Problem with playing I Love Lucy DVD (1 Viewer)

[lpetiti1]

I'm an avid fan of the I Love Lucy series and up until recently, I have been able to play every single disk that I have. Last summer, I started having problems playing certain episodes on one or two disks. I looked on the back and there seems to be some sort of...I guess it's sort of a discoloration. The color of the entire back of the disk is still grey, but there are portions of it that are lighter (sometimes very much lighter) than the rest of the disk. And it's not as though it's in a circle, the discoloration only happens in certain parts of the disk. Last night I was watching a completely different season and playing all of the episodes fine, this morning however, I could no longer play individual episodes. I'd like to know if there is any way I could fix these problems myself, or if I should just buy new copies of those seasons. Thanks in advance.

 

[TravisR]

Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done to fix the discs. If I had to guess, I'd say that the plastic used in the cases is causing DVD rot. I'd recommend that you take all of your I Love Lucy discs (whether they seem to have a problem or not) out of those cases and put them in a CD/DVD wallet or paper sleeves or even on a spindle.

 

[Traveling Matt]

"Disc rot" happens when the polycarbonate layers that seal the disc don't do so properly, exposing the contents to oxygen. It has nothing to do with the plastic in the cases. I agree that there is likely nothing to be done. If you re-purchase the sets, I'd recommend carefully inspecting the recordable surface of the replacements. Or you can try contacting the studio (CBS?) and see if they might exchange your old discs for you. Even though it sounds like you're outside 30 days, they might consider if you send the discs back for them to look at.

 

[TravisR]

"Disc rot" happens when the polycarbonate layers that seal the disc don't do so properly, exposing the contents to oxygen. It has nothing to do with the plastic in the cases.

You're correct and I realized that when I called it that but I didn't think anyone would actually be anal retetentive enough to correct my use of the words 'DVD rot'. I think it's fair to say that most people take that term to mean that the disc is messed up- whatever the cause.

 

[JoeDoakes]

You're correct and I realized that when I called it that but I didn't think anyone would actually be anal retetentive enough to correct my use of the words 'DVD rot'. I think it's fair to say that most people take that term to mean that the disc is messed up- whatever the cause.

Personally, I like to understand what the source of the problem really is. I see no reason for you to take offense at that post.

 

[TravisR]

Personally, I like to understand what the source of the problem really is.

And despite my misuse of "DVD rot", I still am the one who stated what the source of the problem really is.

 

[JessicaRabbit]

It is the plastic cases. For a while CBS Paramount was dumping a season of Have Gun Will Travel season on amazon at extreme discount.. It was a problem discussed on DVDtalk a few years ago. . The cases were messing up the disks. I found the same thing on one of my seasons of I love Lucy.

 

[Traveling Matt]

Interesting. How exactly were the cases adversely affecting the discs? That sounds rather... unusual.

 

[JessicaRabbit]

Here's a quote from that issue with have gun will travel from dvdtalk. There was a bad batch of Scanavo cases. "I hate to burst anyone's bubble if they happen to be in posession of any discs containing the following numbers: ISBN 1-4157-1218-2 on the top of the bar code, and 97368 88584 printed underneath the bar code, as I do, because these are also defective. I was reading the reviews for this set, the first of which sent me to this discussion group. When the information provided here prompted me to check my season three set, I discovered that not just one or two or even three discs were bad, but all seven are ruined! This set is now useless to me. I really doubt that buying a set of this series at any price is a guarentee that the set will be trouble-free. We bought ours immediately upon release, but since we buy so many DVD TV series discs, we can't remember where we bought this. The only thing I know to do is to take this problem right to the studio, so, we'll see. By the way, if what I'm seeing is correct, I suspect that season three of "Taxi" is exhibiting similar characteristics, but their not housed in the Scanavo cases. Compared to the "Have Gun" discs, these appear to be in the early stage of deterioration as the cloudiness and spotiness are relatively mild by comparison, but it certainly looks like the same thing. They were not purchased through Amazon. For now, the discs are playing fine, so I really hope I'm wrong."

 

[Joe Karlosi]

It's weird. I was going to come into this thread to say I never bought into that idea of several years back that somehow the plastic cases were ruining DVDs. And then, just a couple of days ago, I found Season One of 'TIL DEATH at my Big Lots store for a cheap price. (The discs are in slim cases). When I examined the discs, they looked cloudy on the surface. So far the first DVD has played fine -- but man, they are covered with SOMETHING. Looks like they're either used or that there's some truth to this "oily case syndrome"? I have noticed that this season set is only $7.00 on Amazon...!

 

[TravisR]

It's weird. I was going to come into this thread to say I never bought into that idea of several years back that somehow the plastic cases were ruining DVDs. And then, just a couple of days ago, I found Season One of 'TIL DEATH at my Big Lots store for a cheap price. (The discs are in slim cases). When I examined the discs, they looked cloudy on the surface. So far the first DVD has played fine -- but man, they are covered with SOMETHING. Looks like they're either used or that there's some truth to this "oily case syndrome"? I have noticed that this season set is only $7.00 on Amazon...!

I was kind of doubtful of it myself but a year or two ago, I saw the 'film' or 'coating' on some of my discs that were housed in those clear plastic cases. Most of the discs were fine but an I Love Lucy set was dead (fortunately, I was able to replace it during a $10 sale). As a precaution, I took all of my discs that were in those kind of cases and put them into CD wallets. Maybe it's paranoid but I figure better safe than sorry.

 

[Nebiroth]

I think it is much more likely that the Scanavo cases ruin the discs because they are a dreadfully bad design that grips the discs far too tightly and this causes owners to struggle and often bend/flex the discs to get them out. This is very bad for the discs, which are made of multiple layers bonded together. Flexing the discs can cause the layers to start to separate - a process called "delamination". Ultimately this could lead to oxygen being able to penetrate to the data layer, which is made of metal. If this layer oxidises it will los eit's reflective properties and be rendered unreadavle by the player's laser. I think it unlikely that a company would be permitting to make a product of a plastic that gave off solvent fumes - it would be a health and fire hazard. Plastics are a very well known and understood material and there is no reason why any company would want to use anything but a standard material. Also, DVD discs are made of polycarbonate plastics for the clear protective layer and polycarbonate is reasonably resistant although it can be attacked by solvents. I supose it is conceivable that a plastic case would be made of improper materials thatover time gave off solvent fumes that in time could attack the plastics of the DVD but it seems unlikely. If that happened, the damage would be evident as the surface would probably turn cloudy. Earlier laserdiscs were much more likely to succumb to so called "rot" because when they were made materials were not as well understood, also, laserdiscs were made using methyl methacrylate acrylic plastics - they have better optical qualities than polycarbonate but are softer, more easily attacked and most importantly allow moisture to penetrate much more easily than polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is ten times less permeable than acrylic. I am guess that acrylics were used at that time because the lasers used in LD players weren;t as good as they are now, and certainly, things like error correction has improved a great deal. Acrylic plastics have superior optical properties.