Damn I went to watch Devil's Advocate the other day and half way through it froze. What makes it worse my copy was the hard to get print. This stinks.

I love my pioneer 3 disc changer. I've had problems with most of the players that I've owned, but my pioneer just keeps on playing. just wish it was a region free player.

So are we just stuck with these bad discs, or will Warner replace them?

My ER Disc 3 of The Season 1 Set has major video defects on every player I have tried. Bought it last Christmas and got around to watching it a few months ago. I emailed Warner about the problem like 2 months ago and no reply about a replacement whatsoever.

stuck like a fly in a jar of honey. sweet for the fly....shit for us.

Tremendous. Kinda makes you re-evaluate how much coin you throw down for DVDs, even if it's not a common occurrence.

I've had a couple of discs go bad recently, both Warner Bros discs as well.

One thing you might try - if a disc freezes up on you, turn off your player for a few minutes. It seems that when mine gets hot after being on for a couple hours, it will freeze, lockup and sometimes not even boot a disc. After a brief cool down period, it usually will play fine.

This obviously doesn't apply to those who have tried playing your discs in multiple machines - but I would hate to see people getting rid of perfectly good discs because of a player problem.

I tried my Devil's Advocate disc in 3 players and my computer with no success. I went as far as to boil my disc nothing helped.

This is definitely going to cause me to purchase less discs from now on.

I had a "HEAT" dvd go bad on me a couple of years ago. Last night I tried my "VERTIGO" DVD and sure enough -- it is completely dead. I watched it a total of one time -- no scratches, perfect condition. I tried it in 3 dvd players plus a laptop plus a pc -- none of them can read it at all.

The reason I buy dvds is so I can watch them on a whim -- I'm starting to think my wife is right -- it's a waste of money. Anyways, I had to rant a little.

I think a lot of this is due to problems with the dual layering, specifically the adhesives used.

Hopefully HD-DVDs will be single layer for most movie releases.

Not the adhesives used, but an electro-galvanic reaction between the layers on early DVDs (prior to 2001). I posted a link much earlier on the thread to an article by an engineer who examined rotted discs under an electron microscope.

Highly unlikely that HD-DVDs will be single layer - they will be trying to cram as much storage as possible. But the multi-layering will be considerably different technology than now - I have read that the new lasers will be able to read through labels.

C'mon, that seems a little harsh, don't you think??! That amounts to saying that if a guy is 20 and buys DVDs then he should be able to always expect to play them again when he's 70. I don't expect my discs to last that long, I don't think they'll be the medium we're watching Gone with The Wind on by then anyway.
Half that long seems reasonable to me, given our previous means of media storage that's fairly admirable.....for instance, pull out a 30 year old audio cassette or album and you're going to hear some degradation....

sure....but if they are in good shape, especially the vinyl, they can be enjoyed. I have tons of LP's from the late 60's and early 70's...mint...and they sound just fine. the problem is when a dvd croaks...it's OVER. just not the same. plus...making copies of the above formats is a little bit easier than with a dvd.

no...a dvd should last, with proper care and proper manufacturing, 30 to 50 years easy....regardless of the format being around or not. with piss poor quality control though...the life can be trimmed down to a year or less. and then...no refunds or replacements. why? because theres no problem, right?

uh....right.

I completely agree we should expect a shelf life for these to be better than videotape easily. If Im watching DVDs say 20 years from now they should be playable assuming Ive stored them intelligently and kept them clean and scratch-free. If a disc stops playing with NO blemishes then the manufacturer should replace it. I certainly hope dying DVDs is the exception rather than the rule.

I know its not a warner Title, but my Pretty Woman: 10th Anniversary just bit the dust. Disc is totally clean and scratch free. The 2nd layer wont play at all. Anyone else have this disc that can check theirs?

I wonder if I call Buena Vista up if they will send me a new one....anyone have any luck getting replacements from the distributors?

FYI, here is the results of a File and Surface scan of the disc with Nero...obviously "Disc Rot"

This is one of the things BV does that I like, they have a replacement thing set up. They replace OOP DVDs also.

Great I will call on Monday, is there any specific number I should call for that program, or just the (800) 723-4763 number

thanks

http://video.movies.go.com/support/faq.html#misc

Thanks Joey, great link, I bookmaked it

heres an interesting shot of my pretty woman disc from the bottom with a flashlighht shown through. You can easily see the "Rot", kinda looks like little air bubbles

Wow...DVD Rot. Man o' man...I would hate to see my growing collection die. And it might in two ways, one by one they can rot away or my willingness to purchase any DVDs are going to die. After reading about this, I don't have the will to buy another DVD knowing that it might die one day. D*mn the DVD industry for not being able to make them last longer than a few years!

Oh yea...if heat is going to kill the disc quicker, wouldn't viewing a DVD frequently kill the disc? My laptop gets hotter than dry asphalt in the middle of a dessert.

I actually hate reading this thread. It really makes me worry about the future of my growing DVD collection. I know that in 20-30 years I probably won't care about them but it looks like they may not even last 10 years!!!

The "coffee stain effect" is not necessarily an indicator of "rot". More often it is caused by uneven distribution of the lacquers used in manufacture. I have plenty of discs that have this effect that play perfectly. Even brand-new ones.


The only disc that I have ever had fail was one of Anchor Bay's - in this case The Witches which was a known bad batch; they all failed after about 18 months (the disc went a deep bronze colour on the play side). They had the same problem with their Frankenstein Created Woman release. AB will replace any such for free, even though they're OOP.

I know that some people reported problem with early dual-layer discs manufactured by WAMO (Warner Advanced Media Operations), Pennsylvania. All I can say is that my earliest of such discs, The Matrix , plays just fine.

Jinx.