Degradation over time?

redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

I have a few regularly watched vcd's that I've had a couple of years and I've noticed that they are slowly getting choppier and choppier and now none of them work. I have had to switch dvd players through the last couple months as I have been learning to burn dvd's.

Of course the reason I've had most of my issues is that I have been using only cheap dvd players, been through 3 trutechs' in the last 4 months. So I spent more money this time and went with an RCA brand but now it won't read my vcds.

The disks they are on are the cheap durabrand.

It read a few and now even my best won't read. Is it just a degradation issue or do I need to get yet a better quality player?

I've tested all 50+ vcd's that I've burned. I've even tried a re-burn to marginal success. It will play the new disks, and as expected the errors are copied but they do load again.

Now I know that a couple of the disks have a couple scratches and some are in rough shape.

My exact DVD player is

RCA Progressive Scan DVD Player DRC225N

Any advice or suggestions to get the old ones to read or if I need to re-burn them a suggestion to preserve them for longer life would be great.

Thanks,

Redisk

kazuma.gendron@gmail.com

tnamrog · Member Joined: 12 Dec 2003

Can you still watch them on your computer? The laser on your standalone might be dying.

redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

Yes I can, but this is a new standalone and its only 2 weeks old. Not that factory defects don't happen

The big reason I'm wondering if there is another factor is that I returned those few trutechs for the same reason and figured it was the cheap player. Do vcd's cause that much stress on lasers? I chose this one because it has built in vcd2.0, avi, divx, ect.

Ai Haibara · Posted: Nov 08, 2006 16:27

You can also try cleaning the laser lens, but the cheap media may indeed be the problem.

Also, are the discs clean and free of scratches?
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redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

Most disks are scratch free. I'll try cleaning it again may help hehe. The weird thing is though if I re-burn them they play fine, but that is a lot to re-burn lol.

Wile_E · Desert Wanderer Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Location: Texas

Don't buy cheap media and you won't have this problem.

http://www.nomorecoasters.com

redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

Thanks guys.

redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

Now It won't even play my new burns but one time only even on my new medium. Using TDK cd's. and Memorex CD's

AlanHK · Member Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Location: Hong Kong

Maybe the discs are just dusty or dirty. When I buy used ones I clean them (gently) with warm water and dishwashing detergent. Or maybe damaged by light (though that should take quite a long time) if you keep them in clear cases.

And if you're going to reburn them, you can fit at at least six VCD movies onto one DVD. Just convert the audio to 48k sampling.

redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

Thanks, you guys rock.

jman98 · Member Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Location: Freedonia

redisk - Yes, your discs CAN degrade over time. Both TDK and Memorex are bad brands, although there are certainly worse ones out there for sure. VCDs are not read with the DVD laser, they are actually read with the same laser that reads audio CD. This is why sometimes DVD players will play audio CDs/VCDs fine and not DVDs or play DVDs fine and not play audio CDs/VCDs. The lasers aren't the same. VCDs don't "stress" the laser or the player. I'd guess that your player may be defective or it may possibly not like your media. One possible test would be to copy a VCD you made to a CD-RW disc and see if it plays better. If it does play better, I'd say your DVD player doesn't like your media very much. Some DVD players are just fussy. My Philips DVP-642 refuses to play some old VCDs that I made with VCDeasy even though they play on both of my PCs and a different brand of DVD player with no problems at all.

Krispy Kritter · Member Joined: 31 Jul 2003 Location: St Louis, MO USA

Try looking up your dvd player in the DVD Player section and see if there are any comments on which media does and doesn't work with your player.

If you plan to go with a new player, take a few of the discs to the store with you. Then you can test and see which players can read them.

Also, I understand the whole media quality issue, but it is mostly related to DVD media. There doesn't seem to be the same performance / quality problems with regular cdr media. At least not that I've seen/experienced in my years of cdr use.
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redisk · Member Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Location: United States

So what brand do you guys suggest for CD media, the site I looked at (nomorecoaster.com) says that tdk makes some of the best dvd's and tayo yuden aswell.

AlanHK · Member Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Location: Hong Kong

Another possible problem: if you've written a label with any kind of marker. "CD markers" are supposed to be safe, but some generic felt tip pens will definitely destroy the surface after a while. I've got some you can see right through where the ink has dissolved the foil. For the really cautious, just write on the transparent part in the middle.

Krispy Kritter · Member Joined: 31 Jul 2003 Location: St Louis, MO USA