Complete List of DVD-Rot Known Titles? (1 Viewer)

[Harold Southard]

This list is starting to scare the hell out of me! I think I need to watch everyone of my movies now just to be sure they are ok.

 

[Mark Oates]

This is a very similar thread to one that's been going in R2 for a couple of years (I won't give a link because you have to register with the forum to read it). The problem was in discs produced by the UK Technicolor plant and seemed to come in three varieties. The more common type 1 problem was a bloom that appeared on discs and stopped them working. Around thirty to forty titles were affected, most of them MGM ones including a couple of Bond movies. The bloom could be washed off and the discs would most often play fine. Not being an expert on the actual manufacture of discs, the problem looked to me as if the discs had been wet-polished in the final production phase and a residue had been left behind which manifested itself over time. Type 2 was a similar problem, but the residue on the surface of the disc was sticky and less easy to clean off. The Type 3 problem looked like condensation between the layers of the disc (actual small blobs of material) and was inevitably fatal for the disc. The problem doesn't seem to have manifested itself recently. Most problem discs were produced between 2000 and 2002.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Bill Lustig was at a film fest here in Melbourne a couple of months back, and he screened Anchor Bay's disc of his MANIAC. The disc pixellated and broke-up completely ten minutes before the end and the screening was aborted. Bill mentioned that he'd had 'problems' with a lot of AB discs because of the faulty lacquer or something. I was irked by this as I have a lot of Anchor Bay discs and the MANIAC re-release came out well after that original batch of dodgy titles like HEATHERS and FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMEN. I couldn't imagine laying down cash on the big new DAWN OF THE DEAD box and seeing it suffer the same fate in a year or two. I'll just add that Bill was a lovely guy.

 

[Scott Strang]

My Anchor Bay copy of "FM" apparently rotted. I emailed Anchor Bay and they said it was not one of their titles but was in fact a Universal title that had been released by Goodtimes. Well I knew it was a Universal title but the Goodtimes part was new to me.

My copy says Anchor Bay on it plain as day. Guess I can't read.

 

[kingfish]

This might be a stupid question but are people storing the discs properly? Heat,humidity, cold, and direct sun can also destroy them.

 

[Cees Alons]

Perhaps some people aren't storing their discs properly, but the real problem seems unrelated to that.
I store my discs in an excellent way (I think) and between many DVDs that still play fine, my Universal DVD version of Spartacus (bought back in 1998) couldn't be played on any device, all of a sudden. The Criterion version (bought in 2001) stored next to it, still worked.
(I say "all of a sudden", because I tried to spin it for a comparison when I received an HD DVD copy - and the SDVD appeared to be totally broken. Luckily I have proper replacement apparently. /img/vbsmilies/htf/smile.gif )
Cees

 

[kingfish]

I remember reading article at the digital bits pertaining to the non play problem of older Universal dvds. I believe it also did mention Apollo 13. Newer dvd players would not play old Universal titles for some reason.

 

[Blaine]

So far, I've had the original "Moonraker" (FS & WS) fail as well as the Orange case "Vertigo"

 

[Brian McP]

Last night I watched one of the early Universal dvd releases "Dragnet" and it was as if it was brand new -- nothing wrong with it and I noticed what I'd paid for it back in 1999/2000, $33.95 -- thinking 'what a bargain' compared to the other titles on sale, even more expensive....times certainly have changed.

Dating back to laserdisc days, one of the worrying signs was when a disc would go from bright silver to a gold/brownish hue, as if it was one of those framed platinum records in the music industry. Whenever any of the laserdiscs turned that color, trouble was ahead -- I have heaps of older dvds in that state, but all seem to play fine - at the moment, anyway.

 

[classicmovieguy]

The original 'Studio Classics' DVD edition of "The Diary of Anne Frank" was dreadful - I had 2 copies crack up on me. I'm not sure how the 50th Anniversary edition is (its the same disc format - a double-sided disc with all special features on the single layered flipside). Maybe Fox manufactures them better these days.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Bill Lustig was at a film fest here in Melbourne a couple of months back, and he screened Anchor Bay's disc of his MANIAC. The disc pixellated and broke-up completely ten minutes before the end and the screening was aborted. Bill mentioned that he'd had 'problems' with a lot of AB discs because of the faulty lacquer or something. I was irked by this as I have a lot of Anchor Bay discs and the MANIAC re-release came out well after that original batch of dodgy titles like HEATHERS and FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMEN. I couldn't imagine laying down cash on the big new DAWN OF THE DEAD box and seeing it suffer the same fate in a year or two. I'll just add that Bill was a lovely guy.

I had a copy of Anchor Bay's "The Witches" (Hammer Horror) and it was pixilating on me from the very first time I watched it. I don't have a large number of the older AB's still in my collection ("Return to Oz" is still good although I hardly ever screen it, "Elvira Mistress of the Dark" is single layered). "The Witches" was the only one I had to bin, virtually fresh from opening it, which was very disappointing at the time.

 

[jcroy]

Do any of these problematic/basketcase "rotted" discs play on the computer?

In practice, I've found that some problematic/basketcase discs which freeze, skip, pixelate, won't read, etc ... on my standalone dvd players, actually play fine without any problems on the computer.

 

[Rick Z.]

My Cat People/Curse of the Cat People (Double Feature) (WB) was suddenly useless.

 

[jcroy]

Yesterday I decided to check through my old dvds from 10+ years ago. I don't have many from that time period dating back to the late-1990's through to the early-mid 2000's. (I largely didn't care much about dvds for almost the entire 2000's decade, and didn't have a dvd player for many years. The ex-wife got the dvd player in the divorce).

I only had around three dozen or so old discs to check, which I remember purchasing back then or were given to me over the years.

Except for one disc, these older decade-old+ dvds were all readable on the computer with no read errors at all in extracting the disc's entire iso. (It only takes around 5 to 12 minutes to extract a disc's iso in its entirety with the computer dvd drive running at the highest speed).

The one exceptional disk looked like it may have started developing quite a bit of "rot". It required setting the computer dvd drive at a slower speed, to extract the disc's entire iso. (Instead of taking 5 minutes to extract the iso, it took around 15 minutes at a slower drive speed).

 

[Movie Maven]

Looked at my copy of Cat People/Return.....several blotches on disc....skimmed through it seemed to play fine....been finding several discs here and there with these blotches..have been taking them out of cases and placed in case logic albums...have put complete tv series in separate cases...hopefully that will prolong their life.