I have all my DVD's stored in their original packaging on shelves stored upright. I noticed my son had been handling some of my DVD's carelessly and some of the DVD's he's viewed are scratched. I decided to look through my collection ( 1600 ) to inspect my discs and noticed some of my DVD's had a discoloration to them . The best way i can describe it would be to say it appeared as though there was a thin layer of a clear gel on the disc. I was reading on-line and read that DVD's should be kept a 68 Deg. at all times. I had a problem with my AC unit this summer and for about a month it was 80 Deg. in my home. I was told from a coworkers that he had left CD's in his car before and they too had this same discoloration and they didn't play right. While the temperatures in his car were no doubt extreme it makes me wonder my DVD's have been damaged in some way by heat. I also noticed 2 discs that had spots all over the disc as if there was some sort of condensation and that later cooled and dried and left the what appears to be water spots.

I also read on-line that high temperatures cause the dye in the disc to distort, so this must be it. I always thought recordable media was the only media that had dye in the makeup of the disc and that pressed discs like mine, had no dye.

Have any of you folks ever noticed anything like this with the DVD's in your collection and if so,  is it an issue to be concerned about ?

On another note all these DVD's were all stored in the same location and all went through the same temperature changes, yet all the DVD's don't have this distortion/discoloration so this also makes me wonder if i could have bought them this way did didn't notice it.

Thank You for your comments. I would like for anyone else that has seen this to share their experiences with me and if they recall any situations with their collection being exposed to higher than normal temperatures.

Thanks

Most discoloured discs play fine
Some that had a problem with the origial dyes used (eg, Terminator) can usually be fixed by a (gentle!) wash in warm soapy water if they do have problems playing... though I take no responsibility if it doesn't work!

Quoting Lord Of The Sith:

Quote:
Quoting Echoes:

Quote:
I have some discs that have the same discoloration and they work just fine, I have so far only had one dvd that stopped playing and it showed no signs that anything was wrong, but I have read that early pressings of the disc were faulty.

B.

I have this same issue with "Down Periscope".  There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with it, but when I put it in any of my 3 DVD players they all say there is no disc.

Mine was the original dvd of Psycho, several older Universal titles had a problem where the discs would become unreadable. From what I've read it has something to do with the glue that was used.

B.

I buy movies every Tuesday and look everytime i'm in target or walmart and most of the time i buy a few $5 titles and look for movies in my wishlist.

As far as the corffee rings go i couldn't understand why some of my DVD had them and others didn't as they were all stored together in the same location. So i was thinking maybe its the glue that is discussed in this thread. When i buy movies now i open them immediately to look for coffee rings.

This week i bought Lost Season 1 and right out of the box it had hudge coffee rings as well did Babylon AD. But the real kicker is Bangkok Dangerous ( never have i seen this before ) this baby didn't even have a disc in the box, called walmart as soon as i got home and they exchanged it. Not my first issue with LionsGate , but the first one of this nature. This explailns why some of my dvd's have coffee rings and others don't , i buy them that way !!!![i][/i]

Quoting Phe0nix:

Quote:
I have all my DVD's stored in their original packaging on shelves stored upright. I noticed my son had been handling some of my DVD's carelessly and some of the DVD's he's viewed are scratched. I decided to look through my collection ( 1600 ) to inspect my discs and noticed some of my DVD's had a discoloration to them . The best way i can describe it would be to say it appeared as though there was a thin layer of a clear gel on the disc. I was reading on-line and read that DVD's should be kept a 68 Deg. at all times. I had a problem with my AC unit this summer and for about a month it was 80 Deg. in my home. I was told from a coworkers that he had left CD's in his car before and they too had this same discoloration and they didn't play right. While the temperatures in his car were no doubt extreme it makes me wonder my DVD's have been damaged in some way by heat. I also noticed 2 discs that had spots all over the disc as if there was some sort of condensation and that later cooled and dried and left the what appears to be water spots.

I also read on-line that high temperatures cause the dye in the disc to distort, so this must be it. I always thought recordable media was the only media that had dye in the makeup of the disc and that pressed discs like mine, had no dye.

Have any of you folks ever noticed anything like this with the DVD's in your collection and if so,  is it an issue to be concerned about ?

On another note all these DVD's were all stored in the same location and all went through the same temperature changes, yet all the DVD's don't have this distortion/discoloration so this also makes me wonder if i could have bought them this way did didn't notice it.

Don't believe all the hooey you hear about DVDs getting ruined by temperature.  Most of it is pure BS.  As long as your temps are reasonable (if it's tolerable for you, it's tolerable for the DVDs), and the humidity is in the midranges, it doesn't matter if the temp is 50 deg or 90.  I stored a couple hundred in their keep cases in the garage for over a year -- winter, summer, etc. -- with no ill effects whatsoever.  As long as they are in their cases, and not exposed to direct sunlight or moisture, you should have no problems at all.  Also, quite often that coloration can be done away with by carefully wiping them down with denatured alcohol -- its mostly a bit of oxidation from exposure to the air.