Posts: 10,212
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
I assume I'm suffering a case of disk rot, but have noticed that several of my DVDs, some of them only three or four years old, are now unplayable. I'm aware that they can corrode over time but have several that are over a decade old that play perfectly well. I'm curious if other people here see the same problem, and if it could be related to Puna's climate.
I took a picture of one of the problem disks this evening after it failed to play. All the blotches and miscoloring are real and can't be removed by cleaning the surface, so must be under the "protective" surface layer. Incidentally, it also shows a gorgeous rainbow-like spectrum of my cell phone's flashlight at the top!
https://goo.gl/XNzRz1
Posts: 14,103
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
Didn't you make (Federal Felony) backups?
Posts: 7,731
Threads: 685
Joined: Jun 2011
Can you play them on your computer's DVD drive? They work a little differently than the console variety.
Posts: 1,674
Threads: 81
Joined: Aug 2014
I have experienced this. I noticed some CD's are affected and some aren't. I assume some of the CD companies used a plastic that is more susceptible to the rot than others. It's the 25 and 30 year old CD's for me. Little squiggly lines all over the CD. Almost as if a bug crawled through and made them.
There is a product called Plastex that can restore a scratched CD, pretty amazingly but not much success with these types of damaged discs.
Posts: 14,103
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
It's not so much the plastic as the fab process; if the edges don't seal, air will eventually get into the substrate.
There are many programs which can break the DVDCSS copy protection and render an unencrypted MPEG stream; disk space is cheap. Rip everything and save what you can. (Besides, the plain stream is much more convenient, modern TVs can play media right off the USB interface.)
Posts: 5,640
Threads: 101
Joined: Dec 2008
People still use dvds?? Rust pervades throughout here in Hawaii.
Posts: 14,103
Threads: 424
Joined: Aug 2012
People still use dvds??
Streaming over the Internet is a first-world thing. We still have Redbox.
Posts: 364
Threads: 14
Joined: Jun 2012
quote:
Originally posted by terracore
Can you play them on your computer's DVD drive? They work a little differently than the console variety.
I second trying this. I was having problems playing DVDs that I was borrowing from the library. I thought they were junk disks being from the library and probably being used hundreds of times. Tried them on my computer and they worked just fine. The problem continued when I used brand new DVDs/blu rays. Turns out it was my blu ray/dvd player that was acting up. Got a new one and now no problems.
Posts: 10,212
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
Thanks for the tip about using the DVD drive on a computer. Unfortunately, for the disk I tried (the one in the photo), it failed to play on that drive as well. I think it's just too badly corroded.
If I have the time, I might try and use some of the tools we have at work for closely examining tiny optical sensors and infrared arrays to have a close look at the disk. I suspect Kalakoa is correct in that the protective surface isn't sealed to the substrate well enough, especially as the discoloration is mostly seen towards the outer and inner edges of the disk. Other disks in the same container as the damaged one are just fine.
Posts: 10,212
Threads: 344
Joined: Apr 2009
"People still use dvds?? Rust pervades throughout here in Hawaii."
PaulW - please enlighten us about the mechanism which allows DVDs to rust. Thanks.
