Glad I kept a sleeve of Gold DVD's

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

The Gold MAM-A DVD's were touted as an archival option for optical media. Well, they are marginally better than AZO silver DVD's, but not by much. In sun tests the AZO Silver DVD's died on average at 25 days of sun. The Gold MAM-A DVD's lasted 27 days in the sun. The old Kodak 100 years Gold DVD's lasted 33 days.

The Kodak DVD's were the best I've tested other than M-Disc. But Kodak discontinued them long ago. Any current Kodak Gold production is said not to be the same as the original production. (But I have not tested them.) The Kodak Gold disc I tested was one of the last of the 2007 production. M-Disc on the other hand lasted a year in the sun with no issues whatsoever. 

Today I went to restock my inkjet printable 4.7gb M-Disc DVD's and they look to be discontinued. Even the branded non-printable M-Disc DVD are gone. All they have is Blu-ray M-Disc and the higher capacity multi- layer M-Disc. What a mess. I looked all over hell and nothing. Some people are selling a box or a handful here or there at inflated prices.

I am a big user of the 4.7gb M-Disc with my archival work. Don't know if it is something temporary or not. But have gone back to the crummy Gold MAM-A discs and am saving my 73 remaining 4.7GB M-Disc for important projects.

Gold discs don't suffer from disc bronzing as far as I can tell. Once your silver discs start bronzing, the writing is on the proverbial wall.

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M-Disc does not seem to suffer from disc delamination either.

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Gold discs are a better option that silver AZO discs, but in my opinion they are overpriced for what they offer.

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.