MovieChat Forums > Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film (2012) Discussion > 'CDs may last 5-10, maybe 20 years'

'CDs may last 5-10, maybe 20 years'

posted 10 years ago by FangsFirst
3 replies | jump to latest

...What?

This is not the consensus, and I personally own discs that are 25+ years old. This is just complete bollocks. Total and utter nonsense.

The longevity of almost any medium relies strongly upon treatment. Treat an LP poorly for 20 years and you're going to have some trouble playing it, same as a CD.

I still buy LPs, too, and have no particular horse in the race of "longest-lasting", but I don't trust anything this guy is saying now in terms of numbers, and find the philosophy suspect in-and-of itself for being so ridiculously ignorant--and, I guess, biased? I have no idea what other reason someone would have for just arbitrarily making up a completely and demonstrably false number.

Certainly we have the poorly produced instances that led to "laser rot" and what have you, but that's an exceptional instance (and there's cheap vinyl, cheap film, etc--how many great films have been lost or nearly lost due to poor care?)

[–] Linda1973 10 years ago

Yes, the very first CD I ever bought was Madonna's "True Blue" in 1986. Still have it. Still have Michael Jackson's "Bad" which came out in 1987. These are 27-28 years old and still play great.

[–] grant-322 10 years ago

He was referring to recordable media.

Grant Hamilton

[–] bridgeproductions 9 years ago

Either way, CDs most definitely last longer than that. I have burned data discs that are about 20 years old. Still work just as they always did. All data still there. It was a flawed comment that I found odd at that moment as well. Estimates on the lifespan of CDs are usually at or around 100 years. But of course, it's all an estimate because we just haven't reached the end of the lifespan of CDs yet. So it's not possible to know as of this time.