CD's, DVD's does has short life ? ... I mean veeeeery short

[icevideo]

I don't know what to believe, but I don't rely anymore DVD's media. I burn a few for my child to watch some movies, and after 3 or 6 months some of them they start to stop, play with intreruption, and after a certine period of time they died completely.

I am using mostly TDK media bought 50, or 100 ( the ones in tower ) from Costco.

I am afraid of this, because I am having 2 dvd player in my house, and it happening the same story on both of them. So is not the dvd player itself to demage the media.

Also I don't know what do to , I have very precious family movie on DVD's and I don't have any backup of them.

I am really concern about how to store my movies for future.

Does this happening to you as well, and ... what you do ? You change the media, which one ... or ... ?

[redwudz]

Taiyo Yuden is one of the best: https://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia.php?selectmedia=2399#comments

In general, you look for 'Made in Japan' media. For some good media information, look here:http://nomorecoasters.com/

You also want to check to the left for your DVD writer and your DVD players to see what media others have used successfully for each. <<<<

[ROF]

Your discs have probably failed due to failure to properly care for them. Burnt media is more fragile than pressed media but care must be taken with both.

I have very few DVDs that have died, mostly because of others not taking care of them. You get one chance when borrowing my media. If they aren't returned at the time I specify when lending them, they are returned in unsatisfactory condition, or I find you've second hand leased them to another relative or friend, you don't get to borrow my movies.

I can't name a single DVD or CD that I've burnt that has simply expired(died). Either it wasn't recorded good to begin with or was mishandled by someone in the aforementioned statements.

[drjtech]

I burn a few for my child to watch some movies, and after 3 or 6 months some of them they start to stop, play with intreruption, and after a certine period of time they died completely.

One of the reasons I burn copies of DVDs is so my grandchildren can play them for a couple of months, and then I burn a new copy for them. Discs are expendible commodities once kids get their hands on them.

-drj

Edit: Just be sure to keep the originals well away from the kids.

[ROF]

One of the reasons I burn copies of DVDs is so my grandchildren can play them for a couple of months, and then I burn a new copy for them. Discs are expendible commodities once kids get their hands on them.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and much more responsible to teach the children about the fragileness of DVD media?

[icevideo]

My media DVD's are in 100% conditions, I am paying carefull attention to those disks. I am very strict with this policy !
No one except me and my wife are touching them.

Children are not alowed to touch DVD's at all, so ... they are trained in this way.

So there is no question about how do I maintain my DVD's, again they are in perfect conditions, there is not single scratch on one, you can use them as your personal mirror.

My kids are watching same movies maybe 2 or 3 times per week, they have their's own preferences.

Thanks guys for input.

[samijubal]

I have DVDs burned in 2001 that still play flawlessly. Some of them have been played many times.

[lordsmurf]

DVD players die too. In fact, a laser only lasts a few years. The life of a disc should exceed the life of a player at least 10-fold. Scary to think about, if DVD player production gets halted in future years, and future media players are not backwards-compatible!

[ROF]

I don't think we'll have to worry about this in our lifetimes. VHS has been around since the 70's and while stores do not sell VHS pre-recorded tapes you can still buy blank media and the recorders to use them with.

[jman98]

I used to buy TDK CD-Rs and I even bought a few of their DVD+ or -R discs. Then I read that TDK uses inferior dyes that have short lifespans because they are cheap. Now I won't buy anything but Verbatim to burn CDs or DVDs. By the way, most Verbatim discs are made by Taiyo Yuden.

[lordsmurf]

I used to buy TDK CD-Rs and I even bought a few of their DVD+ or -R discs. Then I read that TDK uses inferior dyes that have short lifespans because they are cheap. Now I won't buy anything but Verbatim to burn CDs or DVDs. By the way, most Verbatim discs are made by Taiyo Yuden.

No. No. And no.

TDK CD-R is great media, assuming you refer to the manufacturer. I don't even know if TDK makes CD-R anymore. As a brand, TDK mostly uses CMC for CD-R, which is not great, but not the end of the world. It's cheap stuff, don't use it for anything archival.

Lifespans are not really related to being low quality. Low quality ("cheap") usually means that they are bad burns right away.

Most Verbatim discs are made by Mitsubishi (MCC, MKM), the parent of Verbatim. TY can be found under the Verbatim label, but it's far and few between. And I'm not sure if TY has Verbatim CD-R, just DVD-R that I'm away of.

[thecrock]

I used Ridisc 4x dvd-r and had no problems with them, the shopkeeper where I buy them from has told me that the discs I was buying were discontinued and had been replaced with another disc from Ridisc. The discs are more expensive as they have a faster burn speed but the die on the discs is a much paler shade of purple.

Is it true that the darker the die the better the disc?

[VEBouto]

In regards to Blank Media, here in Australia, i use TDK CD-R80PW which is a plain white disc with a printable surface (i would never print on the disc anyway). But they are the most reliable i have found. They're made in Japan and i only buy the box of 10 in induvidual cases.

The problem i have found with spindles and stacks is that they're always dusty or scratched or will become that way the more you use the spindle.

I have a friend here in Australia who's whole CD and DVD collection is full of scratches and finger prints. It drives me nuts...everytime i used to lend him stuff it came back with a nice fingerprint or scratch somewhere. When i go to his place he sometimes had the disc's sitting on the desk not even in the case.
I now never lend original copies to anyone just burnt disc's.

I also prefer the darker dye in CD-R

[ZippyP.]

Wouldn't it be cheaper and much more responsible to teach the children about the fragileness of DVD media?

Have you got kids?

I have a friend here in Australia who's whole CD and DVD collection is full of scratches and finger prints. It drives me nuts...everytime i used to lend him stuff it came back with a nice fingerprint or scratch somewhere. When i go to his place he sometimes had the disc's sitting on the desk not even in the case.

You can't teach adults sometimes, never mind children.

Actually my kids are pretty careful, but they are only 7 and 6 and things happen. I never give them the original so they are quite welcome to put on a show or play a game on the computer without me looking over them.

[VEBouto]

Hey ZippyP, your a Frank Zappa fan...i am listening to "You are what you Is" in the back ground...
Great CD.
And your right you can't teach adults sometimes...you can only try.
Rock On.

[drjtech]

Wouldn't it be cheaper and much more responsible to teach the children about the fragileness of DVD media?

I'm guessing you don't have much experience with grandchildren?

-drj

[Martuk]

DVD players die too. In fact, a laser only lasts a few years. The life of a disc should exceed the life of a player at least 10-fold. Scary to think about, if DVD player production gets halted in future years, and future media players are not backwards-compatible!

We may get lucky in that regard, as the new forms of media that are coming out are still forms of DVD and I'm sure that manufacturers see the potential in backwards compatibility. If people know the movies they buy will always (or at least in the forseeable future) be able to be played on new players no matter how the format advances, I would imagine that will boost sales considerably. There are still many who have reservations about DVD even now, since VHS was such an accepted format for so long. I myself have hundreds of VHS tapes and it pains me to watch the format, and the ability to play them, die out after spending so much money. I don't worry about it with DVD though, because I think companies are smart enough to make Blue Ray or HD DVD players backwards compatible.

[ozymango]

Wouldn't it be cheaper and much more responsible to teach the children about the fragileness of DVD media?

Have you got kids?

I've got a (now) 17-year-old stepdaughter who doesn't scratch every CD or DVD she gets ... ...

Sure it'd be cheaper and more responsible if we could get everybody to treat stuff nicely (talking to ROF here), and I'm all for it, not just for kids but for adults ... but I also live in the real world. In this real world, people don't follow instructions, they don't read directions, they don't back up their computers, they don't change their car's engine oil every 5,000 miles, they don't eat their veggies ... :P ...

Again, I don't disagree that it's better, if at all possible, to practice preventive maintenance whenever possible! But I'm also not gonna give anybody my only copy of anything, it'll never come back.

That being said, in terms of some burned media failing over time or whatever, I do have a stack of discs I burned for people a while back, a concert (which I had clearance for!), and I used a certain media (don't remember the label off-hand, but it wasn't either a greatly touted brand or a disparaged brand, just an "okay for most people" brand). And I've got about 25 discs out of stack of 100 that are starting to ... play badly.

I've kept them clean! They're in cases, even! No scratches, fingerprints, weren't left out in the sun, basically stored in cases, in drawers, in a cool, dry place ... and they definitely played all the way through to start. But now (about two years later), they will start to "freeze" about half an hour in, then un-freeze, then play for a while ... but once they get past the 90 minute mark, they start freezing more and more, until they just lock up.

They appear (visually) to be undamaged in any way, no dye shifts, no air bubbles, nothing weird. And I've tried the DVD player with discs of the same time period from another manufacturer (recorded at the same time, though different content), and these all work.

I do a disc scan on the offending discs and start getting CRC errors about 80% into the disc. If I keep scanning, I can sometimes get past these, sometimes not. But again, they weren't there when I first burned them, and I can't see any signs of damage to the disc. It's a mystery!

Anyway, I don't know if it's the discs, my burner, my player, or some combination, but it sure made me think, what if this were my only copy of some backup data on my computer that I had here?

So now I:

1) Use only Taiyo Yuden discs (as my burner and player just love these, no problems ever, no lost data ever).

2) I back up multiple copies of each disc.

3) I check my backups every few months to make sure they're still viewable or can still read them in my computer.

4) If I encounter any glitches, I make another copy, blank DVDs are cheap, precious data isn't!

[ozymango]

I don't think we'll have to worry about this in our lifetimes. VHS has been around since the 70's and while stores do not sell VHS pre-recorded tapes you can still buy blank media and the recorders to use them with.

Yeah, but it is getting harder and harder to repair VCRs, just because they aren't making as many parts for them as they used to. I do think that VHS still has a considerable lifespan yet, for at least specialized use, so I think you will be able to find VHS decks and tapes for quite a while. But you'll definitely have to look harder.

Something on an analogy: I still am strongly into Beta VCRs, have several, and work on them myself. Parts are still available if you are willing to dig around -- Sony stopped making many parts for their Beta decks, which are the brand I own, but there are many fans out there with sources for parts. So you can end up as part of larger subculture, which is sorta fun. But it can and does take more than a bit of effort to keep the ol' machine going.

Of course, Beta was "dead" a long time ago, and it's still out there, so I'm sure the same will happen to VHS after it "dies" as a common format. Still, it probably won't hurt to stock up on parts and manuals for your favorite VHS VCR's now, before they become a collector's market.

[Scottyg1987]

Is it correct that if you have say a film on DVD media that does not play that if you copy this disc - the copy will play okay?

[ROF]

Is it correct that if you have say a film on DVD media that does not play that if you copy this disc - the copy will play okay?

Nope. You actually reduce your chances of it's ability to play because of drive compatibility with burnt media.

[ZippyP.]

Is it correct that if you have say a film on DVD media that does not play that if you copy this disc - the copy will play okay?

Possibly. If your DVD player is having trouble with a particular recorded disk it is possible to copy it to a different/better brand of disk to increase it's chances of playing. DVD readers in computers tend to be able to better read disks that some finicky DVD players reject. There's lots of poor disks out there and copying them to a better brand using your computer can sometimes make them more playable.