Blu-ray rot on many of my Blu-ray discs (2 Viewers)

[BillChip]

I have started trying to play bluray discs from my collection. So far of the first 8, 7 have been damaged by rot - data errors, black screen (with audio ok) and distorted video. I have examined the discs and see no physical damage or discoloration. I have tried them in a LG 4k player, two Panasonic players - 420k and 820k, and my Sony Playstation 3.
Anybody else finding this problem.
One of the discs is Antman and Wasp from 2019. The others were older from various labels.
I have over 1,000 discs. I'm worried that they may be trash.

 

[Indy Guy]

I have not encountered this on BR, only some Warner DVD's and bargain basement dvd collections. Do you live in a humid or hot climate? Are the discs stored in an average temperature room?

 

[titch]

There are well-documented oxidising problems associated with 24 old Criterion blu-rays (Criterion replace all affected discs, even out of print titles, without hesitation). The only other oxidised blu-ray I have encountered was Wallace and Gromit: The Complete Collection (2009). I have over 6000 titles (most of them from the US) and the vast majority of them have not been checked. I randomly pull out a title most nights and they all play fine.

 

[Alan Tully]

Oh, how we hate to see threads like this one!

We have the perfect transfer of our favourite film, ours for life...only the universe has other ideas; it's called entropy. We make things & hope they'll last: Blu-rays, buildings, paintings ect, but they're all trying to fall apart from day one. There was a good YouTube video about disc life (that I can't find now), tiny (near invisible) objects find their way into the plastic mix of the disc & all is fine for a while (years, decades), but eventually they do start to react with the material around them, & when you have just so much information tightly packed into a Blu-ray, something gives.

Am I right in thinking that digital storage is still a huge headache for the Hollywood studios?

 

[jayembee]

I haven't encountered any older Blu-rays that have any sort of rot (or any other kind) issues.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

I had Broken Embraces (Sony), Manhattan and Annie Hall go on me . They just do not play at all. I'm afraid to purchase another copy. I don't want the same thing to happen unless anyone knows of a different version region free somewhere of these titles. I don't see the Woody Allen's being redone in the near future.

 

[David_B_K]

Three of my Blu-rays (that I know of) have succumbed to rot:

1.) Diamonds are Forever (from the Bond 50 Blu-ray set)
2.) The Opera Gala Live From Baden-Baden (the one with Netrebko)
3.) Bizet's Carmen

I replaced the Opera Gala (which may be out of print now) and Carmen. I bought a digital of Diamonds Are Forever.

 

[Desslar]

Oh, how we hate to see threads like this one!

We have the perfect transfer of our favourite film, ours for life...only the universe has other ideas; it's called entropy. We make things & hope they'll last: Blu-rays, buildings, paintings ect, but they're all trying to fall apart from day one. There was a good YouTube video about disc life (that I can't find now), tiny (near invisible) objects find their way into the plastic mix of the disc & all is fine for a while (years, decades), but eventually they do start to react with the material around them, & when you have just so much information tightly packed into a Blu-ray, something gives.

Am I right in thinking that digital storage is still a huge headache for the Hollywood studios?

The Academy put out a big report about this problem about 10 years back, but I'm not sure what they are up to lately. I expect it is still a major concern for film archivists.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Three of my Blu-rays (that I know of) have succumbed to rot:

1.) Diamonds are Forever (from the Bond 50 Blu-ray set)
2.) The Opera Gala Live From Baden-Baden (the one with Netrebko)
3.) Bizet's Carmen

I replaced the Opera Gala (which may be out of print now) and Carmen. I bought a digital of Diamonds Are Forever.

I have had three as well:
Also the Opera Gala, and The Berlin Concert (both Deutsche Grammophon, a quality label)
Never Say Never Again

 

[Will Krupp]

I'm sorry, but I can't help but being a little skeptical that there isn't something else going on here. The first seven out of eight discs were bad in ALL four of those players? We need more information as that doesn't make any real sense.

 

[Traveling Matt]

The Academy put out a big report about this problem about 10 years back, but I'm not sure what they are up to lately. I expect it is still a major concern for film archivists.

Tis why only film is archival.

 

[Kyle_D]

I'm sorry, but I can't help but being a little skeptical that there isn't something else going on here. The first seven out eight discs were bad in ALL four of those players? We need more information as that doesn't make any real sense.

Agreed. In 2021, I backed up over 1000 blu-ray discs in my collection, some dating back to the 2006 format launch, and less than 5 had fallen victim to rot. (Manhattan, which someone else mentioned above, was one of the titles.)

It's much more likely that the discs are scratched or were stored improperly.

 

[Douglas R]

I'm always puzzled (sceptical?) about these reports. I'm often re-viewing old Blu-ray discs and have never had one fail.

 

[cda1143]

I would guess around 1% of mine have failed over time.

 

[John Sparks]

I would think that some of us with very large collections will be a hit or miss to find a bad disc,

 

[BillChip]

I'm sorry, but I can't help but being a little skeptical that there isn't something else going on here. The first seven out eight discs were bad in ALL four of those players? We need more information as that doesn't make any real sense.

All disks were stored in my living room at tolerable temperatures. The four devices are the LG UP970, Sony Playstation 3, Panasonic DP-UB820 and DB-UB420. The disks are Independence Day, Reign of Fire, Tenet, Antman and the Wasp, Sharpes Rifles - 3,4. The only one that has played with only a few black spots was Sharpes Rifles 1,2.
I ran Independence Day through the VOS utility and it found many bad data sectors on the disk.

 

[BillChip]

Independence Day and Reign of Fire have been played annually for many years with no issues until this year.

 

[Carl David]

Sorry to hear this.

Has many people backed up their disc collection?

I have seen a few dedicated devices where you can transfer your disc to digital form.

Some look really practical as they have a very slick GUI where each digital movie transferred has a picture file of the movie with it so very similar to browsing movies like on Netflix.

Can anyone recommend any models they have which are very well made?

Thinking about backing up my collection because time does not favour anyone's collection.

 

[titch]

If oxidising is the cause, it's easy to see bronzing on the disc - this I noticed on all the bad Criterions, as well as the Wallace and Gromit. It isn't often that I watch older blu-ray titles, as widespread poor mastering, encoding and audio quality for the first seven or eight years, means that they seldom look good projected onto a large screen. Also, I would guess 20% of my older titles have been changed out, because of remastering, or newly issued 4K discs.

 

[BillChip]

I cannot see any physical changed in the disks, no discoloration or scratches.