This article describes an initial stability study of commercially available DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD-ROM (DVD movie) media using accelerated aging tests under conditions of increased temperature and humidity. It is well known that temperature and humidity are among the most important factors affecting the life expectancy of optical discs. Our aim is not to find exact lifetime of dvd media. We are studying how well different DVD media brands products can take these conditions. We want to discover which brand is better than other and publish this information. This could help you to decide which brand is the best for archiving data.

The Study of DVD Lifetime Expectancy

All testing occurred at the BitBurners R&D laboratory. Test chamber was designed to allow aging of the media under a controlled environmental condition. Temperature and humidity: "Green Hornet" (model: Vötsch VTL 4010) environmental chamber was used to control the temperature (80°C) and relative humidity (85% RH).

The temperature and RH were held constant for a period of approximately 30 h followed by a gradual return to ambient conditions. Discs were analyzed after each cycle with BenQ DW1640 DVD Writer and Nero CD-DVD Speed utility to characterize the extent of media deterioration. This cycle was repeated under the same stress condition until the error rate of the disc increased to exceed an upper limit of the error rates (as indicated in the DVD and CD specifications) or until the disc became unreadable.

• PI-Errors (PIE): According to the DVD specification, any eight consecutive ECC blocks (PI Sum8) may have a maximum of 280 PI errors.
• PI-Failures (PIF): According to the DVD specification, any eight consecutive ECC blocks (PI Sum8) may have a maximum of 32 PI-Failures.

Test Discs

Test media were selected randomly. We wanted to include some of popular media in the market. We also included Single and Dual/Double Layer media from both formats (+/-).

DVD-R

• Traxdata 4X DVD-R, Dual Layer (8.5GB)
• Verbatim 4X DVD-R, Dual Layer (8.5GB)
• Traxdata 16X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Verbatim 16X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Taiyo Yuden Printable 16X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Taiyo Yuden 16X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Sony 8X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Fuji 8X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Tuffdisc 8X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Budget 4X DVD-R, Single Layer (4.7GB)

DVD+R

• Verbatim 4X DVD+R, Double Layer (8.5GB)
• Verbatim 16X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• TDK ScratchProof 16X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Ricoh 16X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Traxdata 8X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Sony 8X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Fuji 8X DVD+R, Single Layer (4.7GB)

DVD-ROM

Of course we also tested DVD-ROMs - a DVD movie in this case. We selected randomly one movie title (5 pcs) from a local DVD store (The Fifth Element, Dual Layer) just to see how well DVD-ROM could perform against DVD-R/DVD+R media.

DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM

DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media types were not included this test. Those will be in our DVDRW Lifetime Expectancy Tests.

Analyzing method

For error rate analysis we used nero CD/DVD Speed software with the BenQ DW1640 DVD writer - Disc Quality test @ 4X. Each sample set had more than one pieces of media to ensure that any particular result was representative of that entire sample.

Test Results: Round 1 (status = hold)

We discovered some weird effects in DVD-R/DVD+R discs from just one manufacturer. We are waiting for their explanation for this phenomenon. We have posted some samples to their UK office so they can study if there is something wrong in the disc itself (bad bonding perhaps?). When we got the answer we will publish the first round results in this page. I'm deeply sorry to keep you waiting.