Oldies.com

[Kevin Bresnahan]

7 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

The color of the CD-R does not matter. The silver ones still use organic dyes that are modified when exposed to laser light. Pressed CDs use a glass master to physically stamp the data into the disc (sort of analogous to how a vinyl record is pressed). The dyes in a CD-R are inherently less stable and more prone to degradation over time than a pressed CD.

The color indicates the type of dye used. One type of dye is better than the other. It's been too long since I've studied this, but I am pretty sure that the clear-looking dye was used in "archival" CD-R's, which means that it has the longest shelf life.

[Dave Garrett]

7 hours ago, bresna said:

The color indicates the type of dye used. One type of dye is better than the other. It's been too long since I've studied this, but I am pretty sure that the clear-looking dye was used in "archival" CD-R's, which means that it has the longest shelf life.

That may well be. The link I posted earlier had something that appeared to contradict this, stating that the dye color was a cosmetic issue, but I'm somewhat skeptical since they didn't really provide anything to back that assertion up.

I think a bigger issue is that the shelf life claims are based on accelerated aging tests rather than real-world use. I've frequently seen claims of a 300-year shelf life for Mitsui Gold CD-Rs as opposed to a 100-year shelf life for garden-variety CD-Rs. Such essentially unprovable claims instill a false sense of security in users. What's downplayed, if it's mentioned at all, is that the dyes are photosensitive and if they are exposed to direct sunlight for any length of time, they will degrade to the point that the disc becomes unreadable. This is obviously not the case with pressed CDs.