DVD Rot

[giza]

Looks like some DVDs are starting to have problems:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/31/1043804519345.html
http://www.manifest-tech.com/media_dvd/dvd_compatibility.htm

Comments

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Judging by the dates, I think they started rotting 3 years ago! ;)

[nightfurson.livejournal.com]

Eh, that explains it... I had a burned CD a while back, and the entire top of the CD crumbled off. T'was sad. And frisbee-like.

[kovucougar.livejournal.com]

Was it the plastic of silver that came off.

I bought abatch of cheap CDRs once that were REALLY cheap. Had no top protective layer. If you scratched the top, you took off the recording surface.

[nightfurson.livejournal.com]

Eh, something like that. The shiny reflective layer just suddenly started flaking off, one day... it stopped playing right at the start of that. One week later the top was totally gone, grrrrr. Both our situations certainly add to the argument of inferior materials/products though.

[kovucougar.livejournal.com]

It was the last batch of no-name CD-Rs I ever bought.

[xoagray.livejournal.com]

I've seen some DVD's with this type of damage. I was surprised really, I know nothing lasts forever, but I was under the impression that DVDs and CDs had a much longer lifespan than just a few years. I thought about the only thing that they were suseptable to would be scratches, and breaking the middles out of them on pegs that have retainers that are too tight.

DVD Rot

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

I knew that burnable blank DVDs would decompose over time because they were composed of an organic dye which breaks down.

I had no idea that factory-pressed DVDs could get that way as well.

I remember back to the days of CDR when companies claimed discs would last 50+ years, and aparently, they made the same claims with DVD as well, which both turned out not to be true.

[kellic.livejournal.com]

I own over 500+ DVDs in my collection. Some dating back to '97-98. So far all of my "old" movies still play. Which reminds me I've been meaning to backup all my Anthrocon DVD's "just in case". I can walk down to the local Best Buy to nab a new copy of Die Hard. Not so much with the Masquerade or Story Hour.

[kovucougar.livejournal.com]

I thought we learned this lesson with laser dics :P