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will CDs eventually become obsolete due to no CD transports surviving?
- Thread starter VientoB
- Start date
I expect CD drives to be on the market about as long as the old CDs themselves last. Backup for sure a good idea. The CD data can be backed up easily and perfectly with external optical drives, something that vinyl can never do.
DVDdoug
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Almost EVERYTHING eventually becomes obsolete. But for now you can still buy them (as well as disc drives for computers) and my Blu-Ray player plays CDs and DVDs.
You can still but turntables and cassette players. I don't think anybody is making 8-track players or VCRs anymore. DVD-Audio, laser disc, and DAT never were mainstream and they have pretty-much disappeared too.
You can still but turntables and cassette players. I don't think anybody is making 8-track players or VCRs anymore. DVD-Audio, laser disc, and DAT never were mainstream and they have pretty-much disappeared too.
I'd love to have FLAC backups of my CDs. But the thought of dealing with ripping them all (nearly 1000) and fiddling with getting the metadata right is just too daunting.
Maybe I could hire a high school intern to do it all.
Maybe I could hire a high school intern to do it all.
oleg87
Senior Member
"Become"?
Entropy is a b*tch, isn’t it 
Funny thing: the devices we use to back up the CDs will probably last way shorter than the actual CDs. Under good conditions, a CD should last for 50 to 100 years. No HDD or SSD will last that long.
CDs been over for a decade and yet new players are still being made.
The difference with that and the other formats like DAT, VHS and 8 track is that nothing better has come along, just a more convenient one (streaming).
The difference with that and the other formats like DAT, VHS and 8 track is that nothing better has come along, just a more convenient one (streaming).
Increasingly happy that I did the bulk of this some 12-14 years ago, about 900 CDs. I did it as a project when the kids were little, and used the «in between time» to rip 10-20 discs at a time using dBpoweramp with a fairly rigorous tagging and naming scheme. After that it’s been easy to add the 20-25 new cds acquired each year.
Edit: checking file dates, it turns out I was off by a couple of years. Seems like I started the project in June 2008.
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The alleged death of CDs and CD players has been in the news for the last 20 years. Maybe more.
But they are still around.
I still have CDs that I bought as far back as the late 1980s. They continue to work fine. I have also backed up many of them in a HDD drive.
But they are still around.
I still have CDs that I bought as far back as the late 1980s. They continue to work fine. I have also backed up many of them in a HDD drive.
I mean CDs can technically last longer then vinyl by digital means on various digital formats. However, if you don't have 2 versions/backups of it, then your asking for trouble.
I trust SSDs more then hard drives but I still try to backup to SL Blu-rays. A good chunk of people use hard drives like a Flash drive, read from time to time but hard drives don't like that. I mean sure, I can make 5 copies of each CD with how cheap even the nice blanks are but Blu-rays are gonna last longer. Even though bit for bit a CD copy is a perfect but the outside isn't the same (The label and such).
I don't think any CD can last 40 years let alone 100 years. I think blu-rays can actually last 50+ years due to the way there made.
- Thread Starter
- #13
There are CDs over 40 years old still working.
They barely turned 40.
- Thread Starter
- #15
Yes but they still work!
DVDdoug
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Yeah... That's a big project. I've got MP3 copies of all my CD, mostly done one, or a few, at a time as I've collected the CDs. Sometimes I wish I would have ripped to FLAC but it's not something I plan on doing.
But I don't consider it impossible. I could do 10 a day. ( I have around 800 CDs). I already have the metadata (corrected and formatted the way I want it). It takes a bit if time if the artwork has to be scanned, and like to tag all of the songs with the original release date, even if that was vinyl, and sometimes the research is time consuming (and sometimes I can't find it at all.)
True! But you can have multiple backups in case a drive dies and when FLAC and hard drives start going obsolete they can be copied to some new lossless format.
I bought my 1st CD player in 1985 so some of my CDs are also nearly 40 years old. I've had 2 CDs "go bad". One of them was from Mobile Fidelity on a gold disc, which probably means it was "burned".
Major difference is easier checksum verification on devices we use to back up. Long-term data redundancy. CDs are slow to read.
I used to have a 7-drive PC setup that was a ripping monster and very easy to setup. FLACs with correct internet metadata. Sometimes no cover art but I can always add it later.
Pff, CDs are fast to rip if you turn off AccurateRip and use 52x to 72x speeds
. Compare checksums with others using the accurate rip database afterwards.
Oldest CD in my collection, to my best recollection, is Van Halen II. It's probably spot-on 40 years old. Just put it in the Oppo and it sounds great.
One of my favorite VH albums.
One of my favorite VH albums.
