Todd Stout

I have been buying CDs since late 1985 and probably own around 2000 of them currently. I have so far only encountered what appears to be rot in one of them. It is the 1987 self titled Whitesnake CD which I purchased that same year. About a year ago I noticed circular discolorations in the disc which when held up to the light have small holes in the centers. Interestingly enough, it still seems to play okay. Thankfully that is a CD that is still in print and I just bought a new copy to be safe.

Eric F

Once again, a case of Urban Legend being carried by the press as fact.

Poor handling or a manufacturing defect does not = DVD ROT.

Todd Robertson

nothing is rotting. it's delamination and it's because of piss-poor quality control at the pressing plants. we can blame the cases and hubs all we want. the problem, I believe, starts at the plant. born to be bad. it's easier to blame everything else because who the hell will listen at the plants? forget about it.

I have thousands of LP's and they all play like champs...and they are not falling apart. the vinyl is outlasting discs....what a joke. seems like a damn nightmare. I've had 17 out of over 1,500 dvd titles...go bad. I'm so anal about my care for the library that people think I'm nuts. I even encase EVERY dvd in it's own plastic, re-sealable sleeve/bag. you coudnt find 1 dvd with a fingerprint...unless it was put there by someone at the plant!! improper bonding is a big problem. using poor materials is another. not paying attention and not giving a damn is a huge problem too. lets face it....quality control is taking a nap in the back room...and nobody it seems can do a damn thing about it.

everybody wants to kill off dvd so they can have their blue lasers or HD-DVD or whatever you want to call the next format. be warned. the neglected problems of the dvd will re-surface on the next and the next and the next disc format. the problem will continue on...because nobody cared. longevity is the issue. not big-headed covers, snappers, forced trailers, no inserts...we cry about the dumbest things. now a dvd not lasting because of manufacturing problems...I wish more people would pop out of denial and shed tears over that. priorities are all messed up...someone, please, take control.

btw...I have a few thousand cd's....omly about 30 problem discs...but I cant say they were in perfect shape either. it's not cd's I'm worried about anyway. my radio station was one of the first to feature cd music back in the 80's. in 1988 I talked about the pinholes forming in some discs. thats right...we knew about it then.

My DVD/Film Library
dvd folders under construction:wink:

CraigF

^^ I agree. We were charged a premium price for these media LARGELY based on the supposition that they would last "forever". It sure isn't manufacturing cost, as we all know what we can make a CD or DVD for ourselves (never mind "their" cost), and it ain't royalties, not when VHS sells for half the price of the same thing on DVD.

I sure hope *something* is done if these media start failing in massive numbers across the board, they can't blame it just on disc treatment by owners.

There may be some hype in this article. An occasional disc pinholing or delaminating is acceptable, in that sometimes things go wrong, and bad batches of everything sometimes get made (I get more concerned about cars myself). I have occasionally heard of somebody with an unusually large number of failed discs, and then I really have to blame it on the owner and their handling/storage. I have noticed that people who grew up in the age of LP's tend to treat discs a little more carefully, though some people abuse everything.

Michael Hall

Randy, this might certainly be the case with a lot of people, but PDO came right out and admitted their mistake and have taken steps to rectify it, and in their particular case, it is a very widespread problem. I'm certainly glad that you seem to have lucked out and not had this happen to any of your discs, but many are/were not that lucky. Like I said in my first post, I am very anal retentive when it comes to taking care of my discs, be they CD or DVD, and out of about 700 or so CDs in my collection, I've only had "rot" on three discs, and all three of those were pressed by PDO UK in the early 1990's.

In general, having scratches on your CD is one thing and most likely the owner's fault; having your CD turn brown for no reason is a completely different matter. While I see many people's point that some are using "rot" as an excuse for their own poor handling of their discs, the fact remains that "real rot" is happening to people who are very careful in handling their collections, so to say that "rot" is a total fabrication or urban legend is not accurate at all.

Randy A Salas

Then you are not one of the people whom I said regularly report problems.



I never said that.

Randy A. Salas
DVD Columnist & Feature Writer
Minneapolis Star Tribune daily newspaper

Michael St. Clair

It's considered 'rot' because the disc's ability to play deteriorates over time. 'Rot' is a perfect word to describe the problem.

Carlo Medina

Light and heat can really do a number on CDs over time.

I have some 500-600 CDs dating back to 1988, and not one of them suffers from rot. Of course, I'm also anal about my CDs (keep them indoors, away from heat, etc.). I do have a friend who kept a CD in his car (in it's case but out in the open) for years and the thing looks like it might be on its last legs.

Here at work we use Imation CD-Rs and one of them which was left in the sun literally had the protective coating peel right off (and is useless now).

I've had more instances of DVD-rot though (mostly early RSDL discs)...

Chris Stainton

Yesterday I started holding my oldest cd's up to a light to see if they had any problems. I did notice tiny pinholes in certain discs. I played the very first cd I ever bought (purchased in early 87), which had the pinholes and it played perfectly.

I also checked a disc that I just bought and it too had a couple pinholes. It plays fine as well.

Michael Hall

Didn't mean for it to sound like I was saying you had, Randy. The second paragraph of my post was speaking more in general terms. My apologies if it came across as a personal thing, as it was not inteded to be so.

Joshua_W

I have that Faith No More "Live at the Brixton Academy" CD, so I ran to my collection and checked it.

As soon as I opened the case, I noticed a brownish discoloration running along the rim of the CD on the label side. I took out the CD, and it felt odd in my hand, almost like the edge had been buffed or something. It just didn't "feel" like a normal CD.

I immediately flipped the CD over, and the playing side looked completely normal with no discoloration.

I played the first and last tracks, and both seemed to sound fine. ("Falling to Pieces," the first track, sounded a bit muffled, but I think that was due to it being a live recording. "The Cowboy Song," a studio cut, sounded okay.)

Despite this, I immediatley made a copy of the CD to CD-R just in case. I'll listen to it all the way through later tonight and see if there are any problems with playback.