Anyone used these to archive DVDs??

[paulw]

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_archival_gold_dvd.html

[nunchalnaomi]

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_product..._gold_dvd.html

No, They seem quite expensive, but might be good for masters. Anyone try them yet?

[Brian Ellis]

I'd be a little cautious about their claims without knowing a lot more about their technology. There are a hundred factors that can affect the archival reliability of a DVD, not just the reflective coating. Gold is good, yes, but so is aluminium. More important is the edge sealing, the concentricity and, above all, the stability of the photopolymer. For the anecdote, the original Creation DVD-Rs had a gold reflector, but an unstable photopolymer, which became unreadable after 1 year. The latest ones have an aluminium reflector and seem more reliable.

I did a rough calculation and, if there is 20 c worth of gold in a disc, it must be ~1.8 µm thick, which is ridiculous; 0.5 µm would be more than sufficient and would reduce the risk of cleavage.

The fact that they use gold as the only emphasis for the supposed reliability makes me very suspicious that it may be more a scam than a technical breakthrough, especially as 20 c of gold alone does not justify being 3 x more expensive than the competition, some of which also use gold.

IMHO test before committing yourself to the purchase.

[Debbie]

I'm with Brian all the way, from top to bottom. Once Bitten Twice Shy !

Debbie