I am clearly a novice at cd/dvd technology. I've made many of them using Nero but without understanding the underlying technologies.

I have scanned all of my families historical photographs and want to preserve them for posterity. It seems obvious that any method chosen today will not be playable in 100 years, probably not in 50 or maybe 20 or . . .

But, I would like to make choices that have the best chance of surviving the longest. I've read CD formats are more stable (well established) than DVD -- that is DVD has still not settled out. I don't know if that's so.

My question is where do I go to learn the best medium and formats for my purpose -- here?

Questions like:
Should I use CD or DVD?
If DVD should I use -R, +R, etc.?
Do some CD/DVD media/disks (gold, silver etc.) have longer life than others?
Which format/protocol/encoding should I use?

I wish it was a simple answer.... Media varies greatly, and burn quality can vary from burner to burner.. Many people suggest making multiple backups on different medias...

Personally, I back up all my photos to CD rom, and also to an external Hard Drive. As far as format, JPEG has been around for a long time, and I don't see it going away. If your photos are already in jpeg format, I would save them as that. If you have lots of photos, you can always use compression to save space. I choose not to compress my stuff..

I should have mentioned I have a little over 7 gigabytes of picture files. I intend to send copies of these to about 50 family members. So, using CD makes this process a great deal more cumbersome. However if it's clear CD is the better choice I'm willing to use it.

Regarding the burner. Mine is about 2 years old but I researched thoroughly and bought a highly rated unit. People ask me to reburn their DVD because almost all readers can read my DVDs.

I had settled on TIFF as the file format. It's a well established standard and should be around for a long time. Many say because JPEG is used on the web it's more widespread and thus more likely to be around into the future.

i_am_jim,

I like the way you are planning and anticipating trends but there are businesses out there that continue to provide transfer services from some "ancient" formats. I suspect that there will always be outfits that continue to provide these services (for a hefty price).

So what is your burner model? How often do you use it to burn and read? From my experience for the amount(s) of heavy daily burning. I wear out my drives alot faster just from usage....

I probably burn about 5 CDs a week and a couple of DVD a month. That would make for something like 500 disks in the life to this machine. Now, if I use CDs this project alone will burn 500 or so more.

I take it from the responses, folks here aren't sure whether the standards or longevity of CDs are likely to be better than DVDs?

@ OP ... depending on your cash situation, i would say the overall best method is to burn to 2 different sets of media (i.e. Taiyo Yuden 8x +R cert + Verbatim +R 16x cert) and keep a copy on your hard drive.

and if money aint a issue even burn the photo's etc to CD-R's like Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim media.

using that method (2 copys on dvd media on different brands + 1 hard drive copy)... it's quite unlikely your data would ever be lost.

and also, about your question regarding which is better be it DVD or CD media... i would say there probably both pretty safe bets assuming your using quality media like TY (Taiyo Yuden) and Verbatim.... cause people have had media from both of those companies in dvd format last for many years without any signs of degradation.

Thanks using DVD will make life much easier. Is there any reason the think either Verbatim or TY is better?

Those brand of media are proven quality media other brands seem to be substandard even though they have brand names as many farm out there manfacturing to the lowest bidder

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear.

Is there any reason to believe TY is better than Verbatim or vice versa.

In reviewing comments I just noticed you asked what burner I have. It's an NEC ND-3540A. It may be getting a little long in the tooth. Are more recent burners more likely to do a better job?

Myself I wouldn't say so as both are top notch but some people might but with either one you are in good hands (just like the allstate comercial)