some Criterion Blu-rays are starting to rot and no longer play, including some OOP titles

Are any of their DVDs affected?

 

Reading the omission of any DVD titles on the Criterion site's official response to this, tells me I was either misled, or mistaken. Apparently no DVDs were affected.

 

I'm waiting for Amazon to ship my Criterion BD of Eraserhead. At least I've been warned about the glitch!

Hopefully the wait is because of them replacing the defective version.

 

Glad i stuck to BETAMAX!!!!.

 

That's why digital is the future. I don't care for physical media anymore, i don't have the time, the patience or the space!

 

DVD!

 

It's been my reality for at least ten years.

 

Make backups! Hard drives do "rot" over time and will eventually fall apart.

 

They don't rot, but they may have head crashes or much more rarely, electronics/power supply failures. However, both of those conditions are much, much rarer these days, especially if the drives aren't hammered 24/7 as wouldn't be the case for offline or network storage. And even if the drive does fail, it is still possible to recover most of the content, even stuff that was 'deleted'.

But of course, the gold standard is to have two backups and since multi-TB drives are now dirt cheap, anyone could do if they wanted to.

 

Eh, they fail for a variety of reasons. I know of cases where the platters started shedding the magnetic coating over time: call it rotting or dropouts or deterioration, it's still falling apart. Take the IBM "Deathstar" drives, please...

The drives were known for an unusually high rate of head crashes, due to the magnetic coating soon beginning to loosen and sprinkle off from the platters, creating dust in the hard disk array and leading to crashes over large areas of the platters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HGST_Deskstar

Yep, I subscribe to the theory that if you don't have at least three copies of your data, you don't really own your data. One main drive and two backups. I've had a few occasions where the only thing that saved me was that last backup.

 

Must have great, reliable connection. Just a day ago I had no internet because the d*mn firmware my router company used knocked them (and all their users) out of commission. Digital isn't all that convenient. And I prefer surround sound and optimal picture for my movies. I don't understand the notion of settling for less when we've already established more.

 

Take the Muscle Shoals documentary.
Theater = was just okay, it was free so I didn't complain.
PBS broadcast = slight improvement in audio and video, slight.
Rec'd the Blu ray = ALL the colors improved by 85%, audio improved by 100% easily !!!

 

Hmm. I just ordered mine during the flash sale and it's already shipped.

 

Digital doesn't only mean streaming.

Digital is the epitome of convenience - you don't need an extra room to store all your disks and then spend half an hour until you find what you want. Also, why would a digital file on hard disk not have surround sound or any other 'high end' attribute?

 

Yeah...I like my discs. Blu or otherwise. EVERYTHING decays. Enjoy it while you can.

 

I buy or download everything in lossless quality, so i'm not settling for less. I riped all my DVD's, CD's, Blu-rays etc. long time ago, and to a lossless format. I have everything in more than one external HD now. What i don't understand is that in 2014 some people still have the notion that digital is only lossy MP3, avi etc. Have you ever heard of HDtracks?

 

Yeah, but i use cloud to. The best combination: external HD's plus cloud. Why people act like there is an apocalypse coming? Everything is ephemeral, everything rots, burns, breaks, dies. If i can enjoy my music for some time, i'm happy with it. We don't know about the future, and in a couple of years digital download may be the most antiquated thing on earth. I only care for the music, and at this moment digital is the media that meets my needs the best.

 

I have reviewed this entire thread and found it very informative, but I am wondering if anyone has established even a tentative time frame in which the rotting occurs. Last night I checked my copies of several blu rays on the list and saw no bronzing, nor did I find any problems when jumping from scene to scene. Am I in the clear, or is the rotting likely to happen next week, month, year?

 

impossible to tell - you may never have a problem, or you may. Like I said before, if you can't afford to loose it, back it up, twice.

 

I can't use the Cloud, because I've got over a dozen TB's full of data. Beyond a certain point, Cloud storage doesn't work if you don't have an unbelievably-fast connection and very inexpensive storage. Even if I could store 10TB in the Cloud (as you can with Amazon), the cost is around $50 a month, over $600 a year. For that kinda money, I can just buy another set of bare drives.

Eventually, ultra-fast connections and super-cheap storage could work. Just not right at the moment.

 

You mean it has its father's eyes?

 

You're right, but for me it's a non-starter regardless of how much or little storage is involved. What too many people don't appreciate is that the 'cloud' basically means 'stored on someone else's computer'. This is not secure storage, and I don't just mean hacking. Lots of innocent cloud users have been burned by the copyright cartels taking down sites that may have had infringing content - all lost. And with automated DMCA bots spraying take-downs like confetti, there is a lot of collateral damage.

If you're going to store valuable stuff in the cloud, you really should have it backed up locally. But if you're gonna do that, then why even bother with the cloud? The only use for cloud storage that I can see it to have a central repository which you can access from any geographic location. And if it's valuable, back it up, if it's disposable, then don't worry.

 

Who knows. I checked my discs a couple weeks ago, and they all looked fine. And then I was just about to send in my "Eraserhead" disc so I checked them again 10 minutes ago. And now one clearly has bronzing around the edge and another looks as if it's starting to go. Rather discouraging. I think I'm going to send in a bunch. Frankly I don't think I should have to rewatch 15 hours of cinema just to make sure I'm not the loser a year from now. If the things weren't made properly, let's have a replacement.

 

Was thinking more about streaming and the limitation for sound in movies via digital means. Yes I've heard of HD tracks and they're pretty expensive versions for files that may be the same lousy masters that I avoid on CD. Not always, but more than should be.

 

You got me there...for now. Give it a few years. I'm betting that'll the only option for everyone.