Hello Vee, Yes, that is an ongoing debate on the life of a CD/DVD. My feeling is that they would be good for a minimum of 10 years however I would stress the importance of an inventory update which should make this a non issue with customers.
Aloha, Had a potential client ask at the show I did last week: Will a DVD or CD deteriorate if stored in a bank safety deposit box where there is (almost) no humidity?
I posed this question on All Experts and got the response below. Anyone else have any thoughts on this? For those of you who have been in business for a while, what is your practice? And has it ever been an issue? Just my initial thought is that I should advise that they take the disks out after 4-5 years and redo -- of course, if they have an update done every year, it becomes a mute point because we give them a new disk. Answer from AllExperts: It's hard to say really. The initial thought with CDs/DVDs was that they'd be good for 10, 20, 50 years.
On the other hand, CD/DVDs aren't pressed (as they would be in a professional replication environment...) but are instead burnt with a consumer grade laser.
And there is a bacteria now, that feeds on the plastic that makes up the consumer CD/DVD emulsion layers.
