Posted by Clem Dye on 04/05/06 16:31

synaptyx wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:16:22 +0100, "Mark Fraser (News)"
> <mfraser@ukgateway.net> wrote:
>
>> I bought Shrek on 2 DVDs (region 1) back in 2001 from Play which I have had
>> no problems with until recently when disc 1 has become unplayable (a 1/4 of
>> the plastic around the centre has come away underneath).
>>
>> What is the life of a DVD supposed to be and would I be able to claim a new
>> copy from Play or Dreamworks?
>
> No physical/visible damage, but my Monsters Inc picture drops out
> completely and intermittently to a black screen. If you hit pause it
> comes up again. It's my kid's favorite at the minute. Am just about to
> contact Disney about it. :/
>
> Aaron

I seem to recall a scare many years ago regarding the life of CDs, and
how they'd be unplayable in 20 years. Well, having had some CDs since
the format first came into being in 1980 (or thereabouts) I can refute
that claim. That said, I suspect that those discs that haven't been well
made or properly stored and handled may well degrade over time. I think
that to a degree, the same applies to DVDs. There have been a number of
well publicised problems of DVD 'rot' - Terminator being a case in
point. Given that DVDs, unlike CDs, are two layers of material glued
together I would suspect that careful handling and storage are just as
important, like CDs, perhaps more so. I have a fair number of DVDs whose
playing surface looks 'stained' - these are known as coffee stains in
the business, apparently. It's something to do with the
glueing/manufacturing process. So far, I haven't had any problems with
such discs, but every time I get a new disc with this type of staining I
do wonder how long these particular 'flawed' discs will last. As the
discs play, there's no fault per se, so suppliers aren't interested in
offering replacements - believe me, I've tried.

The problem with DVDs is compounded by the fact they're easy to scratch,
even with careful handling, and they're not cheap to replace, assuming
that you can get replacements for your well-loved titles - DVDs seem to
go out of print a lot quicker than CDs, at least to me. The galling
thing about scratching is that apparently, Toshiba has developed a
playing surface formulation that prevents such damage. Great, but it's
only going to be applied to HD-DVDs. Thanks a lot!

I suspect that DVDs are more susceptible to manufacturing faults. Modern
players can cope with a lot of these problems seamlessly, given the
error correction facilities in the system, but I suspect that as the
media ages along with the players, these problems will become more
prevalent.

I have some DVDs that I purchased when the format first became available
in the UK. I plan to watch some of those soon to see how they've faired.
I will be extremely annoyed, if after having carefully stored them, and
handled them with 'kid gloves' I have problems. But what if I do? Given
their age I suspect that the likes of Play wouldn't consider offering
replacements, and I doubt if the manufacturers will either. Built-in
obsolescence, either by virtue of a format change or by product
degradation, keeps the industry happy and the punters poor!


Clem

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