Blu-ray is not archival. The fatal flaw is in the construction, essentially an inverted CD with extra goo “protection” on bottom. And CD-R is not archival either. Sadly, HD-DVD had a sandwich platter construction like DVD, which could be considered the most archival of optical media to date.
“burn quality” is not some sort of singular measurement, but rather a simplistic (or simpleton) reference to multiple aspects. For example, how well the disc balance allowed burn accuracy without too much wobble. But also how properly “deep” the burn was in the dye, in conjunction with the reflectivity of the dye, thus affecting readability. Even something as overlooked as the temperature of the drive can affect burn quality, in subsequent burns in short time windows.
Optical media from two manufacturers? Uh, no. Not a relevant statistical sample.
Multiple optical drives must also be used, with multiple known-good software (Imgburn, etc).
Terms like “consumer grade” and “professional grade” are all nonsense in the realm of optical media. At best, it refers to the surface, like lacquer only (ie, intended for screen printing), or inkjet or laser. Any suggestion that some such “grade” refers to the burn quality is bullplop.
There is a LOT of media testing, vastly more than most people realize. It’s not about “batches” (which are 10k to 100k discs, not a dozen spindles), or misunderstood Datarius drives. cdfreaks/myce had a groupthink problem, and was the source of several myths (ie, “RitekG03 = best”, etc). Too much of that got parroted around online in the 2000s, so watch out for that. IBM also had anti-optical pro-HDD propaganda at the time, some 20 years ago.
I’ve helped students write optical media theses multiple times in the past 15+ years, though my available time is not what it used to be (health). At very least, I can wish you luck.
I do wonder, however, if your adviser will approve such a topic, since it tends to be more backward looking than forward. A thesis is generally intended to be current or forward looking, even a thesis in history or medicine. So you’d have to find a way to take optical media, and make it still revelant into the future, beyond just weak arguments. I’m not sure even I can do that.
Blu-ray is not archival. The fatal flaw is in the construction, essentially an inverted CD with extra goo “protection” on bottom. And CD-R is not archival either. Sadly, HD-DVD had a sandwich platter construction like DVD, which could be considered the most archival of optical media to date.
“burn quality” is not some sort of singular measurement, but rather a simplistic (or simpleton) reference to multiple aspects. For example, how well the disc balance allowed burn accuracy without too much wobble. But also how properly “deep” the burn was in the dye, in conjunction with the reflectivity of the dye, thus affecting readability. Even something as overlooked as the temperature of the drive can affect burn quality, in subsequent burns in short time windows.
Optical media from two manufacturers? Uh, no. Not a relevant statistical sample.
Multiple optical drives must also be used, with multiple known-good software (Imgburn, etc).
Terms like “consumer grade” and “professional grade” are all nonsense in the realm of optical media. At best, it refers to the surface, like lacquer only (ie, intended for screen printing), or inkjet or laser. Any suggestion that some such “grade” refers to the burn quality is bullplop.
There is a LOT of media testing, vastly more than most people realize. It’s not about “batches” (which are 10k to 100k discs, not a dozen spindles), or misunderstood Datarius drives. cdfreaks/myce had a groupthink problem, and was the source of several myths (ie, “RitekG03 = best”, etc). Too much of that got parroted around online in the 2000s, so watch out for that. IBM also had anti-optical pro-HDD propaganda at the time, some 20 years ago.
I’ve helped students write optical media theses multiple times in the past 15+ years, though my available time is not what it used to be (health). At very least, I can wish you luck.
I do wonder, however, if your adviser will approve such a topic, since it tends to be more backward looking than forward. A thesis is generally intended to be current or forward looking, even a thesis in history or medicine. So you’d have to find a way to take optical media, and make it still revelant into the future, beyond just weak arguments. I’m not sure even I can do that.