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Synthetic Stone DVD Claimed To Last 1,000 Years

Posted by timothy on from the will-your-progeny-the-warranty dept.

Lucas123 writes "A start-up launched a new DVD archive product this week: a disc that it says will hold its data for 1,000 years. The company, Cranberry, says its DiamonDisc product, which can be used in any standard DVD player, is not subject to deterioration from heat, UV rays or material rot due to humidity or other elements because it has no dyes, adhesives or reflective materials like standard DVD discs, and its discs are made from a vastly more durable synthetic stone. Data is laid down on the platter much in the same way as a standard DVD disc, but with DiamonDisc the burner etches much deeper pits. Cranberry said it is also working on producing a Blu-ray version of its 1,000-year disc."

22 of 416 comments (clear)

  1. What the bets the first release will be... by s0litaire · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..."The 10 commandments" Remastered Special Edition.
    It's the 2 (Synthetic) Stone DVD Version...

    --
    Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
    1. Re:What the bets the first release will be... by Cryacin · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hopefully in 1000 years it will be appropriately categorized as "fiction."

      It's not as if that's written in stone!

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    2. Re:What the bets the first release will be... by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Funny

      Then you have to spend eternity in North Dakota.

  2. 1,000 years? by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You know, when CDs and DVDs came out, they claimed they would last 50 years. I have yet to find one that lasts longer than 5. So I'd say, 1,000 years translates to about a hundred years, tops. Also, it may not be vulnerable to humidity in a controlled environment, but in the outdoors, a few seasons of freezing/melting and it'll be shot. Water beats rock every time.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:1,000 years? by batrick · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have music CDs that are over 10 years old still working perfectly.

    2. Re:1,000 years? by stinerman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Burned or stamped?

      My stepfather has an extensive collection of CDs he bought in the mid-to-late 80s that play as well today as they did back when he bought them. I ripped a Cars album without need for any cdparanoia correction. The resulting file played fine.

    3. Re:1,000 years? by onemorechip · · Score: 4, Funny

      Water beats rock every time.

      No, paper beats rock. There's no water in the game.

      --
      But, I wanted socialized health insurance!
    4. Re:1,000 years? by bcwright · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also, it may not be vulnerable to humidity in a controlled environment, but in the outdoors, a few seasons of freezing/melting and it'll be shot. Water beats rock every time.

      I really don't care if my archival storage can stand being left outside for several years, because I don't intend to do that. I'd be quite happy if it were at least as durable as a book, which if well made and with reasonable care can last at least a couple hundred years, possibly over 1000 under ideal conditions. So what if it can get ruined if it's left in the rain? If I care enough about the data, I just make a few copies and put them in different places and hopefully if I've chosen well at least one will survive. Right now it's not at all clear that typical CD's and DVD's are even as durable as cheap pulp paperbacks.

    5. Re:1,000 years? by crispytwo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I find it all depends on which part of the floor I leave the CD. Near the middle are worst, but surprisingly the ones next to the wall are almost as bad. The ones close the wall, but less near the center seem to survive the best.

      In summary,
      1) left near doorway = rating 1 star
      2) left center of room = rating 1 star
      3) left around center or room = rating 3 stars
      4) perimeter of room = rating 4 stars
      5) left at wall of room = rating 2 stars
      6) other (case, desk, special CD container) = rating 2-4 stars

  3. Presumably... by popo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... they also make a DVD player that lasts 1000 years?

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    1. Re:Presumably... by The+Grim+Reefer2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      ... they also make a DVD player that lasts 1000 years?

      At $4995 for the burner it better last 1K years too.

    2. Re:Presumably... by glyn.phillips · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Presumably all DVD readers made for the next 1000 years will be backward compatible. Have you tried to read an 8-inch floppy disk lately? And they're only three decades old!

      When the equipment for reading these starts to become museum pieces people will migrate the data to whatever the state of the art is at the time. Then these stone DVD's will last a long time in the landfill.

      It does raise some fun things to speculate about though.

      There are some ancient writings which no one knows how to read anymore. Will future archaeologists wonder what the microscopic pits in our coasters with holes in them are all about?

      Will they suffer from data overload?

      What will future archaeologists, with PhD's, think when they read what you, personally, wrote in a forum? Now that's scary.

    3. Re:Presumably... by QuoteMstr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Presumably all DVD readers made for the next 1000 years will be backward compatible. Have you tried to read an 8-inch floppy disk lately? And they're only three decades old!

      The nice thing about he optical disc form factor is that it decouples the encoding and retrieval technology from the moving parts involves in loading, unloading, and spinning the disc. It's very easy to support additional optical media formats by simply including another kind of laser in the read head.

      On the other hand, an eight-inch floppy needs a custom loading mechanism that isn't cost-effective to build anymore, so of course we don't have anything that's backward compatible.

      As long as we have optical media at all (and I don't see the idea fading any time soon), the readers will be backwards-compatible all the way back to Red Book audio. I would be amazed if we couldn't read CDs in 100 years, and only moderately surprised if we couldn't read them in 1,000.

    4. Re:Presumably... by QuoteMstr · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There are some ancient writings which no one knows how to read anymore. Will future archaeologists wonder what the microscopic pits in our coasters with holes in them are all about?

      That's an interesting thought experiment. Let's say civilization fell and rose again, and that future archaeologists came across some of our optical discs. They wouldn't need much beyond 19th-century technology and mathematics to decipher them.

      Once cleaned, 1,000-year-old discs would still shimmer the way they do today. Under a microscope (well-developed by the 19th century), pits and lands would be visible. A pit is approximately the same size as a bacterial cell, after all. The pits and lands would form a recognizable pattern. That pattern looks nothing like binary, being a clocked encoding of it. But it's obvious that a CD would spin, so eventually someone clever will realize that information is encoded at clock boundaries.

      That having been figured out, these future archaeologists will see repeating patterns of eight units. Presuming that our language came down intact (much like Latin has to us), 19th century cryptanalytical techniques could determine the correspondence of the mysterious 8-pit repeating units to letters. (After all, what is ASCII except a simple substitution cipher?)

      ECC information would be gibberish, but it could be ignored. (And once even one Wikipedia backup were deciphered, the ECC information would be understood.)

      Of course, there's a huge amount of information on each disc. It'd take a long time to go over even part of one by hand, but it could be done. After all, even in the 17th century, huge logarithm table books were produced.

      Once technology advanced a bit, it'd be possible to build an electromechanical system to read and print the contents of CDs. Even Babbage had a workable printer design, and printing telegraph machines emerged by 1910. The hardest part for our future archaeologists would be reading the discs at high speed, for which (I think) they'd need a laser. But maybe the problem would stimulate them, and they'd build lasers before we got around to discovering the things.

      Of course, this is just idle speculation, but it's fun!

    5. Re:Presumably... by QuoteMstr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      By the way: if you think this is an interesting thought experiment, you'll love A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller.

  4. Finally, a convenient alternative to pyramids... by Bob_Who · · Score: 4, Funny

    Jeeez, it took long enough to come up with a practical alternative to hieroglyphics carved in stone. So far, that was the best technology for millennial storage. I just want to be certain that I get that 1000 year warranty, in case its just a bunch of empty promises. I don't want to be disappointed 800 years down the road.

  5. I Hate ROCK Music by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 4, Funny

    What are they recording?

    The Rolling Stones?

    The Stone Roses?

    The Stone Temple Pilots?

    Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35?

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  6. Curious... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TFA quotes temperature resistance of 176 degrees. Fahrenheit. For a "synthetic stone" product that is supposed to be super durable, that is chickenshit. It's barely warmer than parked-car-in-summer-sun.

    I have to wonder, did some journalist fail at accuracy, or are these things actually pretty painfully unexciting in terms of temperature resistance?

    1. Re:Curious... by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://cranberry.com/faqs.php

      How is the Cranberry Disc(TM) different from regular DVDs? ... Instead [of organic dyes], the Cranberry Disc's data layer is composed of rocklike materials known to last for centuries. The Cranberry Writer(TM) etches the Cranberry Disc's rocklike layer creating a permanent physical data record that is immune to data rot.

      What temperature can the Cranberry Disc withstand?
      The Cranberry Discs can withstand temperatures of 176F indefinitely with no effect to the data or the readability of the data in a standard DVD drive.

      Can the Cranberry Disc withstand UV rays and prolonged exposure to the sun?
      Cranberry Discs can withstand the full spectrum of the sun, including UV rays, indefinitely with no effect to the data or the readability of the data in a standard DVD drive.

      The data layer is their synthetic material.
      Presumably, they still sandwich it between plastics that are vulnerable to heat.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
  7. If you're actually interested in buying these... by Foggiano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd recommend going straight to the company Cranberry is licensing from, Millenniata. It looks like you can purchase identical products for about 1/3 the price. Cranberry's got one heck of a mark-up.

  8. Nonono... Blackadder explained it all by Cryacin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Edmund: No, you see, the thing about Heaven, is that Heaven is for people who like the sort of things that go on in Heaven, like, uh, well, singing, talking to God, watering pot plants... Whereas Hell, on the other hand, is for people who like the other sorts of things: adultery, pillage, torture -- those areas.

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    1. Re:Nonono... Blackadder explained it all by TheThiefMaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Anyone who hasn't seen Blackadder, I recommend you find a way to do so.