DVD Rot

[maturin]

I frisbeed the rotten discs into the bin so I can't yet post a picture, but the Rot I'm describing starts as a darkening and yellowing of the data side of the disc, then faint wavy lines develop from the disc edge (like oil on water) and finally the edge delaminates and bits flake off. Yuk.
I've had possible half a dozen attacks - usually local store-bought film discs, possibly China made, some of which are quite thin and almost transparent. The DVDs were unplayable on my DVD players, but could be read by computer in the first stage.
I first noticed the darkening problem a couple of years ago, but didn't think much of it until I had some read failures and I saw the crumbly edges. I could kick myself now as I probably could have copied the discs before they failed.
The obvious reason, aside from poor production, may be climate and storage related, so I now remove all my discs from commercial plastic boxes and plastic sleeves and store them in sleeve folders between layers of absorbent material, with a couple of silica gel packets thrown in. Let's see....
Non-rot related, but I accidentally left several film discs in sleeves and a stack of blank printable disks on a shelf on which they were subject to strong direct sunlight for some hours a day through a chink in the blinds. The blank stack is now a three-inch high circular silver paperweight of slightly warped discs stuck together; the film discs delaminated around the edges.
I use Iomega printable blanks and I have had a very low failure rate - perhaps less than half a percent, but out of one 50 stack recently I experienced 12 failures. A bad batch I guess.
Like Mr. T, I've had my share of DVd player faults, but that's another story....
Richard

[HIPPIEDAVE]

I had had a few dvds and cds that have the rot

[ron7885]

I purchased,here in Canada,my first dvd player,I think it was 1997 0r 1998. I located the frst two dvd's I purchased when I bought the player. I have not watched them since then. Well,last night I watch them..I did not see any deteriation or have any problem with the dvd's. These dvd's are about 10 years old. To keep your dvd collection in good condition store the dvd's in plastic cases,the original one's they came in,keep them away from sudden changes in temperatures. example,air conditioning units, and central heating units as well
as fire places. Keep them away from windows where their is direct sunlight and humidity,after watching a dvd take it out of the player and return it to its container. And,keep the dvd's in a upright position. A little care should keep your dvd collection safe.

[maturin]

Further to The Rot:
To save space and make indexing simpler, I recently started moving my DVDs from their cases to a set of folders with inserts. I found that several discs have advanced cases of the Rot. I binned them all, but I have just found another case. Here are photos of an ex-DVD from my collection.
The affected discs are all commercial, store-bought, not bootleg copies; they were bought either here in Thailand or elsewhere in the region - the Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam mostly. One disc (Moonstruck) came from the UK. Many have a 'gold' rather than a 'silver' surface on the back with a silver edge. They were stored upright in their original boxes in an air-conditioned room, in shade.
They started life opaque, but are now almost transparent. Needless to say, they don't play!
It doesn't seem to be a fungus - the disks aren't sticky or damp and there's no smell. The rot looks more like a chemical reaction affecting an inside layer of the disc.
The UK disc, Moonstruck, was a duplicate - still in its original wrapping from maybe four years ago - until I opened it and found....

The Rot!

Richard
Sorry about the photo quality - it's surprisingly difficult to take a picture of a shiny disc. The vertical lines in the first photo are reflections from my office ceiling.

[artemis778]

Laser rot was the curse of laserdiscs way back.
The cause seems very similar. Then it was all to do with
the pressing- some labels were particularly prone- 'Image'
one of them- MGM never.
I still have my laserdisc collection- most are still as they should
be, a good few years on- which may be reassuring to those worried
by possible DVD rot. If the pressing is not perfect, the rot appears sooner
than later- it doesn't seem to be a problem that occurs years down
the line.

[zandycap]

Within a few years we will have cheap high speed terrabyte hard drives and super speed dvd drives so copying a ton of stuff wont be that much of a chore except for us anal retentive mega collectors.!

I have been saying ever since CD's came out that video tapes were a better lasting item. You can take a video out of its box and boot a vhs tape around the room, it still plays perfect. But a finger tip in the wrong place on a dvd renders it unwatchable!

[harrypalmer]

The majority of DVD-R discs that I have were all burnt on a PC, mostly VHS transfers and some off air recordings from a Freeview tuner. They go back 3 or 4 years and all still play back OK. However, I recorded some programmes on a DVD recorder using the same discs that I burnt on the PC and quite a few of those now refuse to play. They were all finalised at the time and have been stored in the same way as the discs burnt on the PC.

Wierd!!

[zandycap]

Originally Posted by harrypalmer The majority of DVD-R discs that I have were all burnt on a PC, mostly VHS transfers and some off air recordings from a Freeview tuner. They go back 3 or 4 years and all still play back OK. However, I recorded some programmes on a DVD recorder using the same discs that I burnt on the PC and quite a few of those now refuse to play. They were all finalised at the time and have been stored in the same way as the discs burnt on the PC. Wierd!!

Harry have you tried getting these discs on a computer and copying them to hard drive (then back to another dvd if you want) I have done this with discs that refuse to play, or with dvds that wont play on one computer or in one drive, will sometimes play in another. Or even dvds that wont copy with one type of software, will copy fine with another. Its all about finding the correct combination of hardware/software. Perseverance often seems to pay off in this respect.

Good luck, and thanks for the heads up, i have a lot of dvds that i made and finalized with my Funai dvd/vhs/hard drive recorder, i spose it would be wise to back them up.

[suzepulcheria]

Does DVD rot affect CDs and/or CD roms as well? I have never heard of it affecting CDs but I don't see why it shouldn't.

[Tony Pendrey]

Yes, the "rot" most definately affects CD's. I have both commercially pressed disks and CD-Rs that now refuse to be read. The problem is not as visually dramatic as those DVD pics, but looking at the surface very closely I can see patches where some kind of reaction has taken place. It's bloody annoying and also very worrying. I am having to constantly go through my backups to take decisions on what I feel is most valuable to me. EG - Digital photos and stuff. And as I am one of those "retentives" I lie awake and worry about it all.



Ps See you all on the beach this holiday weekend.