For those who use CDs for music, which writable CD type do you use, and why?

Main differences:

  • CD-R can only be written once
  • CD-RW is more expensive
  • Chainweasel
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    4 months ago

    CD-R has a much wider range of compatibility than CD-RW, so if you’re looking to play music you’ll probably want to go with CD-R.
    And as for data, I wouldn’t use a CD at all. Optical Media is absolute shit for data preservation and those early claims of lasting thousands of years are highly exaggerated, the backing on the CDs (and DVDs) lasts for a few decades at most.
    If you insist on optical data backups you’ll want archival grade discs that are made of glass instead of plastic and don’t use glue on foil for the backing but even those are projected to last hundreds of years at most, and they’re not cheap.

    • baconsanga
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      54 months ago

      Wow I did not know this. I was going to back up some photos onto CD-R as an extra safeguard. I have it backed up on a hard drive and cloud currently but wanted another back up. Will look into something else now.

      • @[email protected]
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        114 months ago

        M-Discs will do the trick for a couple centuries, which should exceed the span in which the data needs to be stored. Requires a burner that can handle the discs though.

        • @GlitzyArmrest
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          4 months ago

          M-Disc is the way if you’re going to use optical discs for backups.

        • @[email protected]
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          14 months ago

          What good are discs that last a couple of centuries when optical drives have already pretty much died out by this decade?

          • @[email protected]
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            14 months ago

            That “pretty much” is doing a lot of lifting. They’re not commonplace in laptops now, but industrially they’re still quite common. Same is true of tape backups, which the average consumer would swear is dead tech. If you want to store your files perpetually on disc, you’ll be able to get a reader for that disc easily enough 50+ years from now. It just may not be installed by default.

            • @[email protected]
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              14 months ago

              CD technology isn’t even 50 years old at this point. Making such confident predictions about its availability in 50+ years is ridiculous.

              • The Barto
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                14 months ago

                Considering we still have vinyl players and that techs over 50 years old, it’s not too far of a stretch to believe cd tech will still be around in another 50 years.

                • @[email protected]
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                  14 months ago

                  Vinyl mainly still exists because it is the one lasting technology that is analog music recording technology. CD on the other hand is the first technology of the digital age there when it comes to music. It has no real benefits or distinguishing features over other digital storage (of music or data) to keep it alive.

                  • The Barto
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                    14 months ago

                    1973 was 50 years ago, vinyl fully replaced shellac around the 60s, but the flat circle records that we know of have been around since like the late 20s or so. So way over 50 years.

      • @[email protected]
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        14 months ago

        Words carved into stone is your best bet. Have GPT-4 describe each picture in a thousand words, then carve those words into the wall of a very deep cave.

        Later if you need the picture back you can just put those thousand words in as a prompt to Dalle

    • @[email protected]OP
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      34 months ago

      i get it, but for me personally, its just so convenient to just get in the car and something is already set up and playing.

      • @[email protected]
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        24 months ago

        I learned to get people off my back about xbox (instead of gaming PC) by telling them I like the colorful buttons.