Dead Dvds (Dvds which have stopped working)
 

There is a similar thread in another popular forum which has brought to light several dvds which have just stopped working. Early Universal pressings seem to be the biggest problem. I have confirmed that my copy of Psycho no longer can be read/recognized in 4 different players. Many others are stating they have dead copies of Apollo 13, and Vertigo. The point of this thread is to have others verify which, if any, of their titles have just stopped working.

Godfather Trilogy, Godfather Part II, disc 2. It is very much "dvd rot"...

I didn't watch it for almost 5 years(!) after I got it. I don't know how to replace it.

None that I know of

Oh, this is just the old WAMO problem, isn't it?

To sum up, Universal (along with many others) in it's early DVD days had most of it's discs made by WAMO (Warner Advanced Media Operations).

A manufacture problem means that some of the early dual layer discs made by WAMO cease to play after a few years.

As I recall, Apollo 13, Pyscho and Vertigo are amongst those on the list of known bads. As is The Matrix I think.

The problem didn't affect all discs, some are still OK (mine are). The usual symptom was playback failing or giving problems after the layer-change point, and gradually getting worse until the disc is unreadable.

Single layer discs were fine.

You will likely find that the discs have the WAMO logo engraved in the centre part of the discs (where the disc ident numbers etc are). Also, some of the early jackets/snapper cases had "WAMO" on the back.

AFAIK Universal will still replace discs, because it's a known fault.

Born on the Fourth of July konked out on me. Went to watch it and my player couldn't read it... same thing in another player.

So far none that I have found. Even some of my DVDs from 1998 have played fine in the last month or two.

The first Universal release of Carlito's Way.

My Criterion Collection "A Night To Remember" has stopped working. I read on here that this is common for that disc and Criterion will replace it for free but I've emailed them about a half dozen times to get an address and they have failed to respond. I really thought they had better customer service than that.

My old copy of 'Heathers' (regular edition, not the lunchbox) just stopped working for no apparent reason. It didn't degenerate at the layer change point, it just wouldn't load.

The new copy I bought still plays just fine, though.

The only disc I have that is defective is Galaxy Quest(DTS). I don't think it's dvd rot, I think it's just a manufacturing defect. My only bad discs came that way from the factory, recently I had to exchange the new edition of Casino and Eraserhead.

Anchor Bay's FM.

None that I know of so far... of course I haven't watched the majority of my collection in awhile so who knows what's waiting for me :scratch2:

It's a real pisser that we not only have to be concerned about taking good care of our discs, but now we have to also worry about them dying on us in their sleep.

RE: Anchor Bay Disc Rot.

I had a Heathers that didn't work and a Hellraiser. I contacted Anchor Bay and they were kind enough to send me a replacement disc for each of them. And this was a year or two after I purchased it.

Halloween 4 (second release)
Fantasia 2000
Both of these were replaced by Anchor Bay and Disney respectively.

Carlito's Way and Casino (the original versions) died on me, but I just replaced them with the new CE's.

One that I've never taken care of is Mission to Mars. Dead and I haven't sent it back to Touchstone (Disney?) yet.

I also heard that several Wicker Man DVDs have gone dead.

I had a porn fail on me. I was kind of bummed, because it was my first disc to have the multiple angle function.

There are a lot of Anchor Bay DVDs that have a rot problem... Wicker Man, Kentucky Fried Movie, Heathers, Frankenstein Created Woman (Hammer Collection), Withces (Hammer Collection).

Apparently, Anchor Bay was using sub-par materials to manufacture the DVDs, so there are a number of titles that have bad runs.

another one
 

My Blair Witch Book Of Shadows won't play in any of my 4 DVD players. Weird.

My Island of Dr. Moreau (Midnight Movies) dvd won't play and this was when I tried to watch it for the first time. I purchased it from DDD in the past year I believe. It's past the 30 day return policy window, so DDD probably won't exchange it.

Well, actually, Anchor Bay don't manufacture discs themselves - this is done by a third party. I can't remember the name of the company they used, but anyway the problem was narrowed down to the material used in the lacquer which protects the metal data layer. This caused the metal layer to oxidise into unplayability after some months.

Anchor Bay was offering an exchange program for the affected titles (the best known are The Witches and Frankenstein Created Woman) - even after they went out of print (they exchanged my copy of The Witches about 18 months ago).

Anchor Bay have since changed their disc manufacturer some years ago in fact.