Does Spindle Ruin Your DVD's

[mn072065]

I have been backing up my DVD movies. If I leave them in spindles, will it harm them? or is it better to buy DVD cases and placing them in there. I appreciate the help. Thanks

[JimJohnD]

As long as they are kept clean, cool and dry they should be happy. After all, most bulk discs come on a spindle so it should not be a problem. The only risk is from scratching due to handling all the discs to get to one in the middle of the stack.

[macleod]

There was a discussion on this quite awhile back. Personally, I think there is a higher chance for issues in the spindle vs in a dvd case (however, all of my dvd-r's that I buy are in a spindle, so who knows).

I'd recommend getting a CD carrier and using that.

[Capmaster]

The blanks have a thicker area near the center. This is part of the DVD form factor and means there is a space between the DVDs when stacked on a spindle. It is intentional to keep them from rubbing against each other. It's a very safe way to store and ship them.

Try this to prove it:

Take a spindle and poke at it with an edgewise post-it note or other small piece of paper. It'll slide between the discs

It's also why there's a foam rubber or paper spacer on the top disc - it keeps pressure on the stack when the cover is on, and being as rigid as they are, the discs won't contact each other.

[samijubal]

I put mine in cases. Discs are supposed to be stored vertical to minimize warping I thought.

[Capmaster]

I put mine in cases. Discs are supposed to be stored vertical to minimize warping I thought.

Without excessive heat I doubt they will warp at all. They're pretty rigid, and polycarbonate isn't susceptible to moisture. Neither is the glue.

[overloaded_ide]

I'd recommend getting a CD carrier and using that

Beware of CD/DVD carriers that actually harm disks!!
I have a very nice leather type, holds about 70 disks I geuss, has the nice soft sleeves and a soft plastic front to hold them in place. I recently found
most of my disks are getting little dots (blemishes) from a little tab that normally gets stuck behind them. It's supposed to be on the outside to help hold them in place, but it's such a bear to get it from behind the disk I seldom do. So now all those disks I rarely use has to be cleaned well and hope that's not permanant marks or any disk over about 500Megs for a CD or 3gigs for DVD is ruined.

That tab is not needed since they fit nice and snug anyway, so I will be cutting all of them out!

Storing the disks in the spindle cases should not harm anything, but as mentioned you'll have to handle the upper disks far more often to get to the lower ones and that is more chance for damage.
Of course not a problem if something you rarely want to use anyway like backup disks in case you need a new copy latter.

Of course I would not want to store the kids CDs or my movie DVDs we actually use on a spindle, too hard to find and too easy to damage while hunting for the disk we want.

[disturbed1]

I'd recommend getting a CD carrier and using that

Beware of CD/DVD carriers that actually harm disks!!


That tab is not needed since they fit nice and snug anyway, so I will be cutting all of them out!

I got a deal on some carriers that hold 300+ discs ($8.99 each). They came with those little flaps. My girlfriend and I spent a few nights cutting them out. It's a real pain in the ass, but like you, I learned this the hard way some time ago.

Also be aware of some of the ultra soft sleves. They will meld themselves to the top of your discs. If you have any originals in there, it will pull the silkscreening right off it.

I now keep all of my discs in CD Sleves. And place these sleeves in boxes. Each box holds about 400 discs, and I have roughly 30 boxes for CDs and DVDs. A couple of boxes for the popular letters, and a single box for the less popular letters (PQR together ......). Makes orginizing easy, and you can flip through them like you would a card catalog at the library.

[overloaded_ide]

256 is what mine holds! Just counted the pages, 32 and 4 disks each side!

Lucky for me I don't carry it full

Sounds like you have a good system going there. I use the case to carry backups of stuff I may need for service calls, and CDs to listen to on the way. Also carry backups from home to office and back, so I need the case types like these. I don't keep originals in the case, but thanks for the warning on that, something I hadn't thought about.

My Daughter has the same case also for most of her audio and computer disk backups. A smaller similar case for traveling for audio only cd backups.

I don't know if the case did it or what, but I have a perfectly applied NEATO type label that is all wrinkled I just found while scanning and uploading pics of printed cds from the R200. It's the only disk like that. I geuss another reason I like printing instead of labels and why to watch out how they are stored. This disk label runs from edge to hub with 3 large wrinkles like it was stretched or something and it's like that on both sides of the hub like straight lines across the disk. Strange! I wonder if it will even work like that now or if I will have to use the orginal to make another backup and trash this one?

[drjtech]

The blanks have a thicker area near the center. This is part of the DVD form factor and means there is a space between the DVDs when stacked on a spindle. It is intentional to keep them from rubbing against each other.

That "thicker area" is called a stacking ring. If you intend to store your discs on a spindle make certain you do not purchase media with "no stacking ring".


-drj