Combat-Complete Series Disc Rot (1 Viewer)

[Jack P]

I posted this in the "What was the last set you bought" thread but think it merits a new thread. I have just discovered that the first disc in all five seasons of the "Combat" complete series boxed set suffers from some major disc rot or else they were poorly packaged/handled to begin with. Unfortunately I can't vouch for whether I spot checked years ago since I've never watched more than a small sample of episodes overall. But I would suggest that those who have the complete series set check their own copies because this was an unbelievable coincidence that the first disc in all five seasons would be ruined.

 

[LeoA]

Are there obvious problems clearly evident when you visually examine them? Did you try them in a different player to see if for some reason how that first season was authored might be what's giving you grief? Did you run through every disc, or just disc 1 for each season as you did some checking? I don't doubt you, I'm just curious how you decided what the issue was (I've seen cloudyness and pin holes allowing light through as two symptoms in the past). I'm hoping there's another explanation for this, although I'm sure it's an issue we'll have to deal with more frequently as time goes on. Would be ashame to see it become a widespread issue for a nice release. And I especially don't want it creeping over to some other Image releases like Dick Van Dyke.

 

[Carabimero]

I am trying to understand if something physically happened to your discs or not in terms of what you see when you look at them as opposed to something you didn't see when you first bought them. This happened with my Flipper Season 1 set. They appeared physically fine, just as they looked when I bought them, but all at once, all the discs would not play. "Disc error" message. Turned out I needed to play them in another DVD player. Funny thing is, I have never gotten that error message again playing other DVDs on the same player that all of the sudden, one fine day, after playing FLIPPER discs for weeks with no problem, abruptly decided it wouldn't read them anymore.

 

[smithb]

I checked out my complete Combat! set and no visual indicators like what you suggested in the other thread. The only thing I can even think of (other then a manufacturing flaw) relates to the hubs in these plastic holders. They are extremely tight, especially on the top side. If the disks are bent more then normal in trying to get them out, it might cause stress that could potentially separate the layers or create micro cracking. I noticed a few people posting on Amazon reviews as having playback issues as well.

 

[Regulus]

Mine are A-OK (They were all bought individually a Deep Discount (Back when they were still good to buy from) BOGO Sale.

 

[Jack P]

All five of the first discs in the individual season sets just looked slimy on the back. They all looked like they'd had junk spilled over them. The first episode on Disc 1 Season 1 played fine when I wasn't noticing the problem. THen when I started episode #2 there was freezing. I took it out and then looked at the back the first time and noticed the horrible condition and when I put it in my computer drive I got the "Your disc is dirty etc. and can't be played" and the same freezing was on a second stand alone player. Once I saw the same condition of the other first discs for each season I didn't need to load them. The amazing thing is all other discs were fine and showed no signs of this. It was only the first disc in each season which because of that coincidence makes me wonder if it could be a packaging issue and not simply a case of they were were all that way to begin with and I just didn't notice until now.

 

[Jeff Willis]

^ It sounds like the problem that we encountered a few years ago with various TV/DVD sets when it appeared that a common vendor was the source of the chemical outgassing issue. If I recall, one of the sleeve vendors was "Scanavo" or a similar vendor name that often was machined into the plastic sleeves.

 

[kingfish]

i do know that some of the dvds that were gold colored tended to fail much more rapidly, this being the case with my two sets of the original battlestar galactica. fortunately universal provided an internet site for replacement discs.

 

[smithb]

^ It sounds like the problem that we encountered a few years ago with various TV/DVD sets when it appeared that a common vendor was the source of the chemical outgassing issue. If I recall, one of the sleeve vendors was "Scanavo" or a similar vendor name that often was machined into the plastic sleeves.

Yes, it does sound similar, but at the same time strangely different. Those cases that appeared to possibly be causing the issue back then were of the slimcase variety that always seemed to have a shiny texture with a filmly like nature to them. You could run your finger across them and see the streak. I have several of those, not just one's by Scanavo, and have tried to wipe them down but some aspect of it always remained. I check when threads like this show up and so far no rot, but with a large collection how can you always know. The Combat! disks are in a sturdy hard clear plastic case. with no external substance that I've ever experienced. Now maybe Jack's cases are showing this and not just the disks themselves. Or maybe we just attributed the issue to that substance when it was actually something else. Or maybe the out-gasing doesn't have to manifest itself physically. It sure would be nice if at some point the "disk rot" thing could be figured out (i.e., disk manufacturing, disk container, storage/care) so we could better protect our investments.