Hundreds of your Warner Bros DVDs probably don’t work anymore

from joblo,

"virtually every Warner Bros DVD disc manufactured between 2006 and 2008 has succumbed to the dreaded laser rot, where discs simply stop working due to a rotting of the layers. Once it happens, it can’t be undone. This was a frequent problem with laserdiscs back in the 80s and 90s, but it wasn’t a huge problem with DVDs. The issue comes down to the way the discs were authored.

So far, Blu-ray Discs aren’t affected, although all HD-DVD discs put out by WB in this period are basically expensive coasters.

WB will replace some discs if you contact them directly, with a catch. They will only replace discs that are currently in print, and sadly, many of the defective titles are not."

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Ugh... really bad. I have this gut feeling that failures might become a more common thing than we'd like to think. I hope not!

Really stinks for collectors that had rare(ish) movies that are no longer sold.

Stinks, but also a hefty dose of reality for those who have railed against Kaleidescape and streaming because "DiSkS R FuReVrR" and "WuT aBoUt If ThEy Go OuT oF BiZnEsS."

This is one reason why I rip all my video discs to external USB drives using makeMKV,

If you want to do 4K UHD discs, that requires something called a LibreDrive (a re-flashed Pioneer disc drive) to eliminate DRM, etc. (also available through links found at the makeMKV site). I had noticed my 4K player was having trouble playing brand new 4K discs right out of their shrink-wrap packages.

Video discs are a backup format now. All my videos are now available on USB HDs. No "forced viewing" of trailers or commercials.

Chris

Everybody who owns physical dvd's should start transferring to hard drives/USB before it is too late.. At least this way, you have something instead of a coaster of a dvd!

Chris A said:

Video discs are a backup format now.

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I like the way you phrased that. For many people, the expense of backing everything doesn't line up wit their budget. But your sentiment is spot on. We are quickly trending in that direction!

Todd Anderson said:

...For many people, the expense of backing everything doesn't line up wit their budget...

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Storing a BD movie costs about $1 in external HD storage costs (and you can use the external HD for other storage needs, too.)

A DVD costs about 1/3 that amount, and 4K UHD cost about $2 per movie (i.e., 2x larger movie files).

In terms of monthly streaming costs from Netflix or Prime (etc.), the costs are basically inconsequential.

Chris

I was so glad when we moved to Mexico, that I had ripped all my movies to the NAS....over 1500 movies were lost during the move! When I went to the movers I found out that they never inventoried the majority of the boxes I had put my movies in...so no way to claim against them.

Hmmm... this makes me think I might better go ahead and catalog my DVDs and Blurays with Kaleidescape.

Kaleidescape prices look to be ~10x higher than just ripping via makeMKV to general purpose external USB HDs.

I think printing the volume directories of each external HD (assuming you have five to ten 4-terabyte HDs) and using those printouts like a card catalog is much more cost effective (I ripped my collection by alpha title instead, so finding a movie to watch isn't difficult.) Since movies are pretty long in duration, you'd only have to search maybe once or twice per evening. You can do that at a restroom break during an evening viewing session. It saves a couple of thousand bucks, at least.

If you use a 16 TB internal HD instead, you might get away with just one drive (depending on size of your movie collection), thus eliminating the need for printed directories altogether. Just open a directory window and do a search

YMMV.

Chris

Kaleidescape has never been about being cost effective. It’s about being plug and play. One click, download, watch. Not everyone wants the hassle of finding discs, ordering discs, ripping discs, storing discs, maintaining server, troubleshooting apps and client devices.

Pardon me, but your response looks like you're actually trying to justify their offerings.

That would definitely change my assessment of this forum (i.e., if there are any discounts or representations of manufacturers' products not disclosed openly by admins and moderators)...to be honest.

The participation here already looks to be pretty thin. Is there a reason I'm not aware of?

Chris

Hi Chris... I am a senior partner and did not buy my Kaleidescape from the manufacturer. I purchased it from Robert Zohn at Value Electronics, who buys advertising here and offers all our members discounts on products he sells.

FYI: Kaleidescape is not a sponsor here. They don't pay us anything, nor have we obtained any benefit from them for anything that I am aware of. We rotate their banner in our header section for ProjectorScreen, which is only an affiliate, not a sponsor.

I assure you Kaleidescape is expensive and overpriced, and I have been extremely vocal about this over the years. I am not a fan of their pricing, but I do love the convenience, and I was willing to pay the price for that convenience. About the only justification anyone can make for it is convenience, although the other benefits are also nice to have to go along with the convenience. I don't see those other benefits alone making it worth the price of admission.

I have about 50 DVDs and Blurays that I'd like to keep... the others can rot for all I care. I'm not going to watch them again, and I'm not going to take time to do anything with them, period. For the 50 or so I have that I'd like to save, most of them will cost me around $5 each to download from Kaleidescape, and they only cost me if I decide I want to watch it again. Otherwise, all of these are cataloged in my collection (in less than an hour) and always available for download (a few minutes). This is super convenient for me.

I would not see why someone explaining why they prefer Kaleidescape would cause anyone to not want to participate here in our forum... makes no sense... really. It's not fair for anyone to be publicly presumptuous towards other members, whether staff or not.

Our forum discussion may not be the greatest outside of our REW support forum, but we do get about 2 million page views monthly, so we have a lot of readers for our news and reviews.

I was merely pointing out that Kaleidescape has never been positioned in the market as being a cost-effective solution. I'm not arguing that anything you've said is incorrect, but essentially it's like saying "the Jeep Wrangler is likely a much more effective solution for those who need a fun, rugged vehicle that can do some off-roading when compared to the Geo Metro."

I spent many years using a large server with all my physical media ripped to a 60TB server and accessible through all my devices via PLEX and/or Emby software. It worked. It was much more affordable than a Kaleidescape. But I eventually caved and purchased the Kaleidescape because it eliminated the busywork of sourcing discs, loading and maintaining a server. I didn't buy my Kaleidescape because it was a cost-effective solution. I bought it because I wanted a one-click solution without downgrading to streaming quality, and I didn't want to have to store my physical media collection, as we'd moved and our new home has limited available storage space.

Both are viable solutions. One is cost-effective but requires extra work on the user's part. One is a luxury item with a luxury price tag that is easy to use and requires little to no upkeep by the user.

Has anyone actually documented cases of BD and UHD 4K discs failing due to disc rot? Bummmer if so.
Kaleidescape is attractive to folks with large HT and that do a lot of movie viewing. For the one or two movie a month people I find it's cost restrictive.