Has anyone else been having this issue? I have a number of Blu-ray discs with little dots all over the back of the disc after I've kept them stored away in a binder for awhile. This is exactly what a few of the undersides of my discs look like. Is this Blu-ray rot and is it normal? If this is a serious issue I may be doing all my purchases digitally from now on.
Haven't seen this, but the Blu Ray in my super expensive Dark Side of the Moon immersion set suddenly stopped working in any of my Blu-Ray machines after playing fine for a couple of years.
I'm not sure quite what it is I'm supposed to be seeing, but if the discs have been stored in "a binder," it's probably a reaction to/residue from the sleeves they've been stored in. You can't count on any storage medium being safe for disc media aside from the cases they come in.
I've taken all of my discs out of binders, because I've seen the same kind of wear even when the discs aren't removed.
From the photo, I guess I'm not seeing it. What I see in the photo is scuffs, scratches, smudges, fingerprints, and what looks like dust.
I've heard this about binders recently, which worries me a bit since I use one for discs that come in those terrible cardboard slots. Any suggestions for a better solution?
Haven't seen rot for any blu-rays I have or have rented. I've had great experience with Slappa cases for CD and DVD media, though I haven't used them to store blu-ray.
That's what I think as well. They're using different materials with Blu-ray discs, and I don't know of any oxidation problems like those that occurred with CDs. Laser Rot with Laserdiscs was a different thing entirely. Note that even open reel tapes and cassettes could shed and fall apart over time. Nothing lasts forever, not even optical media.
I've heard that optical media is even more prone to failure for archival storage than was previously thought.
I believe this is essentially true. But there's a lot of contributing factors: type of media, drive used, software used, how the media was stored over time, and so on. I've had expensive name-brand Taiyo-Yuden blanks from 1994 go bad in less than 10 years, and those were considered to be among the very best in terms of chemical stability.
I wouldn't worry too much about it unless the disc stops playing. Criterion had some manufacturing problems with BDs pressed around 2010.
This is the outgassing of chemical plasticizers in relatively new plastic products like CD binders or cd sleeves. This reacts with the thin coating on CDs and Blu-Rays causing damage. Do you know that new car smell or new plastic smell? These smells are caused by corrosive chemical plasticizers escaping from the solid plastic. Don't put your media into new plastic binders. Maybe expose the binders to the air for a few months in an opened state in your basement or attic before use.
could someone explain what is meant specifically by binders? Cardboard digipacks, cellophane bags that usually come with Japanese editions or LPs made in Germany (from earlier times), paper envelopes or...?