this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
325 points (98.8% liked)

Technology

59978 readers
3659 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s
[email protected]
[email protected]
L4s
enu
325
LG stops making Blu-ray players, marking the end of an era — limited units remain while inventory lasts (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/technology
95 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Digital streaming is displacing the last remnants of physical media.

In a disappointing turn of events, FlatpanelsHD reports that LG has ended production of its Blu-ray player series, which includes the UBK80 and UBK90 models. With limited stock available, prospective buyers should act quickly to secure the last remaining units before they are sold out.

After Samsung and Sony's departure from physical media, LG was one of the last major manufacturers of Blu-ray players

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The device itself degrades from writes, but the data degrades anyway as long as it is not powered. The bits are stored as charges in tiny capacitors, and if you leave it unpowered this charge gradually leaks away, leading to data loss over the long term. The device needs to be powered up to be able to refresh the charges and preserve the data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Are you sure? Do you have a link to more info on this claim?

If true, I want to know if its orders of years or decades od centuries or millennium

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Accounts differ but most reports say a low number of years. Older flash memory is more stable than the newer stuff, because it only stored one value per tiny capacitor, so the charge had to drop by 50% for the bit to be lost. In newer flash memory they use each cell to store more than one bit, which means they need to make finer discriminations between charge levels, so there's less tolerance for weakening charge levels. Many people report losing data after only a couple of years unpowered with modern devices. Some older devices can go for more than a decade. I don't have any studies to hand but if you search for information about bit rot in flash memory you will find plenty of discussions online.

If you power up the device and read all the data, this will refresh the charges.