There's plenty of stories about DVD rot too, Phase! 
JB
JB
Laserdisc Query
- Thread starter Methuselah Flint
- Start date
Really? Hmm, I've had so many for so many years and never had an issue, and I have a decent-sized CD collection (I'm very much into them still - they sound so much better than MP3S or other streamed stuff) and only one or two has ever gone bad. Maybe I've just been lucky!
I think we both have but keep your fingers crossed okay!
JB
JB
In the 34 years I've been collecting cd's, I've had a whopping ONE cd fail to play over time. Phil Collins' No Jacket Required. I rebought it for $5.
DVDs... I've seen some clouding on a few that Fox packaged in a poorly made brand of case, which still play well. The only three DVDs I've had issues with were the second disc in the V Original series set, disc one in the STar Trek TNG season 4 set and one of the original flipper discs for the Buck Rogers TV series set.
Other issues were strictly manufacturing defects which were replaced through exchange programs (The Fugitive, BSG, Batman, etc,)
Out of hundreds of DVDs and thousands of CDs, that's a damned good average.
DVDs... I've seen some clouding on a few that Fox packaged in a poorly made brand of case, which still play well. The only three DVDs I've had issues with were the second disc in the V Original series set, disc one in the STar Trek TNG season 4 set and one of the original flipper discs for the Buck Rogers TV series set.
Other issues were strictly manufacturing defects which were replaced through exchange programs (The Fugitive, BSG, Batman, etc,)
Out of hundreds of DVDs and thousands of CDs, that's a damned good average.
Still very scary though!
JB
JB
My dvd of ST:TMP directors edition is suffering from rot and now suffers from sound issues
I guess it also depends on how much you play them... Then again my original TOS season 3 has been played many a time, with scratches, smudges etc, but not one problem playing. Luck of the draw I guess..
I understood that it didn't matter how many times you played them in comparison to VHS!
JB
JB
There is one more thing that goes wrong with CDRs, DVDs, and Bluray discs: they have a chemical emulsion layer that will degrade over time no matter what you do. As the chemical bonds break down, the data layer fades. Exposure to heat or sunlight will speed up the process dramatically, but nothing will stop it altogether. They have a shelf life of some indeterminate length, and that's it.
Pressed CDs do not have this exact problem, because they encode their data as physical dents in the aluminum layer. A perfectly manufactured CD will last a long time and probably see you out.
This video has an example with Levar Burton that shows really bad Laserdisc rot.
Actually on a pressed discs (CD, DVD, Blu-Ray) the information is stamped on the plastic; it’s just like a vinyl record. The aluminum is just there to be a mirror for the laser.
As for the Recordable discs, 6 years is about the length of time that you can get on average for a disc. After that you are on borrowed time.
Okay, but even in a pressed DVD or Bluray, the chemistry will still break down over time and they become unreadable. We just have to hope it takes a long time.
Pressed discs do not use chemicals, like CD-R’s. The interior is metal which suffers from oxidation.
Techmoan! I watch him periodically.
I've noticed some discs feel rather warm when I stop playing and take them right out of the player. Maybe over time, this could cause the adhesive bonds to loosen?
Kor
I actually have a CD Video disc (small regular CD size) of the Fat Boys/Beach Boys “Wipeout” hit from the 80’s still shrink wrapped that has the CD tracks and a PAL copy of the music video Of course, I’ve been thinking of getting a Laserdisc player but haven’t seen a multi-system one for NTSC regions. I know that in PAL territories there were PAL players that could play NTSC discs on PAL TV’s, but I haven’t seen or heard of a reverse one.
The aluminum can oxidize though, hence the Gold CDs, and DVDs.
There are some recordable disks that supposedly last 1000 years (M-Disk) they can only be written once though, with a special burner.
With CD-R/W’s, DVD-R/W’s and BD-R/E each manufacturer has their own way of “testing” life expectancy. There is no universal test. So the 100+ year claims should be taken with “a grain of salt”.
https://www.myce.com/news/cd-recordable-discs-unreadable-in-less-than-two-years-6450/
Similar threads
