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    Invelos Forums->General: General Discussion Page: 1 2  Previous   Next
Older DVD`s not readable?
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorKatatonia
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I do remember purchasing The Stoned Age DVD "twice", and both discs had problems playing in most of the DVD players out there at the time. I even took it to Circuit City and it wouldn't even play on an $800 Onkyo player.

I had two players at the time, and it ran fine on a cheap Daewoo all-region player, but wouldn't play in the Sony.

I repurchased the disc several years later, and surprisingly the disc played flawlessly in all three of my DVD players. An initial bad pressing of the disc I would assume, and from other comments posted on the net...many people experienced the same problem.
Corey
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
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Quoting catheadman:
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Well, there is some truth in this.  I pulled out one from my collection this weekend that must have been maybe the 3rd or 4th that I bought as it was in a CD jewel case ( remember when DVDs were issued in them? ).  So it must be around 8 years old approx? Popped it in my good DVD player and up came that nasty error message that means it can't be read.    I haven't bothered trying it in other players yet - but it certainly is a goner as far as I'm concerned.  Many of the early DVDs were not anamorphic - and this is one so I would have replaced it anyway, eventually.  So yes, I have at least one that won't play that I know did once!



Don't just pitch those old discs if they kick an error the first time after sitting for years, especially if they are not in a relatively airtight case.  Oxidation and crap in the air will settle on the surface over time.  Take those old discs out, and give the data surface a good cleaning to clear that stuff off, THEN see if they play OK.  Most will work just fine.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
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Quoting alextest:
Quote:
Quoting Dan W:
Quote:
Quoting alextest:
Quote:
In near future:
Imagine it`s todays evening, you want to watch a DVD, the Player can`t read it.
You try it at the PC - the same.
Then you take the next DVD and try it with DVD Player and PC - it cant be read.
A nightmare has become true - if you have 100 or 6000 DVD`s there is a point in near future when you will have only 100-6000 pieces of very expensive trash.

How are your experiences with older and very old DVD`s from the begining like one of the first Blockbusters like Godzilla and Alien Box Set?

Greetings
alextest

Where do you guys get this stuff?


So i own both of them.
Godzilla DVD and the secound DVD from Alien are changing colour from silver to light brown and further to dark brown. Both unreadable in serval players and PC drives


The only CDs or DVDs that I have seen that do that are those that have been improperly stored in areas with excessive humidity and/or too much heat.  Baseboard electric heat, or hot air registers can easily cause damage to discs, and electronics.  Excessive moisture can cause mold that you can't even see.  Don't be so ready to blame it all on bad discs.  I have VHS tapes that play as cleanly as the day they were new that are over 20 years old, so age isn't necessarily the controlling factor.
John

"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorKathy
Registered: May 29, 2007
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Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
Quoting alextest:
Quote:
Quoting Dan W:
Quote:
Quoting alextest:
Quote:
In near future:
Imagine it`s todays evening, you want to watch a DVD, the Player can`t read it.
You try it at the PC - the same.
Then you take the next DVD and try it with DVD Player and PC - it cant be read.
A nightmare has become true - if you have 100 or 6000 DVD`s there is a point in near future when you will have only 100-6000 pieces of very expensive trash.

How are your experiences with older and very old DVD`s from the begining like one of the first Blockbusters like Godzilla and Alien Box Set?

Greetings
alextest

Where do you guys get this stuff?


So i own both of them.
Godzilla DVD and the secound DVD from Alien are changing colour from silver to light brown and further to dark brown. Both unreadable in serval players and PC drives


The only CDs or DVDs that I have seen that do that are those that have been improperly stored in areas with excessive humidity and/or too much heat.  Baseboard electric heat, or hot air registers can easily cause damage to discs, and electronics.  Excessive moisture can cause mold that you can't even see.  Don't be so ready to blame it all on bad discs.  I have VHS tapes that play as cleanly as the day they were new that are over 20 years old, so age isn't necessarily the controlling factor.


I haven't had any problems with my VHS tapes or DVDs (whew!) either - I too am very careful of the environment. (or maybe I'm just lucky!
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantcatheadman
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
Quoting catheadman:
Quote:
Well, there is some truth in this.  I pulled out one from my collection this weekend that must have been maybe the 3rd or 4th that I bought as it was in a CD jewel case ( remember when DVDs were issued in them? ).  So it must be around 8 years old approx? Popped it in my good DVD player and up came that nasty error message that means it can't be read.    I haven't bothered trying it in other players yet - but it certainly is a goner as far as I'm concerned.  Many of the early DVDs were not anamorphic - and this is one so I would have replaced it anyway, eventually.  So yes, I have at least one that won't play that I know did once!



Don't just pitch those old discs if they kick an error the first time after sitting for years, especially if they are not in a relatively airtight case.  Oxidation and crap in the air will settle on the surface over time.  Take those old discs out, and give the data surface a good cleaning to clear that stuff off, THEN see if they play OK.  Most will work just fine.



Lol - don't worry - I did manage to read it on my pc of all things - and it DID have a lot of  errors according to the log from a backing up program. That was great as I now have a good copy of it that plays anywhere.  I'd never copied - er "backed up" a DVD before - so learned a lot about how to go about it.  Thank goodness for the web - all the necessary progams are out there - just takes a little trial and error. 

I suppose the moral of this story is you have to watch all your dvds regularly to ensure they still work!!! At an average of 2 hours per DVD that would take me a whole year of solid viewing - no work no family, little sleep!!! Hmm - retirement will be good!!!
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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I have a child so not only do I have to worry about age and the environment, I have to worry about him as well leaving discs out, scratching them, etc.  That's why I undertook a process of backing up all of my DVD medial onto the computer. I now have my son watching the backup version and he gets his movie fixes without even touching a disk.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorTracer
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Quoting RickER:
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I have had trouble with a few known titles like Heathers, but other known problem discs play fine. The DVD 18 (dual layer. dual side) is the thorn in my side. I have had more than one crap out on me, even if they played fine the first time. But they usually suck right out of the box.


Anchor Bay should replace your Heathers disc, this was a known problem and they were replacing them.  They are usually pretty good about replacing any discs that are still in production.
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This is a local shop the strangers you would bring would not understand us, our customs, our local ways.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantBorgie
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Registered: May 10, 2007
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Quoting DJ Doena:
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Who knows, what'll happen. Maybe in ten years someone invented isolinear chips and we'll have to exchange our movie collection again.

VHS also didn't last forever and had it's disadvantages (decaying tape material for example)


Heh, VHS degraded everytime you played the tape, it'd stretch slightly and the magnetic image would gradually fade.  My starwars tapes had to be replaced every couple years because they'd faded and stretched so much over time.

As for DVD rot, yes it can happen. But it's normally due to improper care or bending of the DVD's removing from cases.  Occasionally deffective media, often storing in humid areas.yes moisture is an enemy of DVD's

I've been collecting DVD's since 1997 and have only had one DVD go bad on me...but it was pretty scratched up from a faulty dvd player.
Bigger is not better..oh wait, yes it is...
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantDr. Killpatient
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Quoting Borgie:
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As for DVD rot, yes it can happen. But it's normally due to improper care or bending of the DVD's removing from cases.

Oh man, I fracking hate the cases that hold the disc so tightly that you fear snapping the disc while you're trying to pry the tabs to release it.
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantalextest
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Registered: March 24, 2007
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Quoting Dr. Killpatient:
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Quoting Borgie:
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As for DVD rot, yes it can happen. But it's normally due to improper care or bending of the DVD's removing from cases.

Oh man, I fracking hate the cases that hold the disc so tightly that you fear snapping the disc while you're trying to pry the tabs to release it.


Yes, I agree. Its realy a pain to remove DVDs from some cases. I have broken 2 brand new ones so far.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantBorgie
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Quoting alextest:
Quote:
Quoting Dr. Killpatient:
Quote:
Quoting Borgie:
Quote:
As for DVD rot, yes it can happen. But it's normally due to improper care or bending of the DVD's removing from cases.

Oh man, I fracking hate the cases that hold the disc so tightly that you fear snapping the disc while you're trying to pry the tabs to release it.


Yes, I agree. Its realy a pain to remove DVDs from some cases. I have broken 2 brand new ones so far.


I replace those cases very very quickly.  I have rethought my collection storage abit though, I think I'm going to move everything to 4 disc boxes for safer storage, the 12 disc boxes I'm not so certain about not scratching discs.

It's funny when I hear people talk about CD/DVD rot.  I've got 500 CD's and to date I've had 2 go bad on me, one was my fault...I went camping and left it out in the rain...the other, well I figure the outer layer cracked and that was that over time.

With proper care there is no reason a DVD won't last 20-30 years anyways.
Bigger is not better..oh wait, yes it is...
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorKatatonia
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Quoting Dr. Killpatient:
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Oh man, I fracking hate the cases that hold the disc so tightly that you fear snapping the disc while you're trying to pry the tabs to release it.


I hate it every time I pull a disc out of the Dust Devil set. They're literally glued to the spindles of that 5-disc keepcase it seems.
Corey
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRETRAC7566
Registered: March 31, 2007
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Well, in reading this forum I got nervous and checked the first DVD I got "The Mask" with Jim Carey. Don't laugh, it came with the DVD player. I checked it and it seems fine. Are you saying some discs are just bad or do they go bad? I read somewhere awhile ago that the best way to store them is vertical, is that true?
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorKatatonia
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Quoting RETRAC7566:
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Are you saying some discs are just bad or do they go bad?


Both. Some old batches of DVD's were manufactured wrong, or made with defective materials.

Quoting RETRAC7566:
Quote:
I read somewhere awhile ago that the best way to store them is vertical, is that true?


Probably, but I doubt it matters all too much.
Corey
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