Can Heat affect DVDs?
 

Hello folks

Now I am sure any extreme condition can affect DVDs to an extent but the reason I ask is because I have a conservatory and some of my DVDs are on a bookshelf in there. They are all in their original cases but conservatories of course can get really hot and I picked up one of my DVDs and the case felt warm/quite hot. Could this have a really bad damage affect on the disc inside?

An easy solution would be to move the DVDs but I have limited space at the moment.

Cheers

Yeah it does affects my DVDs After watching the big shootout scene, all my other action dvds seem to suck.

I have left a burned CD in my car for months and (presumably due to heat) it has affected the quality of playback on several tracks. I would assume the same principles of wear would apply to a DVD....

Burnable discs are more vulnerable because they use dyes, which tend to be damaged by things like heat (and espescially direct sunlight!) whereas commercial discs are stamped with a metallic layer sandwiched between the clear plastic. Which is much tougher.

However, it is probably a good idea to avoid thermal stress on any disc - it;s far better to keep them in as even a temperature as possible and to avoid extreme temperatures and frequent changes of temperature if you can.

So it's probably better if you don't keep them in places like conservatories or lofts which get very hot and possibly cold during winters/nights too.

Right now it's just sitting there...but anything happens to my copies of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things or Heist I'll let you know.

Can a mod please change the title to " Post your un-needed and un-helpful wise cracks here " :rolleyes:

Cheers MisterHowie and Nebiroth. I'll just have to sort something out.

:hscratch:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...5L._SS500_.jpg

well, doesn't heat cause discs to warp and bend over time under hot conditions? i suggest storing your collecting in a cooler location.

How many DVDs do you have? Is there a way you could get a storage bin that fits under your bed?

The sun isn't directly shining on the DVDs all day, but obviously the room is warm enough. I am thinking along the lines of just covering the bookcase with a cover or protection when the weather is hot in the summer. But with it being England, it is definitely only a problem for 3-4 months of the year...the rain will take care of the other months :D

I have got a few hundred but the DVDs in the conservatory is only my horror collection, which makes up around a 100. The other DVDs are on a bookshelf/stand in another room, where there is no more room for a bookcase. I like having them on display ready to watch, hence stacking them in a cooler room or under the bed etc was the last option.

You really need to double dip on the 2 disc Special Edition already ;)

Personally, I store my DVD's in my fireplace to save room. Other than a few melted cases, I've never had a problem.

you beat me to it...

yes heat damages them... of course the higher the heat, or the extreme of direct sunlight, the more dramatic the damage over the short term...

as well as changes in temperature damages them... it stresses the materials... hot to cold damages anything of course...

i read a thing, i think on audioholics, that discs that were stored at pretty hot temps were distorted by gravity over time... the ones that were stored horizontaly were ruined by this...

we have these claims by the manufacturers... like generation one CD-R's would last 40 years or more... etc... only in real world testing was it discovered they were corrupted after 2 years sitting in a temperature controlled safe... i think the claim is 120F is where damage occurs... but real world testing has, of course, proved otherwise...

one of the things i found troubling was some, particularly the cheaper, cd/dvd drives in computers get hot enough to do damage to both pressed and cd/dvd writeable media... those drives get hot... then the disc rapidly cools when removed which causes great stress to the layers of materials in the disc... that kinda sucks...

anyway...

here is a Link... ... the reports in the middle are going by the manufacturer's suggested temp ratings and they go to around 120 F... but notice the rest of them including the ISO on storage temps...

Cheers. I think I might be ok to be honest. The average heat for a conservatory is around 24 C which works out to 75 F. I often leave the windows open to cool it when it feels really hot and as I said, the sunlight is not directly on the DVDs. I might try and cover them aswell, just to be on the safe side.

Thanks for the info, Dr Mabuse.

If they are not in direct sunlight, 75 isn't bad. What are the upper/lower temps?

I wouldn't cover them as that might trap moisture and heat. I could be wrong about that, though.

I'm confused. Keep my DVD's out the attic but boil them if they skip during playback?
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=447554

Lol

haha, sorry, I just made the joke cause your question had already been answered.

I'm sorry to bring back an old thread but I have a question regarding this. I recently bought a DVD shelf and put it against the side of my entertainment center. On the top of the entertainment center and near the DVD shelf is my DVR which has a fan on it that lets out air. Me being paranoid, I was wondering if the heat from the DVR would ruin the DVDs on the shelf next to it.