Posted by Kimba W Lion on 11/07/07 12:00

lakedweller@ohionet.com wrote:

>I know that vcr tapes wear out from playing them. I was originally
>told that dvds never wear out but now I hear different. One thing I
>dont understand is that when a dvd is burned, a laser melts the data
>on to the dvd. Then that same laser plays the dvd later. It only
>makes sense that each time a dvd is played the laser melts more of the
>disk, so eventually the dvd wears out or should I say the data melts
>away. This got me asking how many times a dvd can be played before it
>dies? I heard that dvds made at home die much sooner than the
>commercial ones because the commercial ones are made more durable. Is
>this true?

DVD burners (home recorders) use different power levels to record a DVD
than to play it. The high-power laser burns a dye in the disc, which
should be entirely stable at the low power used to play it. There is no
evidence that playing any DVD wears it out. Homemade DVDs sometimes go
bad, but no one can point to solid evidence for why. My personal belief is
that burning at a slower speed than what the drive is rated for helps
produce a more robust disc. I know I have never had any problems with
discs I make going bad.

Commercial DVDs are constructed completely differently from recordable
DVDs, and should never go bad, assuming the factory did everything right.

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