From: chen@digital.sps.mot.com (Jinfu Chen)
Newsgroups: rec.audio,rec.video
Subject: CD rot
Keywords: April Fool's Joke?
Date: 7 Apr 92 23:01:08 GMT
Followup-To: rec.audio
Organization: Motorola, LICD, SPS, Mesa, AZ

I found this piece in rec.music.cd and thought readers in rec.audio/video may
be interested, especially those who engage in recent LP/CD wars :-)

Newsgroup: rec.music.cd
From: Larry Spence
Subject: CD rot
Date: 1 Apr 92 21:33:22 GMT
Organization: Computer Support Corporation,  Dallas,Texas

  
  Reprinted without permission from today's Dallas Morning News:
  
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Sony Corporation and Phillips BV of the Netherlands issued a joint
  press release Tuesday in which they admitted that the compact disc
  format that they jointly invented ten years ago, has a fatal flaw:
  the discs are susceptible to a phenomenon dubbed "CD rot" by audio-
  philes.  A. Morita of Sony and M. Blaagerfeld of Phillips stated 
  that according to recent research, "compact discs may show marked
  deterioration in low-level error rates after ten to twelve years.
  Accelerated aging tests show that the BLER [basic low-level error
  rate] increases rapidly at approximately ten years after manufacture."
  Consumers would notice this effect as a "crackling" sound or as a
  failure of the disc to play at all, sources said.
  
  Reaction to the Sony/Phillips announcement was swift.  A represen-
  tative of the audiophile magazine The Absolute Sound said, "We have
  been saying for many years that the compact disc format has problems
  sonically.  Now it is clear that there are serious longevity problems
  as well.  We are conferring with interesting parties about the possi-
  bility of a class-action lawsuit against Sony and Phillips.  This is
  pure negligence -- they should have detected these problems with
  aging tests long ago.  It's inexcusable, especially when they were
  saying things like 'perfect sound forever.'"  Representatives of the
  RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, said only that
  they were "looking into the matter."
  
  Compact discs are the second largest selling audio format in the US,
  exceeded only by cassette tapes.  The number of potentially defective
  discs in the US alone may exceed 140 million, by Sony's estimates.  
  When asked if consumers would be able to return their CDs for new
  discs, a Phillips spokesman said, "We don't know.  Right now, we 
  couldn't guarantee that the new discs wouldn't have the same problem.
  It something we're very concerned about."
  
  The startling admission of "CD rot" casts a shadow on Sony's plans to
  introduce the "Mini-Disk," a new portable recordable CD-like format,
  later this year.  A Sony engineer who declined to be identified said,
  "It's a big question mark right now.  You can bet that a lot of people
  are going to be doing a lot more accelerated aging tests before any
  new formats are released to the public."
  
  Accelerated aging tests are supposed to predict the lifetime of the
  discs relatively quickly.  But sources say that both Sony and Phillips
  stopped their aging tests in 1985, confident that the CD was an 
  "archival medium."  The same sources claim that it now appears that
  micro-fractures in the plastic of CDs leads to rapid data loss after
  a certain period of time.  "It looks like they're fine up until about
  ten years.  That's why we're just now seeing the problem.  There are
  people here who are ready to jump out the window over this."
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Yes, I'm one of them, I own about 900 CDs. %(  
  
  -- 
  Larry Spence
  larry@csccat.cs.com
  ...!{uunet|texsun|cs.utexas.edu|decwrl|decvax}!csccat!larry