - much the same can and will happen to your burned media if left to suffer from these two detrimental effects. This is for example why museums decide to deposit their exhibits within cardboard cases often in heat and moisture controlled environments, so short of covering up your burned discs in blackout materials and placing them in the loft inside a vivarium at a stable temperature you want to be looking for a different solution to protect your media! The new Kodak sleeves are made of a synthetic type plastic material that has been layered with metal, on the packaging it is described as a 'metalized nano coating}' and it looks like the pouches have been coated with aluminum or a few other silver coloured metal. This gives a sleeve or wallet that you can't see through it’s this coating that keeps temperature out as well as damaging UV light. So the results of my conclusions having examined these up-to-the-minute sleeves from Kodak - The Kodak Archive disc pouches - I am sure that they are going to be a very good addition to the archive strategy for those clients and users that have sensitive and treasured data backed up onto DVD, Compact disk and Bluray - they effectively block the daylight from reaching the discs burned layer and are very thin but tough. The wallets can also be labeled or written on with a permanent marker, all round an superb product and at around £6 for 50 well worth the price to make sure the future of your data, video or photos. The future archival plan is something everyone should contemplate but to be honest most do not, so the next time you have a few precious data on a media think carefully how you will store it just in case you want to achieve at it not just in some weeks time but perhaps more than a few years later. HD storage isn’t the best answer to long term data backup, they are infamous for failing at the tremendously moment you want that important photo or video - and guess what, you forgot to back it all up to disc! People have said that Dvd-r and CD are on their way out, but in this day and age of everything coming in more and more bigger chunks of data and quicker download speeds are we moving to a throw away way of life in that people consume their download ‘fix’ and straight away scrap it or are there constantly going to be bits you require to save? Well I say those important memories require to be kept split away from your PC, discs station or iphone (all of which will go wrong at some stage or be lost stolen or broken and the current best choice to get that is to back it up onto DVD-R, Compact disk or Blueray disc and accomplish into the habit of storing these discs in your own archive system, all you need is a discs wallet and a few of the Kodak disc sleeves and your memories are protected for your decendants to look at and smile!
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Kodak and Sony both offer archive media but a lot of clients have become frustrated with the quality of build of jewel boxes like the ones that Kodak and Maxell use to distribute their recordable CDs and DVDs, regrettably in this day and age Chinese manufacturers have tried everything to hang on to overheads down and that includes the cut in the quality of the cases.
Simon Young - Senior Partner DVD cases and media
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