f the holes in the mylar, and overwrite existing files by filling and reburning the patterns of holes in the mylar layer.

3) Make sure they're in their cases when not in use. This is the number one cause of DVD failure, especially in houses with children, who tend to leave their DVDs out on the floor,

So, you've recorded your cousin's wedding on your new digital camcorder, and burned it to DVDs to save for posterity. There are a number of things you can do to keep that DVD readable for a long span of time.

DVD-Rs and (even more so, DVD-RWs) have a limited shelf life. When loaded into a drive, especially after they've been written to, they get warm - which causes the very thin film of mylar that's had a series of microscopic dots burnt into it to degrade and change color, which effects playback performance. Even worse, nobody really knows how long a DVD will last for - CD-ROMs that were supposed to be archival data good for centuries have proven to be unreadable after a decade, and DVDs, with their smaller spot size, are likely to be even more sensitive to the passage of time.

So, here are things you can do to take care of your optical media.

1) Don't put them in direct sunlight, or let them sit in hot rooms. Both of these will cause the Mylar film that the data is written on to delaminate, hastening the aging process.

2) Don't scratch them. Much like CD-ROMs, scratches (and even dust) can render a DVD-ROM unreadable. It's even worse for DVD-RWs, which "erase" data by filling in some of the holes in the mylar, and overwrite existing files by filling and reburning the patterns of holes in the mylar layer.

3) Make sure they're in their cases when not in use. This is the number one cause of DVD failure, especially in houses with children, who tend to leave their DVDs out on the floor,

cially after they've been written to, they get warm - which causes the very thin film of mylar that's had a series of microscopic dots burnt into it to degrade and change color, which effects playback performance. Even worse, nobody really knows how long a DVD will last for - CD-ROMs that were supposed to be archival data good for centuries have proven to be unreadable after a decade, and DVDs, with their smaller spot size, are likely to be even more sensitive to the passage of time.

So, here are things you can do to take care of your optical media.

1) Don't put them in direct sunlight, or let them sit in hot rooms. Both of these will cause the Mylar film that the data is written on to delaminate, hastening the aging process.

2) Don't scratch them. Much like CD-ROMs, scratches (and even dust) can render a DVD-ROM unreadable. It's even worse for DVD-RWs, which "erase" data by filling in some of the holes in the mylar, and overwrite existing files by filling and reburning the patterns of holes in the mylar layer.

3) Make sure they're in their cases when not in use. This is the number one cause of DVD failure, especially in houses with children, who tend to leave their DVDs out on the floor,

e archival data good for centuries have proven to be unreadable after a decade, and DVDs, with their smaller spot size, are likely to be even more sensitive to the passage of time.

So, here are things you can do to take care of your optical media.

1) Don't put them in direct sunlight, or let them sit in hot rooms. Both of these will cause the Mylar film that the data is written on to delaminate, hastening the aging process.

2) Don't scratch them. Much like CD-ROMs, scratches (and even dust) can render a DVD-ROM unreadable. It's even worse for DVD-RWs, which "erase" data by filling in some of the holes in the mylar, and overwrite existing files by filling and reburning the patterns of holes in the mylar layer.

3) Make sure they're in their cases when not in use. This is the number one cause of DVD failure, especially in houses with children, who tend to leave their DVDs out on the floor,

sit in hot rooms. Both of these will cause the Mylar film that the data is written on to delaminate, hastening the aging process.

2) Don't scratch them. Much like CD-ROMs, scratches (and even dust) can render a DVD-ROM unreadable. It's even worse for DVD-RWs, which "erase" data by filling in some of the holes in the mylar, and overwrite existing files by filling and reburning the patterns of holes in the mylar layer.

3) Make sure they're in their cases when not in use. This is the number one cause of DVD failure, especially in houses with children, who tend to leave their DVDs out on the floor,

f the holes in the mylar, and overwrite existing files by filling and reburning the patterns of holes in the mylar layer.

3) Make sure they're in their cases when not in use. This is the number one cause of DVD failure, especially in houses with children, who tend to leave their DVDs out on the floor, spill soda on them, and in general act as children do.

4) Make backups. If you've got a DVD-R, make backups of your most important DVDs -like your children's favorite movie - so that the original can be kept in a climate controlled room in the dark, to make more duplicates of when the children destroy the disk by squabbling.

5) Burn to DVD-R for archival purposes, and long term archival purposes, rather than DVD-RW. Because the media that's written to is thicker, DVD-Rs tend to age better than DVDs.

6) Back it up to a secondary hard drive that's kept off site.

Of course, to get the most out of your DVD-R drive, you'll need to keep the drive mechanism cleaned up and well dusted, and buying higher quality (archival quality) media is something to consider - though the formats themselves haven't been round long enough to know if the archival media gives a significant edge in long term readability.

All that said, some care and forethought means you'll be able to embarrass your cousin with their wedding videos for years to come! Welcome to the digital age!