It's a slightly disorienting feeling to look at the hundreds (thousands? it's been a while since I counted) of discs on the shelf and not be entirely confidant which will play and which are useless shiny coasters. Just how many am I one day gonna have to re-buy? (and not for justifiable reasons, like upgrading 'em to Blu-Ray, which I'm already doing at a furious pace)

Went to watch season three of 'The Wire' this weekend only to find that the first disc won't even load. Neither, as it turns out, will three of the other discs in the set. Bought this as soon as it came out, and I've watched them without problems for years. My first assumption was that it was the player's fault, but when I dragged other players off the shelf and tried them, they wouldn't play there either. And there's nothing on the surface of the discs to indicate that they're anything but minty-fresh. (i.e. there's no scratches or fingerprints and none of the gunk that sometimes occurs with those thin snapcases)

I've had a few CDs and LaserDiscs succumb to disc rot over the years, and I've had one CD become unplayable for no obvious reason, but it's never happened to a DVD before. And certainly not with four out of five discs in the same set!

Am I alone on this, or is this SOP and I've just been lucky or oblivious until now?

Yes. I have recently ripped all my DVDs to 12 TB of storage and I had about 10 disks that would not play in 3 different PCs or my DVD player. No scratches and looks brand new...yet doesn't play.

Bit Rot makes me sad.

I remember people kept saying a DVDs should last 99 years.

Only one so far, "Blues Brothers 2000" (Yeah... I KNOW!). Had it about three years, just suddenly stopped playing. Found a new copy cheap though to replace it with.

I haven't had any pressed DVDs not work (knock on wood) but I have had several DVD-Rs suddenly not work even though they were kept immaculate on a shelf.

So much for those advertised "Lifetime" guanantees.

I haven't had any not work at all, but I have had several that pixelate and freeze up on me. Thankfully, replacements are usually cheap.

I have used VHS tapes that I bought 20-odd years ago that still play just fine. I started taping stuff off TV 29 years ago and when I've pulled a tape off the shelf from that period, it looks just as good as it did the morning after I taped it.

Yeah, my DVD of "The Cable Guy" wouldn't load or play last week. Disc looked like new, and tried it in all my dvd players and my BD. Oh, well, good excuse to get the BluRay.

The only one that died on me was my original Apollo 13, and it turns out that's a pretty common problem.

I also had my copy of "The Cable Guy" not want to play recently, its a flipper disc....it only gave out near the end of the movie on the widescreen side...weird not a scratch or even a smudge on it...

I had Disc 1 of Alias Season 1 and Season 2 spontaneously fail to be recognized in multiple players some time back. Not a mark on them. All other discs in each set were perfectly fine.

I bought a used DVD of a Zatoichi movie and it froze up about 16 minutes into it. I popped it out, inspected the disc and--lo and behold!--there was a piece of scotch tape on it! So, yeah, it was an obvious reason, but it taught me to inspect all discs before I put them in the player--esp. a used one. Oh, and it played fine once I removed the scotch tape and cleaned the disc.

What he said!

Probably because it is a flipper disc. They are notorious for not working correctly, or even not working at all. Most notably, the discs in the Universal Legacy Monster collections. The discs may be pristine, but they skip or just don't work. That's why I avoid double sided discs if I know about them beforehand.

Yes. Two of them. They stopped working for no reason and discs are clean and player works flawless.

Artisan - Jacob's Ladder
Columbia - Desert Heat (The full frame side) <---which I don't mind I hate full

My copy of Beverly Hills Cop, it just stopped man, it just stopped. You got some jumper cables, can you give me a jump?

To all those having problems on seemingly "undamaged" discs, you guys try boiling them in water yet? It's worked for me several times, even though it sounds wacko.

If you're interested, just boil some water in a small pot and put the offending disc(s) in, data-side down, for a minute or so. Dry with a soft cloth and give it a spin. You might be surprised!

3 months ago, my Lion King disc 1 stopped working. The data side was pristine. The disc would load and play all the silly trailers but would freeze up when it came to displaying the menu.

I was even more pissed because the disc is OOP but since the BD is coming out in October, it's not so bad. Still these things aren't supposed to happen...

Disney has a replacement program. You pay them a token amount. They send another copy. Call there 1800 number on the disk. Not sure the specifics on it today as I havent used it for awhile.