In 9 years on DVD purchases, I have never experienced this.

I bought "A Night to Remember" a number of years ago. It's the Criterion Collection version, perhaps the only version, of this wonderful film accurately detailing the maiden voyage of the Titanic. I watched the DVD twice soon after I purchased it and it then sat on a shelf never exposed to moisture, extreme heat or cold or mishandling by young ones. I picked it up last night to watch it in comparison to the new Titanic DVD set and it would not load in my Pioneer player. I took it downstairs and popped it into a Toshiba player. Same result. I took it to work and tried it in the DVD drive on my Mac G5. It spit it back out as unreadable. What gives? I have cleaned the disk, but that did not help. I remember hearing about laser rot due to glue defects in old laserdiscs, but that only occured because laserdiscs were made in two pieces and glued together. Does DVD have a similar plague? Has anyone experienced anythng like this? A DVD that was fine suddenly becomes unreadable?

I e-mailed Criterion about this and am anxiously awaiting their reply. I'm hoping I can send it to them for a replacement.

I've head of CDs and DVDs going bad.

what ive read is that the metal that makes up the interior can corrode over time. once that happens, r.i.p..

you mentioned young ones, so i asume theres some in the household. you also mantioned cleaning the disc, but you havent mentioned cleaning the disc players. lemme run a scenario past you: said young ones take a filthy disc and put it in player #1. it wont play, and filths up player #1. they then take it to player # 2, and now its filthy too. you then come along with a couple of clean discs, some play, others wont.

a dirty player can cause what you describe, and whether the dirty player decides to play the disc or not seems to be reliant on which disc it is, rather than anything else (as someone with a very dusty workshop, i speak from experience.)

I was in the video distribution business when DVD was developed through it's near takeover of the VHS market.

I was in contact with not only the people from the studios, but the technical end as well. At that time, it was a closely guarded secret that a DVD would not have the shelf life of a VHS tape. The technology for sound, picture and available space for the storage of material would be superior. Unfortunately, the long term breakdown of the disc was a definite problem.

I'm not a tech-head, so I can't explain exactly what happens scientifically. However, I can easily recall conversations with the guys who were producing the DVD product at the time and it was acknowledged that a disc is not a long term prospect.

The solvents in felt pens can lift the metallic coating as well. I sprayed one with lacquer and the whole top peeled off.

I'll just add my two cents here.

None of us can be really sure because there are a variety of things that can cause such a failure.

However, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER is a really old DVD. It literally goes back to the dawn of the format, being released in 1998. It's a dual layer DVD (according to what is posted on the net, I don't own it myself). In '98, the overwhelming majority of dual layer DVD's were manufactured by WAMO. They produced discs for everybody. Many titles developed problems thought to be related to the adhesive bonding the disc layers. This falls into the category of "manufacturing defect" rather than an inherent problem in the format.

In '98, the overwhelming majority of dual layer DVD's were manufactured by WAMO. They produced discs for everybody.

They should've stuck with making Frisbees.

:cry: You mean to tell me all of the dvd's that I have bought will eventually go BAD !!!
I was hoping they would last long enough for my childrens children to enjoy them. :eek:

:cry: You mean to tell me all of the dvd's that I have bought will eventually go BAD !!!
I was hoping they would last long enough for my childrens children to enjoy them. :eek:


Not only that, but with the introduction of Blue Ray and HD DVD in a couple of months, all of the dvds you have bought will become OBSOLETE!!! That is, if you believe the hype.

Thanks for the info. As to young ones gunking up a player, while I can see it as a potential problem, the Pioneer is not used by them and they don't have access to my DVDs—just the kiddy collection downstairs.

In '98, the overwhelming majority of dual layer DVD's were manufactured by WAMO. They produced discs for everybody. Many titles developed problems thought to be related to the adhesive bonding the disc layers. This falls into the category of "manufacturing defect" rather than an inherent problem in the format.

This makes the most sense to me. That actually does sound similar to issues with laserdiscs, unfortunately. I hope Criterion responds, but given that the disk IS so old, probably not. A shame, it's a great film, but I don't really want to pay for it again.

Not only that, but with the introduction of Blue Ray and HD DVD in a couple of months, all of the dvds you have bought will become OBSOLETE!!! That is, if you believe the hype.

wonderul scene from the simpsons: homer and bart are walking thru a gabage dump. they walk past a huge mound with a sign reading "8 track tapes" they walk past another larger mound with a sign labeled "cassette tapes", they walk past an even larger mound who sign reads "vhs tapes". then then walk past an empty spot with a similar sign sticking out of the ground "reserved for dvds".

Why is it when someone talks about DVDs going bad, I get this picture of a Japanese horror film (or Stephen King novel) where DVDs turn people into flesh eating zombies.

Jim

I have to say that my confidence in DVD durability has actually increased in recent years.

I got into DVD in the year 2000. I started to get concerned about a year later when I started having playback glitches and even the occassional title that wouldn't play. I bought a new player which solved ALL of my difficulties at the time. After similar experiences later on, I came to realize that the player seems to be the weakest link.

I have more discs than I can count. I estimate in excess of 3500! I have about 3 discs that I've identified as unplayable. But these are discs with known manufacturing problems. For example, one version of THE WICKER MAN was known to become unplayable after a few months due to a manufacturing mistake.

Obviously, with so many discs, I don't re-watch every disc on a regular basis so I can't claim that there are no "duds" rotting away. But I do watch DVDs every day and I just never see failures. And I know which discs are the oldest in my collection (I bought 5 DVDs before I bought a player!). I rewatch one of the old discs at least once every two months as quality control and they've never failed. So I have yet to encounter any inherent problem with the format itself. However, like ANY product from tennis racquets to toasters, it will fail if not manufactured correctly.

I would expect that the life of a DVD would be significantly longer than a VHS tape which when played requires physical contact with the tape heads that will eventually wear the tape surface. Also, a VHS tape has moving parts. A DVD on the other hand, has none of these issues and ought to last much longer.

If manufacturers are intentionally building in a restricted service life, then I certainly will not be buying any Blue Ray or HD discs only to be forced in five or ten years to upgrade them to the new technology of the day; I'll rent thank you.

I've had enough of buying a product at premium price which is top of the line today but tomorrow is obsolete junk and tossed into the discount bins. Its just money making crap for the manufacturers.

Huzz

Gosh, I sure do enjoy using my Beta machine!

If manufacturers are intentionally building in a restricted service life, then I certainly will not be buying any Blue Ray or HD discs only to be forced in five or ten years to upgrade them to the new technology of the day; I'll rent thank you.

I've had enough of buying a product at premium price which is top of the line today but tomorrow is obsolete junk and tossed into the discount bins. Its just money making crap for the manufacturers.

Huzz

Amen, bro :thumbsup:

José

I would expect that the life of a DVD would be significantly longer than a VHS tape which when played requires physical contact with the tape heads that will eventually wear the tape surface. Also, a VHS tape has moving parts. A DVD on the other hand, has none of these issues and ought to last much longer.



From that point of view, you could be right.
But there are other considerations.
DVD aren't nearly as durable or resilitent when faced with problems.
If you store them in their cases and handle them properly, they should last well.
On the other hand, if they even get a small ding along the way, it could well become unplayable. Especially anything that mars the top of the disc.
Also beware of any of those cheap cases with the cardboard covers instead of the normal all plastic covers.
These can couse several problems. I have seen the covers themselves cause scratches on the tops of the discs.
Also in a humid environment, the carboard can hold moisture which will haten disc-rot.

Also, there is still quite a few compatibility issues.
Mainly due to there not being a universal standard in the software and hardware used in the players themselves. There are some discs that will just not work with some brands / models of players.
I just got bit by that one recently with Princess Bride.
Won't play on 2 of the 5 players in our house.
Did a little searching on the net and stumbled on a lot of sites listing titles that are known to be finiky about what they will play on.

Gosh, I sure do enjoy using my Beta machine!
I have 2 x Betamax players at work that still work perfectly! Both SONY made in Japan.
They dont get much use, but still better than VHS quality,

Jim

Jon Mulvaney (Criterion) should swap it for ya, especially if he has received other complaints. I've been reading the Criterion forums for many years and IIRC no complaints with the older ones.

It's possible the planet(s) alignment and increased magnetic field at that particular time caused the laser redirect mishap - but others here can elaborate more than I can on that point...

Same here. No problems yet. So far, no problems with my old laserdiscs either. Could be if they're regularly exposed to heat and / or sunlight through windows it could be a factor. I would agree though that the weakest link could be that older DVD players cannot error correct as well as the newer generation players, so anything less than a perfect disk could cause skipping, locking, pixelation or other problems. There is also the case where a faulty batch of titles got out. I once returned three copies of "Saving Private Ryan" before I got one that worked from a different location of the same store! It can happen.

Also an important lesson I learned is cleaning a disk can make a world of difference. I've had disks new out of the package that would freeze, pixelate, etc. I had been returning them until someone recommended cleaning them first. It works in most of the cases. Even new disks can have a residue (From manufacturing, packaging?) that can cause problems. Wipe them carefully with a cotton cloth and you solve the problem.

Of course, that didn't work in this case.

No respone from Criterion. Guess I'm stuck with it :(

So, those of you who are cleaning them and are fixing your problems......how do you clean them? What cleaner do you use?

I have seen these motorized cleaners at the DVD stores but didn't know if they really worked or not.

As I mentioned, I just use a clean cotton cloth and nothing else. Usually that cures it. If there are still smudges and such (usually only on rented DVDs) I use a small amount of water and the same cotton cloth. I haven't purchased any type of cleaning kit.

I've used window cleaner and a soft cloth, wiping from the the center out (never in a circular motion) on the odd disc that has something spilled on it. On a disc that is scratched and cannot be played (in other words, do this only if you've got nothing to lose), I have used a felt wheel and plastic polish in a motor tool at low speed with success, but there are products made for the purpose that work as well.

Qapla'

SSB