Dvdrot

[Davester]

Just looking on, cough another forum cough, and they are talking about dvd rot. They are saying over time our dvd's, as laserdiscs did, will deteriorate in quality! They have to be carefuly stored etc to prevent this! NOT HAPPY! THIS SHOULDN't Happen with dvd's, unless of course this is done on purpous? Buying a new disc every few years brings in the £.

[Analog Kid]

There was a thread on this very forum some time ago regarding "Laser Rot" which I assume is the same phenomenon you have seen referenced on the "other" forum (are there other forums :confused: or even other websites? :D) anyway, IIRC it was said that this also affected CD's and as I've had some of my CD's for 12 years or more now and they still play perfectly I'm not overly concerned about it.

Having said that there were a couple of posters here who had experienced strange problems with discs which had previously played perfectly so there must be something in it. :(

[JamesW]

I think I read somewhere that some Contact discs suffered from DVD rot where the two layers separated due to bad glue or something. Or maybe I dreamed that... Anyway, I don't think it's a big problem, not in the way Laser Rot was.

[Joe91]

There is more information here (http://www.mindspring.com/~yerington/) :eek:

[Fat Man Hackett]

I had a R1 Contact, and it happened with that... You could play the first layer OK (the first part of the film), but everything on the second layer was pixellated to buggery, and none of the extras worked. I've since bought a R2 copy, and that's fine (I think...).

[Morpheus2000]

Originally posted by JamesW
I think I read somewhere that some Contact discs suffered from DVD rot where the two layers separated due to bad glue or something. Or maybe I dreamed that... Anyway, I don't think it's a big problem, not in the way Laser Rot was.

I heard this before, but it was more of a general thing. I'd be very surprised if Distributors didn't correct this problem.

[Adge]

Originally posted by Morpheus2000
I'd be very surprised if Distributors didn't correct this problem.

Hmmmmmm, they certainly wouldn't want us to buy all those DVD's again and make them even better off would they.....

[SimonI]

I recall that the problem was due to layer separation which particularly affected laser disks, due to their large diameter. It's reckoned to be caused by flexing of the disk as it is handled.

I've been collecting CDs since they first appeared (1983) and have not had a single one fail on me (also, in that time I have only had one faulty disk, which was early on - impressive considering I have around a thousand). The same story about disk rot circulated back in those days, scaring everybody, but it obviously hasn't come to pass.

I've no doubt that some marginal disks can play fine at first and then deteriorate - it's a little known fact that the average CD can contain up to 20,000 low level faults (which can be completely corrected by the player); there are three further levels of fault which are increasingly rare and increasingly noticable. Add some dirt or scratches and its easy to see how a disk could suddenly become unplayable.