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

[Kyle_D]

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.

Strict interpretation of the DMCA renders it illegal to back-up your own DVD/Blu-ray/UHD collection in the U.S., so I believe any "how-to" discussion is not permitted under current forum rules. That said, back-ups are legal in other countries, and instructions are easily found elsewhere online. I also believe Zappiti sells a device for backing-up your collection in Europe.

 

[David Norman]

Never heard of so many discs suddenly having issues. First thought was the player, but multiple standalone players and a PC BDROM it sounds like certainly makes that even harder to believe.

I guess 1st suggestion assuming you haven't already done so is a thorough cleaning even if they look spotless. At this point nothing really to lose.

If you know of someone else with a player outside your system, have them try it just to make sure there isn't something in your system chain that isn't fouled up. If you're running things through multiple components (reeceiver, distribution chains, HTPC, etc) maybe take your best player and run an HDMI directly to the Monitor -- 1 cable, direct connection to eliminate PC's or Receivers or processing issues.

 

[cda1143]

Never heard of so many discs suddenly having issues. First thought was the player, but multiple standalone players and a PC BDROM ...
If you know of someone else with a player outside your system, have them try it just to make sure there isn't something in your system chain that isn't fouled up. If you're running things through multiple components (reeceiver, distribution chains, HTPC, etc) maybe take your best player and run an HDMI directly to the Monitor -- 1 cable, direct connection to eliminate PC's or Receivers or processing issues.

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? ...

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....

I'm in this camp as well. It's just not possible for this ratio of discs to go bad unless you're storing them in your swimming pool.

With over a thousand discs, it's certainly reasonable for Billchip to have 7 fail. That's about on a par with many of us. But 7 out of 8 points to something else.

Diagnosing BillChip's problem might be clarified by taking care with our terminology. "Disc rot" is a term usually reserved for a specific type of degradation that you can see. "Bronzing" is another such term. Maybe half of my failed discs have been due to those two causes. The rest have developed errors without any visible degradation at all.

...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....

All disks were stored in my living room at tolerable temperatures....
I ran Independence Day through the VOS utility and it found many bad data sectors on the disk.

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

I'm not quite sure what a data error is. Nor am I certain about black screen with audio ok and distorted video. Those seem to indicate a system problem somewhere in your chain, rather than a disc that can not be read. Discs that can't be read freeze at some point. I've never had one continue playing audio only or with distorted video. If this is the case, try David's suggestions.

Good luck.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Since I got into this hobby around 1997, I’ve had exactly 1 failure: the first print DVD of The Kentucky Fried Movie sometime in the very early 2000s, if I remember correctly.

Otherwise, I’ve never experienced a LD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, or 4K UHD failure.

 

[Carl David]

Strict interpretation of the DMCA renders it illegal to back-up your own DVD/Blu-ray/UHD collection in the U.S., so I believe any "how-to" discussion is not permitted under current forum rules. That said, back-ups are legal in other countries, and instructions are easily found elsewhere online. I also believe Zappiti sells a device for backing-up your collection in Europe.

Yes.

Just found out that in a thread I recently started earlier:

Has anyone got a Zappiti NAS 4K HDR SE?

Thinking about digitising my disc collection and looking at the options available. The Zappiti NAS looks like a decent piece of kit that is well made and functional. Is there anyone who has one of these who can comment on if they are worth the purchase?

www.hometheaterforum.com

Funny enough it was asking if anyone had a Zappiti.

 

[David Norman]

I'm not quite sure what a data error is. Nor am I certain about black screen with audio ok and distorted video. Those seem to indicate a system problem somewhere in your chain, rather than a disc that can not be read. Discs that can't be read freeze at some point. I've never had one continue playing audio only or with distorted video. If this is the case, try David's suggestions.

Good luck.

VSO Inspector is a freeware PC BDROM program that scans and checks a disc for errors -- it works for many burned discs as well as commecial replicated discs. It's very similar to scanning a Hard Drive for sector issues. I've used it commonly to check specific discs like the Criterion Bronzed disc (and some that refused to load without bronzing) , many DVD (some new, some used) that were scratched or undamaged but refused to play correctly . While it's certainly not foolproof, it's pretty good at finding discs with read errors in the folder structure, master read sectors, and actual data corruption from many causes. A few and the disc will still play sometimes without being able to notce. Often I've had disc scan the 1st layer fine, but then at/near the layer change the errors become common and then constant.

 

[JoshZ]

Since I got into this hobby around 1997, I’ve had exactly 1 failure: the first print DVD of The Kentucky Fried Movie sometime in the very early 2000s, if I remember correctly.

Otherwise, I’ve never experienced a LD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, or 4K UHD failure.

I've got a dud copy of Total Recall on UHD that won't play through Chapter 2 without freezing. I discovered this after the return period expired, so I wound up just buying a second copy, which plays fine.

You want the defective one? Maybe you'll have better luck with it.

 

[jayembee]

Since I got into this hobby around 1997, I’ve had exactly 1 failure: the first print DVD of The Kentucky Fried Movie sometime in the very early 2000s, if I remember correctly.

Otherwise, I’ve never experienced a LD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, or 4K UHD failure.

Back in the LD days, there were an uncountable number of people going on about "laser rot", many of whom insisted that it was far more widespread than it was. The trouble was that most of them didn't really understand what laser rot actually was, and used the term for just about any problem one can imagine could happen with the disc image.

Up until late in 2004 (when I was moving, and had to pack all my LDs up), I made a point of checking every single one of my LDs at least once a year for signs of rot. With LDs, it was easy to do so pretty quickly. Typically, the rot issue started at the outer rim of the discs, so one just had to look for symptoms that the "end" of each side (since the laser read from the center out to the rim). I'd ultimately had more than 2000 LDs pass through my hands (didn't keep them all), and had fewer than a dozen show any signs of rot.

By the time I had my discs set up in the new place, I wasn't checking them any more. At that point, the most recently released disc in my collection was seven years old, and I figured that if a disc hadn't rotted by then, it probably wasn't going to.

The funny thing is that I would continue to see LDs being offered for sale on eBay and similar places as "Still Sealed", which I thought was a crazy point of value. If it was still sealed, then it was never watched, so there wouldn't even be a chance of a guarantee that it didn't have any rot.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The funny thing is that I would continue to see LDs being offered for sale on eBay and similar places as "Still Sealed", which I thought was a crazy point of value. If it was still sealed, then it was never watched, so there wouldn't even be a chance of a guarantee that it didn't have any rot.

That continues with any kind of out of print physical media on resale sites today, and I gotta tell you, if I’m looking at two similarly priced listings for any kind of disc or tape, “new and sealed” takes a backseat to “used, but tested and works fine” every time.

 

[Sultanofcinema]

I owned about 475 LD's and about 25 of them suffered issues. I was told certain pressing plants used inferior glue or stored them improperly awaiting shipment. The best discs I had NO issues with were the ones pressed in Japan. Mostly Giallo's and Hong Kong Action movies. Agree with your assessment above about where to check for rot. The one disc that really made me angry was when I got The Wild Bunch in the middle of a hot summer. Instead of the postman walking to my front shaded porch, he TIED the disc across the top of the mailbox so it cooked in the sun for a few hours. It would have taken him one minute to walk up to my front porch and I bet he spent 10 min tying up that LD.

 

[jayembee]

I owned about 475 LD's and about 25 of them suffered issues. I was told certain pressing plants used inferior glue or stored them improperly awaiting shipment. The best discs I had NO issues with were the ones pressed in Japan. Mostly Giallo's and Hong Kong Action movies. Agree with your assessment above about where to check for rot. The one disc that really made me angry was when I got The Wild Bunch in the middle of a hot summer. Instead of the postman walking to my front shaded porch, he TIED the disc across the top of the mailbox so it cooked in the sun for a few hours. It would have taken him one minute to walk up to my front porch and I bet he spent 10 min tying up that LD.

Production issues affected most pressing plants at one time or another, but yes, the most reliable ones were the Kuraray and Mitsubishi plants in Japan. And, aside from a relatively short issue with Imation/3M at one point, the worst was the Sony DADC plant in Terra Haute. But I generally had good luck even with those. My copies of even some of the most notorious rotters (eg, Heavy Metal) were clean as a whistle.

And, quite frankly, I never took pains to control the environment my discs were stored in. I was living in an apartment building, and I had ex-office bookcases (whose shelves were tall enough to accomodate LDs) in my living room, and even during the dog days of summer, I'd have the windows open, so the discs lived in the same temperature and humidity as I did.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I've got a dud copy of Total Recall on UHD that won't play through Chapter 2 without freezing. I discovered this after the return period expired, so I wound up just buying a second copy, which plays fine.

You want the defective one? Maybe you'll have better luck with it.

If only I didn’t already have that UHD.

 

[cda1143]

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.

My Manhattan's also bad.

 

[Bartman]

I had several laserdiscs with rot in my collection of approx. 150. I had one CD rot in my collection of approx. 2000 but, of course, repeat plays since 1985 (when I first started collecting) are infrequent. My Sony BDP-S6700 player has played very scratched Netflix DVDs fine. I recently purchased a used CD with a small scratch, out of my many players, only a BDP-S1700 & S6700 would play thru the scratch. It appears that Sony series of players has superior technology!

 

[mackjay]

I'm sorry to hear about this happening to you, and I hope you don't find any more bad discs in the collection.
I've only had one go bad pretty soon on me: a 2002 Columbia/Sony DVD of Curse of/Night of the Demon, with both versions on one disc It played for a couple of years and then went bad.

 

[andersmo]

So far, I've only had one single Blu-ray title going bad on me, out of hundreds in my collection. That's the French edition of Faubourg 36 (Paris 36). I've even acquired a second and a third copy, just to find them as bad - completely unplayable. The players won't even recognize that there's a disc in the drive. I've written e-mails to Pathé in France, asking how to get the bad copies replaced, but no reply.

Apparently, this is a known problem with some discs manufactured in France in 2008-2009:

Why do Blu-ray discs become unreadable and how do you fix this problem? - Son-Vidéo.com: blog

Découvrez pourquoi les disques Blu-ray deviennent illisibles et comment facilement y remédier ou échanger un disque blu-ray illisible.

blog.son-video.com

 

[mskaye]

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

The cause of the rot on Never Say Never Again is that horrible score. It has infected the entire disc and put it on the path to self destruct. Forgive the interjection. Now back to the real rot discussion.

 

[Keith Cobby]

The cause of the rot on Never Say Never Again is that horrible score. It has infected the entire disc and put it on the path to self destruct. Truly one of the worst hires and one of the greatest missed opportunities in cinema history. Not that NSNA is a great film. Let's just say it could have been a lot better but that score ruins what is potentially decent.

I replaced the two opera discs (huge favourites) but never got around to replacing the Bond!

 

[JediFonger]

have you tried ripping it, not using the utility to read sectors, but just rip it. if it rips, it should work, the disc.

like many i've been a optical disc collector since laserdisc days. i think i've only experienced once maybe twice in the many decades since. it's EXTREMELY RARE.

 

[cda1143]

have you tried ripping it, not using the utility to read sectors, but just rip it. if it rips, it should work, the disc.

like many i've been a optical disc collector since laserdisc days. i think i've only experienced once maybe twice in the many decades since. it's EXTREMELY RARE.

I checked my database. I’ve owned 1139 DVDs, BDs and UHDs since 1997. Of those 19 have gone bad - that I know of. That’s a rate of 1.7%. With a current collection of 1068, it’s likely there are more bad discs of which I am unaware.

I consider a failure rate of even 2% over 25 years as quite respectable. Not sure it fits the definition of EXTREMELY RARE.