need ti make backup of AVCHD DVD

[King Ghidora]

I have a video capture card that I used to capture some video that I converted to AVCHD on a DVD. I've been having issues with DVD's getting disc rot so I'm making backups of all my work. I've been making image files (.iso) of all my discs and saving them on a hard drive. But I can't find any program that will make an image file of those AVCHD DVD's that I made. I've tried ripping programs, UltraISO, the program I used to make the DVD's, and none of the software I have will copy anything off the DVD's. I really need to back up some of this stuff because it is very important to me.

[Kerry56]

Have you tried ImgBurn? Set Output to Image File.

[jman98]

Disc rot? In the US, the only consistently high grade consumer burnable DVDs are those by Taiyo Yuden (you must buy online) and Verbatim (avoid their Life series, but everything else is fine). Also, I assume you know that RW discs should NEVER be used for long term storage because that which makes them rewritable also makes them destabilize over time, even in careful storage.

[King Ghidora]

Thanks Kerry. ImgBurn worked perfectly.

jman I don't know how to tell you this but I've had dozens of DVD recordable discs go bad and 90% were made by Verbatim. And no they weren't re-writable. I've had hundreds of CDR's go bad and 90% of those were Verbatim. The fact is Memorex CDR's have lasted far longer than Verbatim. I've had very few of them go bad. I bought them to make cheap copies at the time. They have lasted as much as 5 years longer than Verbatim. I actually called Verbatim about this maybe 10 years ago. They told me their CDR's would last 50 years and that I must have done something wrong. Yeah I did. I trusted them. It was pretty funny that the stuff I had stored on other brands of CDR's were done wrong because they still worked.

You can't imagine how much incredibly valuable stuff (to me) that I've lost not to mention the work projects I've done. I shoot event video and I produce history documentaries. I have a LOT of video around and much of it was stored on DVD recordables as either DVD's that can be played in a DVD player or as data files. I've lost some of it because I trusted Verbatim. The first time I noticed I had CD's going bad (I always bought Verbatim which is why I called them) I found that I had at least 200 bad discs. I lost family photos, videos, and a lot of other stuff. Verbatim is closer to being the worst maker of optical media IMO. I spent an hour trying to recover the video my mother made where she talked about her life and her family knowing we wouldn't see it until after she died. You can't imagine how I felt wondering if I would ever recover that video. I have it on a VHS tape somewhere but it wasn't on a tape by itself. It was in the middle of a tape which is among the hundreds of VHS tapes I have somewhere. It would take me a ridiculous amount of time to recover that video from the original tapes and that's if those tapes still work and I can find where my VCR went to and it still works if I find it.

If you want I can take a photo of a bad Verbatim DVD and post it. Trust me it does happen.

I just looked up a story about bad DVD's that was written 10 years ago. They claim Verbatim was among the best and that disc rot is a myth. I already had hundreds of discs go bad at the time that article was written - 10 years ago. There's a ton of industry produced propaganda floating around. That's what will last for 100 years.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/116473/article.html

Here's another article blaming all sorts of user mistakes for discs going bad. What utter garbage. What makes optical media go bad is exposure to air. All my discs have been stored in sleeve based, notebook like holders. The part that goes bad is invariably the part that sticks out from under the plastic covering for the disc. It will be a perfect line across the disc which will be totally destroyed from disc rot. I don't think I bent just that part of the disc. I didn't write on it the edge either. Air causes the problem and if you want maximum storage use an air tight container for your optical media. Notice the photo in this article. It shows some disc rot and other damage and I have no idea what nature it is.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4908081/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/when-optical-discs-go-bad/

[fritzi93]

I'm kinda surprised Lord Smurf hasn't replied (yet) to refute that last post. It goes against the collective experience of veteran members here.

Maybe the burns were bad to begin with (and if one didn't use ImgBurn, who knows?). But the only thing I can think of (assuming proper storage) that would cause such a massive failure rate with Verbatims is...

sticky labels.

[OldMan64]

But the only thing I can think of (assuming proper storage) that would cause such a massive failure rate with Verbatims is...

sticky labels.

I have to agree on that note. If the offending disks have a paper label, remove the label by soaking in a substance to release the sticky adhesive (GooGone works well ), clean with dishwashing soap, rinse, then dry with a soft cloth. Try the disk again. It works well and recovers many disks that the user thought was bad.

[usually_quiet]

I have hundreds of Verbatim DVD-R discs that I've burned, starting in 2005. None have rotted as you describe. Plastic jewel cases and cardboard boxes are not air tight and my storage conditions are not ideal. Temperature in that room ranges from 62°F to 100° F and the relative humidity ranges between 10% and 60%. I went through my burned DVDs recently to re-organize my collection. I played some of the oldest ones to see if they were OK and they are still playable. None showed signs of physical deterioration.

If what you say is true and every part of the DVD exposed to the air shows physical deterioration, then there is something very unusual in that air, probably a solvent of some kind, which is responsible for ruining them.