cd rot?
Michael Owen
years made me recall a similar announcement made by them LAST YEAR. It looks
like Nimbus is making this 'scare announcement' an annual event to try and
drum up sales for their discs, which apparently have got all "the problems
sorted out."
Here's the article, taken from one of the national computer networks
(Compu$erv, GEnie, one of those):
Matched keyword: DISC...
=START= XMT: 08:07 Wed Jun 29 EXP: 08:00 Fri Jul 01
BRITAINS LARGEST COMPACT DISC MAKER CLAIMS THEY SELF DESTRUCT
LONDON (JUNE 29) - Compact discs, hailed as the scratch-free and high quality
substitute to LPs and tapes, self-destruct after eight years' use, Britain's
largest CD maker told The Guardian daily here.
''We have been carrying out accelerated life tests and I'm afraid compact
discs will prove less durable than has been claimed,'' Michael Lee,
commercial director of Nimbus Records, was quoted as saying Wednesday.
Mr. Lee told The Guardian that some of the brighlty colored inks used to
print the name of the artist and the album on the disc ''have begun to eat
into the protective lacquer which covers the aluminum coating of the disc.''
If the aluminum gets pitted or oxidizes, it fails to accurately reflect the
laser from the CD player and the music is distorted, the report said.
Mr. Lee said CDs affected by these problems would start to self-destruct
within eight to 10 years of their manufacture. That also includes CDs used to
store computer data, he said.
The report said the problem was common in the industry but Mr. Lee said he
did not know how may CDs have been affected.
Asked to comment on the report, a spokesman for the British subsidiary of the
Japanese electronics group Sony Corp. ''categorically'' denied it and called
it ''misinformation.''
He said Mr. Lee's claim was ''a desperate bid for short term commercial
gain.''
Mr. Lee said Nimbus Records, which makes compact discs for major British
recording companies, has got all ''the problems sorted out now'' and plans
''a big re-launch of our CDs in September.''
The compact disc was launched in 1983 by Sony and the Dutch electronics group
Pilips which claimed it could produce ''perfect sound forever.''
Fifteen million compact discs at a unit price of 11 pounds (nearly 20
dollars) and one million CD players were sold in Britain last year.
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