The stability of the dyes is only part of the problem. Even mass-produced read-only optical media (e.g., movie/video content DVDs) can become unreadable over time because the reflective layer (typically aluminum) under the data-encoded layer corrodes due to the chemistry of the dyes and encasing plastic, and heat accelerates the process. The "gold" media may have enough of a protective layer of that noble metal (it's obviously not solid gold) that corrosion doesn't occur - only a few atoms' thickness is required.
On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 10:58 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > On 07/21/2018 08:14 AM, Carlo Pisani via cctalk wrote: > > > what is your experience? > > Generally very good. But then, my valuable stuff on CD-R was done on > MAM-A (Mitsui) "gold" media. Some of it is 20+ years old. On the other > hand, no CD-RW disk that still have has survived. > > My experience with DVD-R has been somewhat variable. > > --Chuck >
