Has this been happening to anyone else. My father has been suffering and enraged as a majority of Grateful Dead CD's seem to have decayed and are unplayable, unusable. He has been someone who bought every single Grateful Dead/Garcia release on the various formats since 1973. He started the process of importing all of his Dead CD's to his hard-drive only to find The majority of early Dave's Picks couldn't be played, or part of each CD were unreadable. One of his favorite shows that he attended, Dillon Stadium 74 ( Dave's 2) was completely broken, like a blank disc. He spent a few a fortune on a used copy on eBay to find it had the same problem. A majority of his collection was able to be imported with various box sets having discs that wont import/play. The first May 77' box, first Spring 90 Box essentially now broken. He has tried contacting Dead.net/Rhino at various points to no avail. It seems from our research that the lacquer used on the CD's for these Rhino releases must be of poor quality, as things like the early 90's Dicks Picks all play fine. It seems unconscionable that limited edition releases bought in the last 10 years have an expiration date like this? Anyway to make Rhino responsible or give out FLAC downloads for now defunct discs? Is this a limited problem only effecting a few people? Are CD's really a far more temporary medium than first believed upon release in the 1980s? Is it happening to anyone else, beyond Grateful Dead CD's?
I've got CD's going back to 85, out of thousands, I've only found 2 that no longer play. Most of my Dead CD's are either Warner Bros or The band's own label. I'll check my Dave's pick from 1971 and my Cornell and Sunshine Daydream (Rhino) when I get home
Interesting. Sorry you’re going through that. This is the first I’ve heard of this issue. Have you tried ripping them using another hard drive, computer, and extraction software?
Two different types of software have been tried, but are unplayable on the main stereo, and in the car. Its not every release by any means. Mainly May 1977 ( not get shown the light)/ Spring 1990 ( first set) and a variety of early Dave's Picks, and scattered discs throughout. Well its good to hear if this is not widespread. I think i read somewhere about someone else having trouble with the early Dave's Picks as well.
I have an issue with a bunch of Arista/GD label CDs, all bought in the 90s/early 2000s. Dicks Picks 5, Shakedown St, Skull****, Europe 72, Mars Hotel, Terrapin Station, One from the Vault, etc. all seem to have been attacked by some microorganism that carved a fractal pattern in the silver part of the disc. The Dicks Picks and One from the Vault are so damaged as to be completely unplayable. Some of these CDs were stored in their cases, others in a CD wallet thingy, all together with other bands' CDs as well as other GD CDs which were not affected. to the OP, I believe @Six Bachelors has had a similar problem with some of his GD CDs and was trying to get in touch with Rhino.
Yea, on one of the Dave's Picks threads I think Ive seen something related to this happening in particular to the first 4 Dave's Picks ( also the most expensive to replace) haven't heard about this happening to any recent or later Picks. The first Spring 1990 box set now has numerous unplayable discs, released only 8 years ago.
Weird. I have most releases going back to the first archival releases and haven’t had a failure as mentioned. I’ve had a few with skips that have been replaced along the way but nothing like mentioned. I listen to spring 90 frequently.. How were they stored? We’re they ever in a hot attic or subjected to a potentially adverse climate?
Glad to hear it didnt happen to you. Stored on dedicated bookshelf in a temperate climate. No idea, why this has happened here, I wonder if they were damaged along the way by a certain disc drive or CD player from importing? Though it seems to be a certain group of CD's that have had something in the CD hub expire.
Just pulled out Dave’s 1 & 2. All 6 discs played fine on a standard Sony Blu-ray player. Will try some of the others listed.
This has not happened to me (I have not bought and Dave's prior to 22) - BUT there is definitely some talk on the main Grateful Dead thread or one of the Dave's Picks threads about this happening to the first Dave's Picks. So you are definitely not the only person that is having this issue.
Right, Mike. Except for the bonus disc. Also issues on the other 3 fro the first volumes. Some don’t play, some have problems.
I have a different issue. Since 2020 some stuff from Rhino won't read at all of my older cd player. This is stuff pressed 2020-present. Odd. It's a 90's cd player that has read a cd fine that had a crack in it but its like it can't recognize the indexing when you load the cd and therefore is unable to even recognize the cd.
I'm playing Volume 2 right now, and it's fine so far. Should the problem be immediate? ie it won't read, right from the get go.
