DVD/CD rot? The sky is not falling... (1 Viewer)

[Matt Butler]

This thread is an intersting read.

The only two rot cases I had were an LD of Striptease that I found on clearance during the final days of LD and my Criterion DVD of Night to Remember came up blank one day when I tried to watch it. Both got thrown out in the trash. I tried my Night on both DVD players and it was gone.

I still need to replace it now that I think about it.

 

[clayton b]

My Enter the Dragon DVD is nearly screwed, you can tell that the adhesive that is holding the protective layer on is starting to fail, and that if you tried you could pull it right off. But to the best of my knowledge that's the only LD/CD/DVD that is on the verge of failing. And I have probably 500 CD's, 30 LD's, and 300 DVDs.

 

[Todd Robertson]

I've been saying this for 3 years....but deaf ears are hard to open.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Just out of curiosity, whose deaf ears have you been trying to talk to all these years?

 

[Matt_Smi]

CD Mega Changers do not get nearly warm enough to damage a CD correct? Mine 400 disc changer certainly does not ever feel warm when you touch the case, or does not ever seem warm inside but you never know I guess.

 

[WillardK]

I don't have the article anymore, but from my memory the way in which the story was told (introducing the guy with the damaged discs, then revealing where he'd stored them... along with the 'show and tell'-like picture of him holding a disc) was intentionally humorous while presenting facts: dvd/cd rot does exist and there are factors that can make the discs more susceptible to it. I thought it was well written, concisely informative and amusing. If it were to show up on televised media I'd expect it to make the Daily Show before Sixty Minutes, unless Andy Rooney were doing it.

It was no call for panic. After all, that 'victim' guy featured was at the end noted as adjusting his storage habits while continuing to rely on cd's (with backups, nyuck nyuck... truth is, I learned long ago that any data considered truly important and irreplaceable is best backed up on more than one type of media). My latter comment in that post was around the tendency of 'serious' collectors to wrongfully consider their cd's/dvd's as an investment. They are the ones likely to lose sleep over this news.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Never mind- someone got ahold of my password and is posting funny messages in my name.

 

[Todd Robertson]

those who think there is no control problem. individuals at pressing plants, studios, retailers, "fellow" collectors, forum "experts", tech gurus, and whomever seems to be in denial.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

You must have one heck of an address book.

Personally my experience has been significantly different. Of the numerous documents I have read from industry leaders, and from several of their talks at various trade shows, and as well as those that I have spoken with personally are all quite aware of the effect poor quality control has on their products and seem committed to continually improving their product. As for fellow collectors, these issues come up all the time and are often shared with industry players.

Considering that poor quality control can effect a DVD in any number of stages (restoration, re-mastering, A/D Conversions, Programming, Menu Design, Pressing, Packaging, and Shipping) the fact that countless millions of DVDs are sold every year and only a small fraction of those have ever been reported to have any problems due to quality control I'd say the DVD industry’s quality control is quite good at least with the major studios and distributors - some obviously better than others. Most manufacturers of other products would kill to have the kind of successful yields that most DVD distributors have.

I think it unwise to expect that every DVD coming from every studio getting pressed at every plant be perfect. The fact that manufacturing errors are so rare speaks volumes in my opinion how well quality control standards are being enforced through out the DVD industry and not just at pressing plants, but there will always be occasional glitches.

”Deaf Ears”? I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

 

[MarkHastings]

I think it's quite unfair to suggest denial. Just beacuse a minor percentage may experience "rot", why does that mean they need to rework the process? The gigantic % of discs that function flawlessly is a pretty good number.

And as is suggested, who's to say that this "Rot" isn't caused by the consumer? If I park my car under a tree every day and the sap drips on the paint job and ruins it, does this mean it's the car manufacturers fault?

Not to say that this is the reason for every case of rot, but since the total number is so small to begin with and you elliminate all those cases where it was the consumers fault, what minute percentage (of manufacturing deffects) are we really talking about here??

 

[Glenn Overholt]

You seem to have lost the point of my post, Nils. I never said that my copy of The Jackal rotted out. There are NO holes in it.

As for the heat, that is totally wrong. Why would a mega-changer have more heat than single disc players? They play vertically, but that 'heat' would actually be less than single players because the heat is in a single vertical line, rather than on a horizontal plane.

Also, I would like to point out that the rest of my 570 DVD's play fine, and some are older than the Jackal.

Glenn

 

[Michael Qualen]

I have had the exact same problem, and I store my DVD as its supposed to be stored in its case...

I had this problem with a few Universal discs...The Jackal, Dragonheart and Primary Colors...all of them the first released version, so there COULD be a potential problem with these discs

What I did was contact Universal, and I got a reply with an address to send my discs to, and they would take a look at them...it took just over a month for me to recieve brand new ones with no questions asked at all...AND just to give even more credit (God know Universal could use some), I live in Denmark, and Im "not supposed" to buy region 1 DVD´s...but there was no problem at that time. I have had Disney´s Dinosaur replaced too by calling Disney directly...

But people having problems with The Jackal, Dragonheart or Primary Colors should contact Universal...and if U are living in the US, I dont see a problem with a exchange at all...

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Thank you very much! That is what I was hoping to hear from somebody! You've just made my day!

Glenn

 

[Vader]

Good point. I asked several of my J6P friends what their position was, and this was pretty much it.... (sigh)

Peace... Derek

 

[Dave_P.]

I've had plenty of LD's rot (probably 90% of my Columbia discs from between '93-'97), but I have yet to encounter a case of DVD rot.

 

[John H Ross]

How marvellous that we threw so much money away on laserdiscs that rotted and now we're buying DVDs that could go the same way (although the only one of my DVD discs that's rotted is Sphere).

And lo and behold, a high-definition optical disc format is on the horizon with, I'm sure, it's own unique set of manufacturing problems.

I'm nervous everytime I pop a disc in, especially if it's known to have problems.

And yes, some CDs have also suffered from rot. A whole batch of John Scott soundtracks were replaced by JOS records a few years back because the whole lot bronzed and became unplayable. And Silva Screen have had some issues too (the original releases of Alien and Damien: Omen II) and also RCA in Italy (The Cassandra Crossing). And these are just soundtrack titles... lord knows how many other genres are affected.

Remind me why I got into all this again?

John

 

[Vader]

Could you be more specific as to what "issues"? I have the original Silva Screen "Alien" (which played fine last check), but if there is a problem with the entire run, I may have my first bad CD. What should I be on the lookout for?

Oh, and we all got into this for the same reason: the love of HT (someone once said that love is blind...)

Peace... Derek