Can a dvd go bad?

I'm the only one who handles the disk, never touched the face of the disk.  It goes from case to machine to case. No visible scratches or marks.  I watched it 2 or 3 times a year.  I can't remember how old it is,  more than 10 years.

We have several players.  They all register errors at the start and near the end of the movie.   Weird digital artifacts like green rectangles or it won't play at all.

Did my fellowship of the ring die?

Is there anything I can try to fix it?

If it is a burned copy, definitely. I’ve never heard of a production disc failing that way, but I suppose it’s possible. Can you see any weird dots or something resembling tarnishing?  Possible the mirror layer failed from a crack, scratch, or defect in the BACK side of the disc. Or the edge of a double sided disc.

Yep, the data is all on the very very thin layer of metalic film on the top of the disc and is known to degrade with time. I've read 20 to 100 years shelf life though.

R,

They can go bad, but you would see the results on the face.  The reflective layer might peel off, but I have disks that are decades old and play fine.  I am not certain why yours won't play.  And Fellowship is one of my favorites!

Eric

Try cleaning the player with one of those discs with brushes glued on it. Sometimes an unclean lens can make a bad disc worse or simply unplayable. Nowadays you tend to get a kit that does the lens with the bit that cleans the disc so by doing both it can fix the problem.

R Scott wrote:If it is a burned copy, definitely. I’ve never heard of a production disc failing that way, but I suppose it’s possible. Can you see any weird dots or something resembling tarnishing?  Possible the mirror layer failed from a crack, scratch, or defect in the BACK side of the disc. Or the edge of a double sided disc.

I bought it brand new when the movie came out.

It worked fine last fall.

I only ever touch the edges, but I'll look closer at the disk tonight to see if there's any damage.  

I have had CDs and DVDs go bad without anyone touching them.

Matt Todd wrote:Yep, the data is all on the very very thin layer of metalic film on the top of the disc and is known to degrade with time. I've read 20 to 100 years shelf life though.

eek.  It looks like I got them about 20 years ago.  
I had no idea the shelf life was so short.  I got the DVD because it was supposed to last longer than a VHS.  But I have VHS from the mid '90s that are well cared for and still play.

Henry Jabel wrote:Try cleaning the player with one of those discs with brushes glued on it. Sometimes an unclean lens can make a bad disc worse or simply unplayable. Nowadays you tend to get a kit that does the lens with the bit that cleans the disc so by doing both it can fix the problem.

I never thought to clean the player.  Okay, going to look up how to do that.  
Thanks for the tip.

I have had the DVD detach the metal foil inside from the disk.       Yes they can go bad....     One of the reasons I have been using a program called handbrake  to move my movies from DVD to  Hard drive...

Yes, home burned DVDs and CDs can fail. As noted by others, commercial DVDs are more robust.

The other issue: the players for these discs are getting older as well. One player cannot read the data, while another player can without a problem. I see it all the time, with old PCs and DVD players.

But to make you feel better: consider the plight of my VHS collection, and the players that are surviving. There are movies I can't get elsewhere, and for those I can, I know damn well critical scenes have been cut out to make them fit on ... wait for it ... a DVD. Lord only knows what violence has been done to online versions, where "we can forget it for you wholesale."

This is a bought DVD.  
I never got into burning DVDs.  Too much bother for the reward.  Much easier to save up points and get free ones (back when points bought stuff)

I'll focus on cleaning the machine.  Our main one is bluray/dvd.  does that take the same dvd cleaner thing as the regular dvd players?  Or does it need something special?

Our local library will put a thin coat on the surface to fix old DVDs.
They first hold it up to a light to see if it shines through in any places.
If there are spots where light goes through they can't fix it.
But if it's just something on the surface they put a thin coat on it for $1.

craig howard wrote:Our local library will put a thin coat on the surface to fix old DVDs.
They first hold it up to a light to see if it shines through in any places.
If there are spots where light goes through they can't fix it.
But if it's just something on the surface they put a thin coat on it for $1.

I couldn't find any light shining through.

Any idea what coating might be called?   I noticed the library dvds are often scratched but play okay.

r ranson wrote:This is a bought DVD.  
I never got into burning DVDs.  Too much bother for the reward.  Much easier to save up points and get free ones (back when points bought stuff)

I'll focus on cleaning the machine.  Our main one is bluray/dvd.  does that take the same dvd cleaner thing as the regular dvd players?  Or does it need something special?

Its the same as far as I can work out used the same one for the cd player in my car as well as my dvd/blu ray player here. If you type in blu ray lens cleaner they usually advertise the fact they clean cd players too so I think its all the same product at the end of the day.

R, for my two cents, I have never actually had a commercially produced DVD go bad on me.  But I have had DVD players go bad on me left and right.  I like the idea of cleaning the machine.

And I also have a Fellowship of the Rings DVD that is about as old as yours and it still plays just fine.  But the DVD players have come and gone.

Just for reference, is the disc playing at all?  Is it playing but just with digital artifacts?

Eric

r ranson wrote:

R Scott wrote:If it is a burned copy, definitely. I’ve never heard of a production disc failing that way, but I suppose it’s possible. Can you see any weird dots or something resembling tarnishing?  Possible the mirror layer failed from a crack, scratch, or defect in the BACK side of the disc. Or the edge of a double sided disc.

I bought it brand new when the movie came out.

It worked fine last fall.

I only ever touch the edges, but I'll look closer at the disk tonight to see if there's any damage.  

It won’t be because of you touching the disk, it will be from the degradation of the metallic film the data is written on from my understanding. After some time it becomes unreadable because of heat and cold expansion and contraction creates micro tears in the writing surface. I’m not sure this is the correct reasoning behind yours issue. But the main question which was can a DVD go bad, is simple a Yes it can, even in a unopened case still in plastic.

It plays on 3 of four machines.  But it gets stuck near the start and the big fight at the end stutters and has green rectangles and other digital artifacts like we would see in a corrupted digital file that is missing data.

It played fine last fall.

I store these with my vhs so I doubt it's environmental. Vhs are super sensitive to environmental issues like temperature and humidity.

I've never had a dvd go bad before,  or so I thought.  But I do have some that got a stutter in specific places for no obvious reason.   They are about the same age.

I'm not sure what they coat the DVDs with.
I think they use a machine in the archives department of the library.

Don't write on CDs and DVDs with a ballpoint pen. It will destroy them. You can use a sharpie.

r ranson wrote:It plays on 3 of four machines.

Sometimes PC's with DVD R/W have better error correction than stand-alone DVD players. If you have access, I wonder if you could make a copy and see if that plays.

CDs definitely go bad, so DVDs are basically the same material, right? I've taken CDs (not burned copies, originals) out of their cases only to find the silvering has missing bits:holes. if you will.

LPs, on the other hand, will last  forever with care.

John F Dean wrote:I have had CDs and DVDs go bad without anyone touching them.

Yes, me too.  I thought it was a safe, long-term storage method.  I was wrong.  :(

It does seem like some can degrade and become unreadable after like ~10 years or more?