Do Blu-rays rot? (2 Viewers)

[jcroy]

I guess it is time to start collecting used diapers and bottles instead.

....

Also clay tablets.

 

[Worth]

I guess it is time to start collecting used diapers and bottles instead.

I seem to remember reading something about a plan to store data on glass (hopefully not on diapers).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have a variety of used diapers I can provide at a reasonable cost if someone wants to start building a collection fast

 

[Worth]

And here it is...

'Five-dimensional' glass discs can store data for up to 13.8 billion years

"For future civilizations — or whatever else is out there"

www.theverge.com

 

[Sam Favate]

And here it is...

'Five-dimensional' glass discs can store data for up to 13.8 billion years

"For future civilizations — or whatever else is out there"

www.theverge.com

Wow, those crystals Superman’s dad used were the real thing!

 

[Reed Grele]

Haven't had any DVD's, BD's, or UHD BD's show any signs of skipping, freezing, or rot as yet. Maybe because they're stored in a climate controlled environment.

All of my LP's and 45rpm records from the 1960's onward still play fine last I checked.

I even have hundreds of 30+ years old VHS and Beta tapes, many of which, when I was transferring them to the digital domain recently, still played fine.

Laserdiscs.... That's another story.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Not many blu-ray problems yet with the exception of a NEW Criterion Matter of Life and Death I bought at a B&N sale two years ago. They immediately replaced it. Only a Fox The Robe BD went haywire after several years. I still have the couple of Japanese CDs I was given by a music producer friend in Brazil back in 1982. Had them out recently, they still play perfectly. Several MOD titles have gone bad, but I guess that is to be expected. However, those glass discs sound GREAT. Thanks for the info, Worth! So tiny, though, I have enough trouble reading the notes in a regular blu-ray booklet now.

 

[Thomas T]

Several MOD titles have gone bad, but I guess that is to be expected.

Curiously while I've had several blu rays go bad, I've yet to have a MOD pressing go bad on me. I remember when the Warner Archives MOD program began in 2009, how many people (including right here on the HTF) denounced the program saying the MODs would go bad in a couple of years. Well, it's been 12 years now and I've yet to have any MOD go bad whereas pressed discs (both DVD and blu ray) have.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The one Warner DVD-R I had that went bad (or, to be honest, was probably defective to begin with and I just never got around to playing it when it first arrived), I reached out to the Warner Archive team on social media team and they sent me a replacement right away, they just asked that I provide the order # from the email receipt to verify that I had made the purchase. I wasn’t worried about them beforehand but I came away feeling even better about my purchases after seeing firsthand that they were so good about taking care of my issue.

 

[Thomas T]

The one Warner DVD-R I had that went bad (or, to be honest, was probably defective to begin with and I just never got around to playing it when it first arrived), I reached out to the Warner Archive team on social media team and they sent me a replacement right away, they just asked that I provide the order # from the email receipt to verify that I had made the purchase. I wasn’t worried about them beforehand but I came away feeling even better about my purchases after seeing firsthand that they were so good about taking care of my issue.

I have a large collection and don't have the time to watch everything in a timely manner (I've got discs I bought 5 years ago and still haven't watched) but when I receive the disc, the first thing I do is remove the shrink wrap and scan the discs beginning to end just to make sure there are no problems.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have a large collection and don't have the time to watch everything in a timely manner (I've got discs I bought 5 years ago and still haven't watched) but when I receive the disc, the first thing I do is remove the shrink wrap and scan the discs beginning to end just to make sure there are no problems.

I usually do and for whatever reason that one slipped through the cracks, but that’s exactly why I agree it’s a great idea to do that.

 

[jcroy]

I have a large collection and don't have the time to watch everything in a timely manner (I've got discs I bought 5 years ago and still haven't watched) but when I receive the disc, the first thing I do is remove the shrink wrap and scan the discs beginning to end just to make sure there are no problems.

This is what I always do too, by copying the entire dvd (or bluray) iso filesystem to the computer, to check for any manufacturing defects.

(It takes around 11 minutes to rip an entire 8.5 gigabytes sized dvd disc's iso, to the computer's hard drive).

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, scanning the discs is fine, but some of those problematic Warner discs from the 2008 period played fine for a few years and then died. I'm still discovering discs which once played perfectly through multiple viewings but now do not.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s that darn layer change glue, the bane of the collector’s existence

 

[Thomas Newton]

If you mean DIVX as a disc based format only sold by Circuit City back in the late-1990s, it died a painful and well-deserved death two decades ago.

There. Corrected it for you.

 

[jayembee]

Haven't had any DVD's, BD's, or UHD BD's show any signs of skipping, freezing, or rot as yet. Maybe because they're stored in a climate controlled environment.

All of my LP's and 45rpm records from the 1960's onward still play fine last I checked.

I even have hundreds of 30+ years old VHS and Beta tapes, many of which, when I was transferring them to the digital domain recently, still played fine.

Laserdiscs.... That's another story.

I don't go to any extraordinary lengths to store my discs in a climate-controlled environment, and I haven't had all that much go bad on me.

(1) Laserdiscs. I've had my share of LDs with laser-rot, but out of over 2000 that have passed through my hands, fewer than a dozen have actually had rot. Even some of the "notorious rotters" (eg. Heavy Metal) in my collection have not gone bad. I used to scan each disc once a year (in the anniversary month of when I bought it) to check it for rot. Haven't done so in the last 15 years, because at that point, if it wasn't going to rot by then (6-8 years after the demise of the format), it wasn't going to, period.

(2) DVDs. Haven't had any significant problems. Again, "notorious rotters" (eg. Warner's Contact) was fine up to the point when I replaced it with a BD. There's been a frantic issue recently about a bunch of Warner DVDs from circa 2005-2006 that have gone bad (there's a thread here about it). I've spot-checked a bunch of them, and found no problems. Except one: The Charge of the Light Brigade from the second Errol Flynn Signature Collection. After failing on one player, I tried it on two others, and it was fine.

(3) BDs. Most of the reported "bronzers" are titles I don't have. All of the reported Criterion titles that I have play fine. One other, Kagemusha, has failed.

In all cases that I'm aware of, the rotted units were the result of a QC failure at a specific replicator. The only problems that I've heard of related to a format issue are failures of DVD-18s, which are dual-layered and dual-sided, and are apparently more prone to failure than DVDs that are either dual-layered or dual-sided.

I haven't tried to watch any of my horrendously large collection of Beta/VHS tapes (commercial or home-recorded). Any that I have had problems with have been the result of tracking errors. Or one period where I had rented a tape from a Blockbuster that flaked during playback. I had to take the deck apart, and give it a thorough cleaning, after which everything was fine.

 

[jayembee]

I have a large collection and don't have the time to watch everything in a timely manner (I've got discs I bought 5 years ago and still haven't watched) but when I receive the disc, the first thing I do is remove the shrink wrap and scan the discs beginning to end just to make sure there are no problems.

I try to do that, but I don't succeed at it very well.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I try to do that, but I don't succeed at it very well.

Yes there are a bunch of discs I haven’t watched. The only disc I know that rotted on me was a laserdisc of the first Star Trek film- littered with white specks in the video. I know from the other forum that season 3 of the Flintstones DVD is notorious for not playing correctly now- I should look at those discs to see if they still play.

My brother in law told me his DVD of the Criterion A Night To Remember went bad on him years ago- a heads up to those who might have that in their collection.

 

[Thomas T]

Yes, scanning the discs is fine, but some of those problematic Warner discs from the 2008 period played fine for a few years and then died. I'm still discovering discs which once played perfectly through multiple viewings but now do not.

Oh, for sure. No, scanning when they're purchased just spots the defective discs which can be easily replaced because you've just bought it and still have a receipt. The ones that go bad over years are a real headache especially if they've since gone out of print which makes a replacement impossible.

 

[jayembee]

Yes there are a bunch of discs I haven’t watched. The only disc I know that rotted on me was a laserdisc of the first Star Trek film- littered with white specks in the video. I know from the other forum that season 3 of the Flintstones DVD is notorious for not playing correctly now- I should look at those discs to see if they still play.

My brother in law told me his DVD of the Criterion A Night To Remember went bad on him years ago- a heads up to those who might have that in their collection.

If the symptom was "white specks in the video", it wasn't laser-rot. The symptom of laser-rot was red and blue snow, accompanied by pulsing sound in the audio. It would start at the outer rim (which was the end of a side) and slowly progress towards the beginning of the side. As time went on, the video and audio would get worse until it was unplayable.