Doug Williams Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 DVD-R has a finite life. At work, we already have DVD-R media from 2003+ that is no longer readable. Compare this with the earliest commercially produced compact disks from the 1980s, which are still playable. CD-R and DVD-R media has a very finite shelf life as compared to commercially produced media. Look it up. BFC has "gone cheap" since Gustav Line, with their disks. DVD-R.....really? IMO, BFC should probably just abandon their physical product and only offer "download only" options. Man up, BFC. Either offer a real physical product, or just go download only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball_E8 Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 What would you suggest as an alternative then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lt Belenko Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 What would you suggest as an alternative then? How about life time down load... Oh wait!! they already o that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cid250 Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Oh No!. DVD-R is also the format for Market Garden?. It's sad... i've just preordered it. The only reason to buy a DVD, is the long life storage backup, in order to avoid long download times or as a backup for Hard Disk removals. If it's just a DVD-R, then it doesn't have any sense to buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball_E8 Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Oh No!. DVD-R is also the format for Market Garden?. It's sad... i've just preordered it. The only reason to buy a DVD, is the long life storage backup, in order to avoid long download times or as a backup for Hard Disk removals. If it's just a DVD-R, then it doesn't have any sense to buy it. Yeah, I didn't notice this before. It means I wasted a ton of money on shipping I wanted them on a physical format just so that I could be guaranteed to play them even if BFC should go under (you never know). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 I am not really "up" on these matters, so there is probably some reason why this is a silly question, but is it not possible once one has the game—either on disk or via DL—to re-record onto a more durable format? Aren't there more durable formats of comparable capacity? Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 What would you suggest as an alternative then? Hand written on sheets of acid-free vellum by Franciscan monks. Preferably in gilt, and illuminated. Edit: Actually, that sounds rather lovely. Hmm. I wonder if they'd do a limited edition of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanonier Reichmann Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 What would you suggest as an alternative then? How about in the same format that the original CMx1 games were done? I still have my DVD's of these games and they're still perfectly fit for use more than 10 years down the track. Regards KR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 I am not really "up" on these matters, so there is probably some reason why this is a silly question, but is it not possible once one has the game—either on disk or via DL—to re-record onto a more durable format? Aren't there more durable formats of comparable capacity? Michael Not really. The problem here is that the DVD-R stuff you can make at home is a lot less durable than the commercially made regular DVDs. BFC apparently uses DVD-Rs in the first place and you can't make the real stuff at home in quantities of one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herr_oberst Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 First thing I do with a download is run it through Time Machine on the Mac (HDD backup) -- you do backup your machine don't you? Then I burn a disc to backup again. When the real disc arrives, it goes straight into a steel case. Never had an issue that I couldn't resurrect an install from one of those sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 Yeah a backup to a single disk with no snapshots, when neither the primary computer nor the backup, whatever you use, have ECC memory is really reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball_E8 Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 This makes me regret that I didn't pick download on all the purchases I made. Any chance that BFC would provide downloads if we provide them with the correct license keys? I really cannot afford paying twice for my games just so I can be sure they will be safe 10 years from now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted September 6, 2013 Author Share Posted September 6, 2013 Some of you seemingly don't understand what I am talking about. Commercially produced CDs and DVDs have a shelf life that is probably longer than any of us will live. All the CDs that I bought way back in the 1980s, when CDs were a new format, still play just fine. CD-R and DVD-R media is different. It only has a finite shelf life. Like I said in my OP, we already have CD-R media at work that is becoming unreadable after ten years. Up until Gustav Line, the media I have received from Big Time Software/Battlefront.com has appeared to be commercially produced media (I always buy physical product). With Gustav Line, the appearance of the media I received suggests it is DVD-R. This means it will have a finite shelf life. This lessens the value of buying the physical product, and just seems el-cheapo to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 This makes me regret that I didn't pick download on all the purchases I made. Any chance that BFC would provide downloads if we provide them with the correct license keys? I really cannot afford paying twice for my games just so I can be sure they will be safe 10 years from now... Yes I think that BFC should retroactively give free downloads to people who got DVD-Rs now. The time advantage of download purchase doesn't apply anymore anyway so the money point should be moot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poesel Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 IIRC everyone who bought physical media also got a download key? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball_E8 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 IIRC everyone who bought physical media also got a download key? I doubt it since it costs 10 bucks more to buy both download and physical... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pak40 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 I doubt it since it costs 10 bucks more to buy both download and physical... uhh :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball_E8 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 uhh :confused: At least it did when I bought the CMBN and CMFI bundles. I had to add 10 bucks if I wanted both download and physical. Never got a download code for CMFI (which I opted to buy only physical) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Then I guess I must be wrong, but I always thought that if you paid for the disk you automatically got the DL as well. :confused: Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pak40 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Damn, it seems Oddball is right. I just used WayBackMachine to load the May 2011 page for Battlefront.com. Buyers had 3 options back then: 1. Download only - $55 2. Mail only - $55 3. Download and Mail - $65 I guess I didn't remember that because I bought option 3 and always assumed the downloads were included if you got the hardcopy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddball_E8 Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 Yup. Had I known, I would not have gotten MG on hardcopy. Too late now, but when Bagration comes out I will be going download only. No point in having a hardcopy if it deteriorates that quickly. I am actually somewhat dissapointed in you BFC Please make it so that hardcopy users can download after a certain period of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pak40 Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 The Market Garden preorder is Mail and download, so it's not a big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 The Market Garden preorder is Mail and download, so it's not a big deal. It will be once regular orders become available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Damn, it seems Oddball is right. I just used WayBackMachine to load the May 2011 page for Battlefront.com. Buyers had 3 options back then: 1. Download only - $55 2. Mail only - $55 3. Download and Mail - $65 I guess I didn't remember that because I bought option 3 and always assumed the downloads were included if you got the hardcopy. Right, this is what it is. BFC does some monetization here by asking people to pay a couple bucks more if they want to play instantly *and* have the nice physical package. That is quite all right, except that if they use non-durable physical media that creates a problem, especially since (as this thread shows) a lot of people are completely ignorant of the fact and what homemade DVD-r means, actually. This can quickly lead to the loss of the game media. Again I think it would be a nice compromise and preserve the monetization if the physical-only package came with a download option that kicks in later. So people could still pay more money for instant download but we won't have to deal with failing media in the future. Alternative, how about going back to deal DVDs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 I thought there was no longer a time limit on downloads. And in any case BFC seems good at allowing extra downloads if a customer has a good reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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