Plastic adhesive covers for DVD bottom: yes or no?

[KungFoo Q]

I ran across these plastic adhesives that you can apply to the bottom of CDs and DVDs to protect them from scratches. Considering the little people roaming my house at the moment and their inclination to ruin a certain spongebob DVD (purchased twice, now on my fourth Ritek) I was wondering if this is a good alternative to backing up ad-nauseum?

Will this affect the quality of the dvd? If so how badly? I don't watch this stuff so it isn't a huge deal but as long as the "favorite cartoon" is discernible I'm open to it. I just didn't want to slap this thing on one of my DVDs without being terribly certain. (and fearing my vengeful wife should any of this backfire when I'm not home!).

any thoughts? are these things worth the investment for me? How do these react with a DVD, and does the color (silver gold etc) come to bear?

[galactica]

never heard of these...!
got a link?

i would say you could test it out... and see for yourself..
i dont have any hands on experience ... sorry

[AntnyMD]

you guys with kids are gonna have to give back the children and keep your dvd's, or keep your dvd's and stop having kids! listen to me! use condoms, save your dvd's!

[galactica]

thats great!
you should put that in your signature

[KungFoo Q]

I had this huge 5 page detailed write-up, but opted for a best of for the sake of all my friends with short attention spans. so here goes:

Alright, I finished some extensive testing on these labels I found in the local Microcenter. They seem to be a "supposedly" removable adhesive label save for the fact that you stick it on the bottom of your DVDs and CDs and then struggle to pull them off even after only a day of use. NOTE: Don't use these for the reasons outlined below and also because a disgusting, sticky film is left behind to mourn the loss of the adhesive strip. Like a painful band-aid I was struck by the fact that my DVDs, both writeable and pressed, would forever be banished from slot-loading mechanisms and anal family members who hated the sticky. As a point of reference, This reminded me of the pancake fiasco in which one of our precious kids managed to become a human glue-ball comprised of maple syrup, pancake bits, and laughter. It was completely revolting, and the scum from these labels sent a shiver down my spine. Back to it-

This solution jumped at me because it was cheap and could afford me a little more life on my movies and backups, especially considering the children in the house that were old enough to understand recording with a Tivo but oblivious to the fact that DVDs do NOT age well when placed in a box of lego..

The (un)scientific Test:

I used a superbit crouching tiger since I have two... I applied the adhesive and tried the disc out in all of my macs as well as my Denon 1600 and the Panasonic 82. I noticed a considerable amount of time was spent on the layer change, worse than the usual for Panasonic (notorious for their bumps). The Denon showed no signs of weakness in the layer change arena but DID show some artifacting similar to forwarding on DV tape... I trust this test the most since the Denon has a faroudja chip. (well, so does the Panasonic but the output, even up-converted to 720 via DVI, is nowhere near as clear.) But what about the damned sponge-bob videos?

Next, the kids test.

Spongebob, Star Wars, Princess and the Warrior.

I've been using Ritek for the spongebob backups since the kids have a way with discs, so I placed one sticker on the original, and another on an ISO backup. The difference was nil when it came to the Panasonic, and the same reported true for my Denon. No noticeable 'gaps' or pauses above expected performance in layer jumps, and the sound and picture were completely spot on. I even had both units disassembled to listen for any abnormal read-error sounds/ funny noises the drive mechanisms might make trying to spin up.

Knowing full well that DivX quality animation looks DVD to me, even on the DLPs, I plopped in Star Wars for some reference tests. Animation can save big-time in the compression department so I expected Episode 2: Phantom Menace to be much more stringent in terms of quality or noticeable loss. [NOTE: my DLP Samsung actually exposes artifacts for many 'reference quality' titles because of accuracy].

The Originals had trouble changing layers on both of my players, and I could tell that there was an ever so slight blur with the Panasonic. I placed Another Copy in without a tag (yes, another original), and sure enough! For some reason the laser has trouble correcting for the clear sticker. The Denon might have this issue too, but the components inside certainly did an excellent job mopping up the picture.

DTS 5.1 sound was spot on, and I made sure to compare all channels etc. Audio seemed to be less critical but the video really hit the skids in fast situations where bright or hot (white) color was present. I also noticed that my red-push was again out-of-whack, despite the attenuator attached to my component cables. Weird jumps and read errors similar to a bad or damaged disc started to crop up as the DVD went forward.

I pulled all discs to make sure no air was stuck between the disc and the label, hoping that might explain my issues. NOPE. suckage.

As a last test, I placed the Straight Story (awesome flick by the way) in and experienced similar video artifacting and seek trouble on the panasonic while the Denon plowed right through the Original and the backup with no problem at all.

My advice: The more sophisticated the chipset, the more noticeable the errors in reading a given disc. I was shocked to discover that the ritek/ ridata showed generally the same problems as my originals. The only perplexing part was the fact that the superbit didn't yield nearly the hassle that Episode 2 did. This has something to do with encoding I'm sure, but methinks Lucas probably is the culprit in this case. Strangely, the Lynch Film was the worst out of all my tests and I doubt it would be considered master material like Star Wars or perhaps an extended LoTR.
(which, by the way, has horrible transfer and yet people call it ref-qual. but I digress).

Conclusion: NO, do not waste your time, money, or discs. Ritek is still a cheaper option for the parents out there looking to save on DVD replacement costs. I'll certainly just back up Invader Zim when it comes out next week since I know its all we will watch for a solid month. (cant wait to buy that one either!). These labels suck bad and I was pissed to waste some good originals, but hey, anything in the name of pseudo-science right?


I'll probably not upload my full review with details, scope analysis, AVIA tests etc, but feel free to ask me questions; just keep in mind my kids take up some time so my replies may be several days away.

I hope this helps.

[Fluffbutt]

How about teaching the kids to look after and respect things?

(I guess that's just too hard to do.. Humans always look for the easy way out... Planet will be better off without them... damn humans...)

[The village idiot]

Since this has absolutely nothing to do with Mac, and everything to do with media, can it be moved to the media forum so that others might read it too?

[gmatov]

Move it if you like, but I'm not Mac people, and I read it after each new post. The title enough said it all.

VI,

I'm surprised you didn't ask the obvious. Are they printable?

Cheers,

George

[BobK]

> How about teaching the kids to look after and respect things?

Teaching is a process. That means it takes time and doesn't happen over night. For most people, that would mean that disk damage is caused while the kids are in the process of learning to look after and respect things.

No doubt your parent never had that problem and you learned everything instantly.

[stackner]

> How about teaching the kids to look after and respect things?

Teaching is a process. That means it takes time and doesn't happen over night. For most people, that would mean that disk damage is caused while the kids are in the process of learning to look after and respect things.

No doubt your parent never had that problem and you learned everything instantly.

LOL. well how about something simple like putting the dvds out of reach of the children? or if it is just the kids dvd they are killing then how about making them a copy and telling them if the kill it that you are not making another copy.

sure we re not saying spank your kids or yell at your kids but some people think one time saying be carefull with the dvd is all they can do.
but hey its your life your kids and your reburning of dvd after dvd. i found they learn after the first one or two and now no more killed dvds.

[MeTaLgEaRsOoTy]

NO .DO NOT WASTE YOUR CASH ON THIS SHITE.
THESE PROTECTIVE COVERS ARE CRAP.

just back it up,give the kids a backup copy,and if they damge it,chances are ,youll still be able to rip and burn it again for them.
meanwhile protecting your precious originals.
same goes for your originals,any family member wants a "loan".
copy one for them.
simple,and the money you would have spent on this crap,can be put to use buying some dvd+-Rs.

[LRD]

Any time you get "sticky crap" on your DVD, use New Finish car polish to remove it. It also removes Sharpie permanent marker from the "read" side of the disk. My wife accidently marked the read side of my son's Gamecube game to protect it from theft. Pretty clever--who wants a game that will not work. Rather than eat the $50, I used New Finish (orange bottle) and "problem solved". I am sure this will remove stcker residue.

LRD

[dxj40c]

This sounds pretty scary... I have enough problems with a simple fingerprints.

Take it easy on the kids. They try to please, just show them how to handle media and explain why. My grandkids had it down in no time.