How old these CD-Rs?

PommieBast

Having to borrow a car for a long trip and it has a CD player. Long story short dug up a stock of CD-R discs from the attic, but any idea how to tell how old they are?

My best guess is early 2000s...

Atlantic Dawn

I'd say circa 2005 to 2010. I remember early on CDRs were only by a few premium brands. Bush would have I think have been owned by Argos at that time they were sold so 2008 onwards going by Wikipedia.

Skerries

save yourself the hassle and get a cigarette lighter adapter and stick a bluetooth speaker and your phone into it

Tippbhoy1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058343056/how-old-these-cd-rs

Think I bought a box of these in aldi or Lidl in 2000/2001

the_amazing_raisin

Reminds me of this article

https://www.arcserve.com/blog/data-storage-lifespans-how-long-will-media-really-last

It's bizarre to think of digital media having a shelf life, but I guess it's just drives home the lesson that nothing lasts forever

NIMAN

I have a pile of blank CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, and didn't know if they were worth taking them to a charity shop or just bin them?

Does anyone actually use them any more?

galvo_clare

Bought a 2003 summer car about 5 years ago and came with a six CD changer in the boot. I’d safely say that’s the last time I burned CDs even though I still have plenty of blanks and a writer.

My car even has a mini disc player in the dash and even had a free Robbie Williams disc left by the previous owner. Had a long trip back from Scotland that first day and was thoroughly fed up of him by the time I got home.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929950#Comment_121929950

A used disc among them had July 2002 written on it so they are at least 22 years old. Amazed they are still good..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929959#Comment_121929959

DVDs may be worth donating but the CD-Rs I would simply dump. Had a right headache finding some software that supported CD-Rs that would work on my system.

niallb

At least the CD-R's will probably work on the car stereo.

Do you know the model of the head unit yet? What model/year is the car?

It might even be able to handle MP3 files on the CDs which would give you a whole extra option.

Even if it doesn't, think carefully about what your favourite albums of all time are and make it happen :-)

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121936471#Comment_121936471

2008 Ford and the unit is a "6000 CD". Don't see any mention of MP3 support..

RetroEncabulator

I found some cassettes from the 1970s and dug out an old tape recorder in the attic and tried them and to my surprise - perfect sound quality! Not sure that magnetic media fades as quickly as some of these reports, although it might depend on the quality.

10-10-20

Oh and if burning songs to a CD as CD audio, make sure to use the TAO - Track At Once option. Otherwise you'll have a very unfunny game of "Name That Tune"...

I knew that by retaining that piece of knowledge for 20 odd years that I'd eventually find a use for it. 🤣

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937292#Comment_121937292

From what I've "read" (most likely via Techmoan) the quality of equipment and media was a lot better in the past.

niallb

That won't play MP3s from CD, but it's worth checking the glove compartment for an AUX socket.

L1011

650 could be 25+ years old - 700 became the norm for CD-Rs very very fast.

PommieBast

Round two. Still fully wrapped. Sweepstake on what Offer Expires date is :D

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941392#Comment_121941392

I'm going to say 1997.

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941392#Comment_121941392

We used to buy those Sony 3.5 inch disks by the thousand. It was deemed not worth the hassle to buy cheaper disks.

Donald Trump

From the late 1640's or early 1650's. Brought into Ireland by the Cromwell bollox himself

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941392#Comment_121941392

In case anyone wonders, PS/2 and PS/1 on the box don't mean PlayStation :)

Donald Trump

I did see some short report or documentary about a company that still specialises in floppy disks, They only had a stock of a few million left. I think they needed them for some old systems - maybe medical systems or something. The hardware was still fine but needed the floppy disks

Cordell

I'm sure there's plenty of legacy systems from industrial automation computers to avionics and even musical instruments that still need floppy disks.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941406#Comment_121941406

Close. 31 March 1996 (bought November 1995).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941470#Comment_121941470

Was only a few months ago the Japanese government finally got rid of them.

Esel

Floppies were handy for air-gapped systems.

greenpilot

I'm 52.

Until this morning, which is the moment I've read through this thread, I've always felt around 30 within. Full of stupid, young, adventurous, optimistic vitality.

I now feel as if I've time-travelled from 1989 to 2024.

I've never imagined that I'd be reading a thread like this and it's shockingly depressing.

CD-R's were everything to us. I even had a tape-to-CDR machine, which was like the Rosetta Stone to us. I remember when the first CD's became popular and I remember their whimper into oblivion mixed with my disdain for MP3's.

Today is one of those day's I wish I was back in 1988-1989.

greenpilot

Oh you've no idea how good it was. Christ. I remember the shock and awe of hearing "Tie your Mother Down", by Queen on the "Good Stereo". It was a record, or as you say these days, vinyl.

You could physically pick each note from the air and it made the hairs lift from your arms.

Decades of impatience, relative wealth and the dilution of the beautiful art of making music, has destroyed the experience of listening to music.

65535

When CD's came out first I distinctly remember hearing on a Cork radio station that 'you can drive a truck over these discs and they will not be damaged - the 1's and 0's will still work' - but as we all know CD's and DVD's etc. were a let down in the end and we waited for a more durable option to arrive.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955264#Comment_121955264

Was it Tomorrow's World on the BBC which famously covered one in jam before cleaning it off to show how tough they were.

Of course, we all found out later that a scratched cd was a scratched cd.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955251#Comment_121955251

A major problem in the earlier days was organisations cranking up the compression too far. A family friend who had one of those fancy steerable satellite dishes in the late-1990s told me the BBC reduced their bit-rate until people started complaining.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121955473#Comment_121955473

The Redbook standard has redundancy so a few scratches are not a problem, but it had its limits and I suspect plenty of cheaper CD players did not properly implement error recovery.

Pretty sure the Innovations catalogue (who remembers that?) had something that got rid of scratches by sanding down the top protective layer.

greenpilot

I used to use a Bananna. I'm not kidding. Banana peel cleaned up CD's nicely.