WARNING - Be Careful How You Store Your Collection (1 Viewer)

To save space, I took about half of my Blu-rays from their keep cases (kept the art work) and put them into Case Logic albums (I use the 104-disc capacity model). Obviously I have indexes and I number each slot in each album with a color-coded Avery spot so I can easily find that I want. Last week I decided to just start re-watching a bunch of films I hadn't seen for a while, and arbitrarily pulled one case from my shelves. Now, understand these are not BD-R's, they are commercial copies.

The first two movies I chose to watch were 1408 and KNOWING. Both of them pixilated and froze at roughly where the layer change would probably occur. This had not happened when I'd first watched them. I was able to play the next two, but the fifth, GONE BABY GONE, did the same thing. I have two players, both firmware-updated (a Sony 3-D and an all-region LG). These errors occurred in both machines. In addition, my computer could not even read them!

I am really disheartened...,. how many more movies in my collection are going/have gone bad? I'm frightened to play them. And, what is the cause? My apartment is never over-hot. Is there some chemical in the material of the album cases that might cause such corruption? Commercial Blu-rays should last a good long while. And.... three out of the first five Blu-rays I decide to watch have gone bad? Even in the laser disc days I did far better than that!

Anyone else having any similar issues, or have any suggestions? I don't even know for sure that the album cases are the problem, but I don't ever seem to have issues with Blu's that I still use the original keep cases for.

This is scary...

I am very sorry to hear about your experience. I have heard hearsay about Blus going bad after a few years, even when they were kept in their cases, so your Case Logic albums may not be the culprit. However, there's no telling how the material in your sleeves reacts with the scratch-proof coating on Blus. While they may have been safe for regular DVDs and CDs, we are in unchartered territory here. I appreciate you taking the time to warn everyone, and hope this is just an isolated incident. Best of luck.

Sorry to hear that.

I've been storing blu-rays and DVDs in binders for the past several years and haven't experienced any issues - not even with BD-Rs and DVD-Rs.

No problem so far with any of my older titles. They're in the original packaging, but I will occasionally take a few discs with me on the road. Only problems I have had s far are with documented issues. By far the bulk of the collection plays fine.

No problems here either. I have many I haven't viewed in a long time though... and many with plastic on them still. I certainly expected them to last.

Hmm, I have a handful of BDs stored in a battered Case Logic binder that doesn't even close properly - maybe I should check them. The rest of the binder is stuffed with old random pressed DVDs and some Warner Archive MODs. They're my "lesser" collection but I still want them to work properly. Gonna have to test a few of them out when I get home.

That sounds troubling. I've read some paranoia over on Blu-ray.com about residue inside BD cases but I've never found anything like that in any of my DVDs/BDs.

This is how I store my collection and I've never ran into any problems:


P1020386 by Marty2015McFly, on Flickr



P1020391 by Marty2015McFly, on Flickr

Dale MA said:

That sounds troubling. I've read some paranoia over on Blu-ray.com about residue inside BD cases but I've never found anything like that in any of my DVDs/BDs.

This is how I store my collection and I've never ran into any problems:


P1020386 by Marty2015McFly, on Flickr



P1020391 by Marty2015McFly, on Flickr

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That's an amazing display, Dale, and I wish I had that sort of space. I am in a cramped 1-bedroom apartment and thought I was being brilliant using album cases for storage. Maybe not.

Very cool, Dale. Awesome to just look at! Like walking into your own video store.

Dale, that's crazy beautiful. And I love the Star Wars VHS set behind the Alien bust. I've got my own someplace in storage.

Not to pile on, but dang Dale! That's awesome!

I've never been a fan of storing discs in binders or in anything but their original cases. If the culprit here is the binder, then I think I'm safe. If it's not...yikes. I'm really sorry to hear about what's going on with these discs...

In a binder, do optical discs undergo any accidental warping ?

Jason_V said:

I've never been a fan of storing discs in binders or in anything but their original cases.

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If the original packaging was completely atrocious, I usually move the discs into some extra generic dvd or bluray cases I have.

Cases of atrocious packaging is stuff like:

1 - Some or all of the disks are stacked on top of one another in spindles.
2 - The packaging warps the disks.
3 - Special packaging where the discs are difficult to take out of (or scraches the discs).

Examples of 1: recent Sony "complete tv series" dvd sets like Damages, the original Charlie's Angels, etc ...

Examples of 2: Heroes (season 4) bluray, Sanctuary (seasons 1 and 2) bluray, Psi Factor (seasons 1, 2, and 4), etc ...

Examples of 3: Star Wars - Complete Saga bluray set, "House of Cards" season 1 bluray, Indiana Jones - Complete Adventures bluray set, etc ...

jcroy said:

In a binder, do optical discs undergo any accidental warping ?

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Most have cardboard or some other kind of lining to prevent that, but it'll depend on the brand as well as how you store the binder. Optimally, discs should be kept vertically in their cases. Binders are never good as the surface sides of the disc come into contact - constantly - with the sleeve material, in addition to the possibility of warping.

I do vaguely recall reading something similar to the OP's experience but with DVDs. Something about a chemical reaction causing discs to become unreadable, with a particular brand of Amaray case being the culprit. My condolences.

I was cleaning up and stacked my Singin in the Rain boxed set on the bottom of the discs. I crushed it. I'm so upset!

Traveling Matt said:

I do vaguely recall reading something similar to the OP's experience but with DVDs. Something about a chemical reaction causing discs to become unreadable, with a particular brand of Amaray case being the culprit. My condolences.

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IIRC, it was the brand of cases that Sony used in their tv season sets during the mid-late 2000's.

Several of my Sony tv season sets from that time period, had blotches on the surfaces of the discs. The discs were still playable. (Such disc blotches were absent in tv season sets from other movie studios).

jcroy said:

If the original packaging was completely atrocious, I usually move the discs into some extra generic dvd or bluray cases I have.

Cases of atrocious packaging is stuff like:

1 - Some or all of the disks are stacked on top of one another in spindles.
2 - The packaging warps the disks.
3 - Special packaging where the discs are difficult to take out of (or scraches the discs).

Examples of 1: recent Sony "complete tv series" dvd sets like Damages, the original Charlie's Angels, etc ...

Examples of 2: Heroes (season 4) bluray, Sanctuary (seasons 1 and 2) bluray, Psi Factor (seasons 1, 2, and 4), etc ...

Examples of 3: Star Wars - Complete Saga bluray set, "House of Cards" season 1 bluray, Indiana Jones - Complete Adventures bluray set, etc ...

Click to expand...

I totally understand the reason and do believe some of the packaging out there is completely counter-intuitive. I still don't trust anything but the original packaging. Plus, it looks nicer on the shelf than the discs do in books.

tyvek sleeves are not supposed to scratch the discs. and while a lot more expensive than paper sleeves, they are still somewhat inexpensive.

As much as I've wanted to transfer my collection to binders for the space saving, I've been too scared because of this very (theoretical) scenario. So sorry to hear about this. Hopefully those are the extent of the unplayable discs. VERY curious to know what has truly caused this.

i read on another forum similar: guy went away ignored the discs and a few weeks later they played fine. i think he said the discs were under pressure in a binder.hope your discs come good dick. By the way which titles won't play?

just about every forum mentions the problem
eg
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=222571&highlight=discs+won+t+play