Peter Galbavy
12-10-2009, 08:50
I've been encoding my CDs to FLAC for a while now and I am sure I ma not the only one who has observed the huge variability in the physical quality of the CDs we get sold.
The really old ones, from the late 80s, are almost all are all heavy and solid and scratches or no scratches can be read by my PC. There are a couple that seem do have discoloured but still read fine and others that have rotted without any visible impact and can't be read.
The newer stuff, thinking about Hawkwind's Levitation 3 CD set and most pop stuff, seem pressed on something akin to paper and are stupidly sensitive to any scuffing or the tiniest of scratches.
What worries me, apart from the time factor of rotting aluminum layers, is that all those cleaning and de-scratching methods we have adopted over the years including the cool gadgets for polishing the surface scratches away etc. will be dangerous to the new crap they are selling us.
What's the best way to protext CDs in the long term, especially the newer, cheaper, more fragile stuff ?
The really old ones, from the late 80s, are almost all are all heavy and solid and scratches or no scratches can be read by my PC. There are a couple that seem do have discoloured but still read fine and others that have rotted without any visible impact and can't be read.
The newer stuff, thinking about Hawkwind's Levitation 3 CD set and most pop stuff, seem pressed on something akin to paper and are stupidly sensitive to any scuffing or the tiniest of scratches.
What worries me, apart from the time factor of rotting aluminum layers, is that all those cleaning and de-scratching methods we have adopted over the years including the cool gadgets for polishing the surface scratches away etc. will be dangerous to the new crap they are selling us.
What's the best way to protext CDs in the long term, especially the newer, cheaper, more fragile stuff ?