Anyone else finding just a few too many old DVDs just don't work any more?

^I've just found ( luddite that I am) that youtube has lots of free movies.
Found a couple I've searching for ages The Admiral Crichton & Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw. If I see the DVDs I'll know doubt get them( 55"screen preferred).Loads of public domain films some I don't mind watching ie Italian(no subtitles) films Sophia Loren etc..

 

And Rachael Bee is very meticulous about how she cares for her discs, I can vouch for that personally.

 

Never had a problem with DVDs a couple of thousand and counting.

 

NO problems here either. Watching The Apostle as I type this, bought June 2008. My Leave It To Beaver Complete box is fine as well.

.

 

I posted another thread a while ago that I have a Blu-Ray disc which has stopped playing (the player says it is Unsupported), yet it plays OK on a friends player. It also doesn't play on a new player of the same make. So far this is the only one that I have this problem, but it makes me fear that there will be others in the future.

 

It sure sounds like an authoring issue. Now that there's a blue-zillion players on the market, new discs are not tested on enough players. Sometimes, players play discs fine but some TV's can't display them properly. When I got Public Enemies, on Blu-ray, it played fine on my best TV. I decided to have a second go on my bedroom TV. The LCD bedroom TV gave a "screen door" effect on multiple scenes.....as did several other brands of LCD TV's. It absolutely wasn't the player, I think, it was an Oppo player on both of my TV's.

 

Tunes Of Glory -DVD problem line /strip on right hand tv corner.. just as the film was ending argh!!!
Turned out to be a fault in the print.

 

My Cousin Vinny DVD wouldn't play.
Problem sorted wrong region disc.

 

The Shield - Season 4 disc 2 (Fox edition) no longer plays

no IFPI code in matrix - LT36 22317932 L1 Ver.2

I'm hoping that with the show coming out on BluRay soon, some people (who don't mind the aspect ratio being changed) might be selling theirs off. Not sure what the chances are of finding one in the wild that works. And this edition's long OOP.

 

My Enterprise Season 1 DVD box is dying. I've played the first 3 discs these past few days. The first disc was riddled with audio dropouts. I'd say there was 50-100 of 'em. The second 2 discs have fewer audio dropouts. However, there are occasional video glitches that result in a black screen for 1-2 seconds. The set is 10-12 years old. I got it when it was released.

 

I have that set also but have not watched for over a year so will have to check it out.

 

It had been about 5 years since I last played mine. When the set came out I thought the PQ was superb for DVD.

 

So much for long term durability. I upgraded to the Blu-ray but haven't played it in a while. Those were manufactured in Mexico as I recall and I have to wonder if the QC at the Mexican plant just wasn't as good or they weren't sealed properly. the surface look strange at all?

 

I agree with RB that it sounds like an issue with the firmware for the BD player or an authoring issue. I have the feeling its the former given that it plays on someone else's player.

 

Try updating the firmware on your Blu-Ray player if you haven't already.

Also, if you can update the firmware on your receiver, give that a shot, too. I bought the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 4K Blu-ray, and I was having playback issues. I updated my receiver, and it played flawlessly.

 

Yes I have had plenty of DVDs that became scratched and would skip. I have had commercial DVDs that just wouldn't play and the bottom of the disc was flawless so it was just a bad pressing. My advice is to get a NAS drive and back up all of your DVDs in case the original becomes unplayable. Just keep the original disc and watch the backups.

 

DVD quality control did take a nosedive when manufacturing switched to Mexico. I believe that started en mass around 2005-2006. They eventually got things figured out, but a lot of discs manufactured in a certain range are just waiting to go bad.

A few studios will replace faulty pressings if you write in and provide evidence you own the disc. I want to say that Warner is pretty good about replacing DVDs gone bad. Disney as well.

 

You're better off replacing them with Blu-rays if you can. Blu-rays are a lot more scratch resistant than DVDs.

 

The DVD's don't look poorly. I took good care of them. They just play poorly now that they're elderly. I am gonna get the Blu-ray set. I've played the first 3 DVD's and they all have problems.

 

'Mad Men' season two (BluRay) - discs two & three won't even load any more.

R.E.M's 'When The Light Is Mine' DVD won't load either.

 

I believe Mad Men was a Lionsgate release. Lionsgate's early BDs have gone bad at much greater rates than the other studios. I wouldn't trust any Lionsgate BD pressed before 2010 to last another ten years.

 

Stop me if I said this earlier in the thread, but not all DVD players and transports are created equally, and sometimes I've been able to capture a bad disc just by using a different machine. Sometimes computer transports are more hardy than standalone players; sometimes vice-versa. It is true that "disc rot" is a real thing and can happen in defective pressings, but I think it's relatively rare with CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays.

 

The DVDs in the final season of Six Feet Under, started freezing, pixelating, and just became generally annoying in my Oppo 103 recently. Up to then, they all played fine. Since it's likely to be streaming somewhere in another 5 years, when I'm ready for a re-watch, it's time for the sell pile for the whole series.

 

Bought "new " Better Call Saul season 4 DVD ( shop no BD availability ), unwrapped it stuck disc 1 in Dvd disc loaded, when screen options came up and I pressed play..player started to grind loading problems ..took out disc repeated the process a few times, finally took power cable out ..plugged it back in again, no probs disc played fine. Player is 5 year old maybe firmware update or just knackered.

 

Having collected beaucoups of them's furmats....CD that fail are bloody rare. I've only had one CD turn grey and die. DVD's that fail are relatively common. BD's have had a very low rate of failure, so far. I've only had to exchange at most 5 BD's that were defective when purchased. I have had no BD's rot, so far. Maybe when my collection ages a bit more....??? But, for the time being BD's seem rather reliable.

When I was buying DVD's in numbers, A bunch of 'em were defective when purchased and had to be returned. When DVD's rot, the most common problem is de-lamination. The top layer separates from the second layer. The top layer often continues to play but you can't finish the disc. The second layer is gonesville.