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

Had to buy another The Outlaw Josey Wales dvd as the first one was freezing some scenes no biggie as they only cost 50 cents for a disc. Not checked the substitute yet.

1492 : Conquest Of Paradise dvd wouldn’t play in my Blu Ray player, no probs with my PS3 player.

 

Back in the laserdisc days, a couple of Pioneer's high-end Japanese-market players utilized a narrower-wavelength laser than was usually the case, and that was unique to those players. I never had one of the Japanese players, but those who did almost unanimously agreed that they were frequently able to play discs suffering from various degrees of laser rot that were unwatchable on lesser machines.

I can't say that I've experienced the same thing with DVD/Blu players specifically in terms of disc rot, but I've certainly had DVDs that wouldn't play in one player but would in another.

 

Yeah, a lot of that just boils down to what kind of RF signal level is coming off the disc, plus the particular alignment of that specific disc vs. the player. I have had cases where I've had to try a CD in 7 or 8 different DVD/CD transports before I found one that could barely play the disc long enough to pull the WAV files off it. Blu-rays have a different chemical composition and have held up better for us. I've already had some SACD discs where the SACD layer started to fail and on the CD layer worked reliably.

Laserdisc video was always an analog format, so it was always flakey that way. We knew some insiders at Pioneer's Carson manufacturing plant, and we got a lot of information we couldn't print, but Pioneer privately acknowledged what was going on. Not all the defects were their fault: sometimes it was contaminated source materials from different suppliers.

 

Found another one that doesn't work any more: BluRay of 'Battle Royale II' (Anchor Bay.) Even worse; I also found out that my BluRay of 'The Godfather Part III' still works perfectly fine. I just can't catch a break, can I?

 

You could take out a contract on that Godfather survivor....

 

I thought they were supposed to last 100 years, but I can't complain. I have DVDs from the late 90s that still play fine, in fact I don't have any discs that do not play at all. I have one series where just one of the episodes will not play during about a 15 minute stretch of a 1 hour episode, that's it.
I have 4 of the Criterion Blu-rays that have had issues of rot, but they are all still playing perfectly. A couple are out of print. They are all stored in a dark, cool basement inside closed cabinets at a fairly constant temperature (low-mid 60s), not sure if that matters versus sunlight and dust, but it seems to be keeping them fine.

 

I wonder if I should feel less or more concerned that I ripped all my DVDs to a file server years ago.

 

yea, we rented Nosferatu from the library last week. It shut down with 5 minutes to go.

 

I just experienced this with my beloved box set of All Creatures Great and Small.

Several DVDs had discolorations and now refuse to play; load, freeze, or simply not load at all.

The box set was an official BBC Video release product and when I contacted them about support they said the discs were out of print so could not/would not do anything for me.

And the series is not streaming anywhere from what I could find (Amazon, Netflix, Britbox, Acorn, etc) wahhhhh.

 

It's why some are ripping their DVDs and BDs for permanent archival purposes.

 

Mine got so gummed up..I started downloading from Amazon (legally..)

 

I've had only one DVD go bad on me. It was Stephen King's THE LANGOLIERS TV movie in a low-budget release. After I discovered that it would no longer play, CBS/DVD released their own version, so I bought that one to replace it. It has a slightly improved picture anyway.

I've had one Blu-ray that simply wouldn't play through on an episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. It was a favorite episode, "Who Watches The Watchers" from the third season. Right after they beamed up Nuria to the Enterprise, the disc froze. To play the rest of the episode, I had to take the disc out, start it up again, and skip to the next chapter. So I was essentially missing about 7 minutes. I believe that this disc was always that way, and that we just didn't notice it at first.

I contacted CBS/Paramount about the defective disc, and got a fairly positive response about replacing it, but I was also headed out the door for a vacation, and when I came back and tried to re-initiate the contact, I was met with deafening silence. A year or so ago, I simply replaced all of Season 3 in a bargain purchase. This copy of the episode works fine.

 

I bought Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray on clearance for $3. My PS3 acknowledges that it is Cloudy With..., and I get the loading screen when I try to play it, but the movie never starts.

I need to try it on a different player and see if it will work.

 

What happens if you get on the menu and pick going to chapter two? Will it do that? I got some cranky DVD to play that way one time.

 

I can't get to the menu screen. After the loading screen I just get black.

 

That's one reason, and we've been doing that for 10 years now. We can back up the drives: in the event of an earthquake or some other disaster, we could theoretically grab a box of drives and run for ze hills. But grabbing 2500+ Blu-ray discs and other kinds of media off the shelves would be a lot harder. I can carry on 9-10 hard drives, easy.

 

I love that series. I never got around to getting that massive set, but they should make it available again. It was a long running series, about 20 years I believe.
I checked the BBC Shop page, and, oddly, they still list series 1 and 4 as in-stock (for $56.98 apiece), but that's it.
Amazon has the complete set for $101.95, but I'm leery with your revelation. I'd want to check every minute within the return period, but it's 4669 minutes!

 

Tried that it didn’t work.
Out of frustration I unplugged the player for a few mins. Disc loaded after that, played. Matter of elimination.

 

"The old unplug the player trick..." That sounds like something that Maxwell Smart would say. If the sound goes out, because of static charge, the old trick even works for my early 80's Jr. Pacman arcade game.....sound comes back, player one up.... I think they used macro processors back then....

 

I’m a “ smart “ guy.

 

It's your player.

 

Now, let me get this straight, you bought The Langoliers? TWICE??

 

BTW, I have well over 5000 DVDs BluRays and 4K discs, and this has NEVER happened to one of them. Yes, I've had a couple of new discs that wouldn't play, but never one that was playable suddenly be not. And I just checked a couple of Disney tins, and they are fine, too.

 

My BD player is starting to play up started image freezing on brand new disc ( Twin Peaks Return) Firmware thing no doubt or knackered. Did the same thing with The Predator BD picture freezing that is. Played alright a couple of months ago. Player problem.