[Tig] The Lifespan of Different Media Formats

[Jim Houston]

 the anticipated lifespan of the following formats: 

LTO5 :                                15 years   (media retensioning once per year;  recommended migration to new media no later than every 10 years)

Digital Betacam  :             10 years  (with high-rate bit errors, is probably readable out to 25 years)

All magnetic tape media....  under ideal storage conditions, no more than 20 years.

FireWire Drive   :                     7-10 years   (usually hard failure causes loss of entire drive rather than gradual deterioration)

CD-Roms, DVD, Blu-Ray :   25-30 years  (under dark storage conditions and room temp or below)

Color negative:                   50 years

Black and white film:          1000 years  (chilled storage 30-70% humidity)




Jim Houston
Sony Pictures Technologies