This is not actually disc rot. It's a chemical reaction from the plastic case reacting to the surface of the DVD. Disc rot is the degrading of the silver coating under the layers. Your issue is with the surface of the disc. The cases leave some sort of residue on the disc. Wash with warm soapy water I guarantee most of it will come off. This issue won't happen with blu-ray because of the proctected coating.
This is the only right answer and a valuable comment. I have the mentioned titles as well and I can confirm it's the packaging causing the cloudy residue on the discs. It can be washed off. I used non acidic window cleaner (doesn't stain and vaporizes) with a soft TV cloth and got them back to a "good-as-new" state. They play without problems again.
nope, from wikipedia: "Disc rot is the tendency of CD or DVD or other optical discs to become unreadable because of physical or chemical deterioration. The causes include oxidation of the reflective layer, physical scuffing and abrasion of disc, reactions with contaminants, ultra-violet light damage, and de-bonding of the adhesive used to adhere the layers of the disc together. " so all these things are "disc rot"
@@Hexagore666 Totally agree! Ethanol or isopropanol worked fine to clean my dics. Some of my DVD’s looked like terminator. But after cleaning them with some alcohol, they all look and play fine.
Who remembers the hybrid cardboard & plastic DVD cases, the ones where you snap the plastic spine shut, trapping the cardboard cover closed. Be aware, the DVDs for sale at car boot sales, especially on hot sunny days, where the DVDs are left out in direct sunlight, even with their cases. If it gets to the point where it's too hot with black plastic DVD cases soaking in the heat, then the disc will probably warp, with no visible damage, & once that happens, RIP disc!
I fully remember the recall for The Terminator MGM special edition, read about it in DVD Review Magazine at the time. I’ve still got plenty of DVD’s that came out back in 2000/2001/2002 and they all still play perfectly and look perfectly fine. E.g. Bad Boys, Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Mission Impossible & Mission Impossible II, Starship Troopers, Striking Distance, Broken Arrow & Con Air to name but a few.
I have all of those specific dvds and had no problems with them. The only time I ever experienced disc rot like you showed was on the original dvd directors cuts of the 4 lethal weapon films from Warner Bros. I used zippo lighter fluid to buff them back to health 😂 Took a good hour or so to get all the rot cleaned away and discs buffed and now they play perfectly. I did expect it to come back at some point but now 4 years later they're still clean and good 😄
I can totally relate. I hate it when disc rot happens even if i take care of it. Ive been collecting dvds since 2000 so its hard to see your favorite film become unplayable.
@stevenlornie1261 no thanks having a dvd copy converted to digital is more convenient and will last forever then a outdated dvd from 23 years ago..... convenienting them preserved my collection without worrying about them going bad in the future and i can watch them on any device i want
This is exactly why I'm converting all my dvds that matter to me to digital files so I'll have them forever without the movies being damage and its also nice to have them anywhere with me. i don't really care about the cases as long as i can always watch those exact dvds
@@PlayitagainVHS i personally don't have a pc to do them myself since i do everything on my big screen smartphone nowadays but i go to a computer shop near me where i live he does it all for me for a cheap price
The first time i realized that i have disc rot in my collection was when i opened my dvd of Madonna's Evita amd was shocked that the metallic fillings are having holes. I was so devastated...
My harry potter collection is now incomplete because chamber of secrets and prizoner of askaban have disk rot. My twilight saga as well, the only movies survived are eclipse and breaking dawn pt 1and 2. I hope my first 6 xmen collection will be preserved. My starwars collection ep 1 to 6 is starting to become yellowish. Its really frustrating even when you always put them in their cases and no scratches and also in room temperature. I hope my titanic dvd and the sound of musis will last...
Great video and subject that needs to be talked about. Luckily, I don't have much DVD releases left but I'm curious to look over my collection and making sure that there isn't any disc rot. Thanks Rob!
This is a really important video and one that I hope a lot of collectors see. I regularly check my discs about once every 2-3 weeks because my collection is stored in binders. So far, I've only ever found one DVD disc that had the same foggy mess on the back. Strangely enough, I was able to fix it by cleaning the back of the disc with Windex (a glass cleaner). It took the foggy-looking substance off completely and the disc played well in the player afterwards. If the damage is on the inside of the disc, I don't think there's any way to remedy that, unfortunately.
Thanks Vanessa, that's a good tip! Must try that and see if it works on mine 🤔 Although at this point I'm probably just going to upgrade these to Blu-Ray anyways just to be safe! 😂💿
I had the same problem. Used neat washing up liquid rubbing from the centre to the edge. Went round a few times then polished off with a soft cloth. Cloudiness went and the dvd plays perfectly now
Hi Rob, I have all the titles you mention. I remember a recall for The Silence of the Lambs in addition to The Terminator. It was quite frustrating at the time - from what I remember it was due to the inks/printing process on the discs.
I had this happen to a disc in my Xfiles compete series collectors edition. We watched it fine one night, and the next day it was foggy and wouldn't play those episodes we had just watched.
I’ve lost my hd-dvd collection to disc rot. My terminator and lambs was the same. Luckily my Australian release was fine. Actually got a few blu-rays as well refusing to work.
Occured to my 1000+ dvd collection too. I recommend using a kleenex really wet with tap water and try cleaning the disc from the center to the outside and repeat as much as possible but always the tissue mist be really wet to avoid scratching the disc. I managed to save almost all of them. If you live mear a shop that have the machine that polishes disc like a second hand game shop ,they can polish them for you . I have the same definitive edition of the terminator but it came unplayable from the factory since the ss ene where the terminator attacks the police station ,i have also the platoon edition 😊, both of them were bought from mediamarkt madrid in spain. It's worth to mention that this foggy layer is always sticky and sone tine you will find droplets of sticky substance around the center circle or arround the outer area of the disc. And again soft tissue+tal water and apply soft pressure to clean it ,repeat as necessary and change the wet tissue with a new one until you reduce the fogginess, try it on your player and it should pkay fine, if not, then polish the disc. The worst enemy of the optical media is the high humidity and heat also the storage room conditions , and one thing very very important is the presence of moth in the room. Those little bastard(moth larva) destroyed 3 brand new dvds card sleeves like , they eat anything that is cellulose based like books ,papers etc. Any flood or water leakage in the storage room must be cleaned immediately and but some antihumidity product around the room but beware not leave the absorbed water in the room ,this can increade the humidity again. And always store the media in their respective cases.
Hello. I am going through my Warner Brothers collections now. PA. plant 2006 - 2009, more apt to be bad. I tried hot water with Ivory dish washing liquid, and isopropol alcohol, then even rubbing my thumb on the side of my nose, then rubbing that on the surface ( to fill in minor scratches), every which way, and that worked, if I stand my DVD player vertically on end. On "iffy" DVD-R discs, or even reg. "iffy" discs, that skip, or jump ahead a bit, I stand my player on it`s side, and that does help the disc play skip free. But, no rot involved there. Must rise up against these multi billion dollar companies (like Warner Brothers) and demand FREE replacements, even though these DVDs are 15 years old. Don`t be silent about this !!!
i had disc rot with my Lethal Weapon director's cut trilogy but i managed to wash it off but it comes back plus i have the same problem with MGM dvds from 20 year's ago and i have problems with Supernatural season 4 and 5 around 9 years ago but by then i was already buying blu rays.
A few months ago I would have sworn that I didn't have any bad discs. During the Covid shutdown I had the time to look and I found problems on around 2 out of every 25 discs. Some of those are out of print and not easy to replace. The problems ranged from hazing to pin holes that had eaten all the way through. Unless you take the time to go through every disc you own then you don't know how big the problem really is.
My copy of Platoon seems to be on the cusp.. Terminator is apparently completely buggered. Good job I was planning to upgrade it to bluray! Is there a definitive list of affected titles?
High temperatures and humidity will accelerate the process. Prolonged exposure to UV light can degrade the dye properties and eventually make the data unreadable. Heat buildup within the disc, caused by sunlight or close proximity to heated light sources, will also accelerate dye degradation.
Only happened once with me, and then it was def my fault. Left the disc laying in my window shelf for some reason. Time just flies by and it had been laying too long. Unplayable. It was Jackie Chan's Gorgeous, which isn't very good, but def charming, and now hard to find anywhere - both on dvd and streaming. There is a low quality upload on yt though.
Just checked the 2 MGM DVD's I have left . The 1998 double sided A Fish Called Wanda is fine . The 2003 Hot Dog The Movie has disc rot . I'm sure glad that Synapse released it on Blu Ray !
I've just been through my entire PS3 collection and 7 out of 50 titles I own have tiny marks on them which allow light right through the Disc, rendering the data in that area highly unlikely to be readable, so that's fun! I also noticed all of the 7 effected were bought second hand, that's either a bizarre coincidence or maybe it's to do with prior shop/user storage or as I suspect I've never miss handled any I've purchased, that said I have had prior Audio CD's do it so not sure what's to blame, bad luck?
I discovered the same problem earlier this year with 24 season 2 onwards on some of the discs and battlestar gallactica final season most episodes worked others skipped, pixelated and froze.
My original termator 2 lost its sliver coating just put it down to old age could this have been a sign 0f disc rot? Had to chuck it in the end? Got replacements since then from first sky store and then virgin store when I went over to them
@YourPrivateEye my point exactly, these people are making it out like it's going to happen to every disc ever, in the history of discs. It's a myth, these retro content farmers are full of crap.
@@Phase2faze I almost died laughing uncontrollably while reading your piss poor comment that claims that what they're talking about is a myth if you watch or read about the Warner Brothers disc rot fiasco it's a big problem even though it was a defect in the making of the discs from a certain manufacturer that Warner Brothers used from 2006 to 2009 it's still happen. So to claim that it's a myth it's as wacky as what people are talking about who followed Trump and Trump himself.
@@Phreno_Xeno What you are talking about you can't compare it to DVDs because DVDs are way different even though they are both disc form they are way different in how you play your entertainment. So for you to compare your CDs from 1989 to DVDs it's as as if you were to own a Lamborghini and compare it to a Toyota they may be both vehicles but their vastly different in how they perform. So yet again you cannot compare two different forms of media to each other can't be done because they play differently and they both have different types of content respectively.
I was just wondering does it start around the edges. Because I saw a slight discoloration on a copy of Die Hard I have around the very center of the disc
The Silence of the Lambs and The Terminator problem was well known i exchanged mine with MGM in 2003 also less well known was the first Rocky collection that had the same problem i had to exchange those discs too, you may want to check those discs , apparently the initial MGM discs were affected by the adhesive that was used to label the discs, the only other problems i've had out nearly 3000 discs was all of Warners' HDDVDs and the original Universal Soldier DVD release.
No way! I actually own both Silence of the Lambs and Terminator (exact editions) in my collection. I'm not at mine so can't check, but will comment back asap :)
i also had problems with an mgm 2001 dvd speacal edithon release with chitty chitty bang bang 2 disc version i just thought it was not handled poply cause i got it second handed but it wasnt thanks the video was helpfull cause i wanted to pick up a nother copy for the bonus feachers but i wont ok thanks
Spent a fortune on the MGM Rocky set on DVD same year 2001 and every disk including the special features disk went bad. As I wasn’t connected to the internet then didn’t realise about the disk exchange scheme. Entire box set went in the bin.
Wow, that's crazy! You're the second person to mention that Rocky set, which I forgot to check making this video, I have since checked it and mine is fine!!! It's so strange how different people's sets are effected or not effected!
and now, I don't even have a DVD player hooked to my TV, but I still buy some DVDs, they are ripped onto the media player and put away, never to be opened again...
I've got some cd also and some of them when visible in lenticular cd have a dot rot which is not good but only Minor ones will plays fine but bigger ones not much.
I have actually never heard of this dvd rot before a couple of days ago. Never experienced it or had it. I live in Norway. Could it be something about the weather/climate where this happens more perhaps? Very strange to me.
I've never had to deal with Disc rot but it makes me concerned for some of the things I have. I have a copies of the PS2 games Rule of Rose and Kuon which are NOT a cheap games to come by now. The last thing I want is for them to get rot.
They ought to have used rhodium for the reflective layer. That would have eliminated the risk of disc rot completely. Rhodium is used on telescopes stored in exceptionally hot and humid climates like in the tropics to protect against rotting of the reflective mirror. Such telescope mirrors can be washed, whereas the usual aluminium or silver mirrors would soon rot away under those conditions.
It's not rot in the classic sense (which is when the aluminium metal data layer degrades and oxidises, either because the disc is not properly sealed and allows oxygen to get to the metal layer, or because it chemically reacts with another component of the disc - some Anchor Bay releases had that, and turned a uniforn bronze colour). What you have here is a residue that forms on the plastic surface. In many cases this can be removed with a soft cloth soaked in warm soapy water. Beware using sp;vents, these can attack the plycarbonate of the fiscs. IIRC this "fogging" was caused by the plastics in the disc reacting with some part of the packaging, possibly, the solvents used in the inks.
Went through all my DVD collection a year or two ago and ripped em all to a HDD. Didn’t encounter any disc rot at all in over 100 titles. Worst I found was some minor scratches that cleaned and buffed out ok. Now I play any/all of them in iso format using my Raspberry Pi 4 4K media player
I had this problem with star trek the next generation and ds9 dvds, but it can be washed off, washing up liquid to get off the oily residue, rinse with water and let dry before using a microfiber cloth on it to polish
@@dlarge6502 It is not mould, it is a residue that forms by the plastic of the disc reacting with the cmponent sof the case (most likely the solvents used in the inks). Although mould CAN grow on DVD surfaces it generally does not and you'd have to have very warm and humid conditions for it to grow so severely.
Never had disc rot yet. I use moisturizer pods in my dvd self to keep them from getting rot on them. And my vhs tape to. Not on as moulding. there is some from the 80s and they are like they just got bout
I’m new to this channel we had family emergency 🆘 Tuesday afternoon 1232 last month was my birthday I’m 39. We just lost my family member recently passed on.
@@themovievault Do the discs still work? If not, try to clean them with some alcohol and soap. I can understand you, but don‘t be too scared. I had disks, that looked like yours. LookED, because I was able to clean them. Good luck!
I have the same Terminator DVD with the foggy discs. I have the Rocky collection with the same problem. I think it was said to have been caused by the ink used to print the disc art, that caused some kind of reaction with the disc. I don’t have Silence of the Lambs as I had the Criterion release. I have Platoon and it is fine.
The first (and superior) MGM release of The Terminator was a flipper. It didn't have disc art. That was edition of the 2 worth owning anyway for all of the bonus features that weren't ported to Blu-ray.
My whole collection of two and a half men looked like the Terminator DVD. I cleaned them with some desinfectant (ethanol or isopropanol). It worked fine; nothing to see anymore.
I was not aware of this problem. It was always my assumption that it was a permanent medium, since there is no contact with the disk during playing. The studios have done a disservice to their customers by providing such a shoddy product. The customer goes to great expense in order to build their own personal film library. It also function as a secondary film preservation mechanism. It's like a ticking time bomb for the customer. perhaps storing within a zip lock plastic bag inside the packaging would help. It is really up to the studios that issue these films to fix this problem. Also historic films that have been banned by the studios over controversial content should be released as well due to their historical significance. People being offended over content that wouldn't be concidered acceptable by todays standards, is immature. At the end of the day, it is still art and we are art collectors. Make them available and let us appreciate the art form, for art's sake.
@@Mrpancake72 i'll check later if i'm able to. i'm pretty sure that most of it was caused by how we stored them for years (a lot of them were left out of their cases and stored in an old building full of mold and what not, so that probably didn't help them)
Thanks for watching. Not sure about the belt, I got it made by Reggie Parks years ago when you could license them to be made, not sure if that is still the case nowadays
This is not poor storage habits, its real, new discs in the package are rotted. A lot of my discs no longer work no more, yet the FBI warns you cant copy them? Fuck that... Will copy them all I want now because my copies dont rot.
I just bought a sealed copy of the limited edition "holographic" dvd of The Terminator (Special Edition) made by MGM. It came out in 2001.The discs looks perfectly fine to me and they play. I wonder if your MGM's got disc rot from being exposed to hot weather? You're suppose to store them in a cool dry dark place. By the way I own 188 dvds. Some of my dvd's are from 1998-2002. Not one of them has a foggy looking disc surface like what you showed in the video.
Hi Rob. Wow, you picked a topic that really worries me. Do you think that this is just an MGM/2001 release issue or all discs should be regularly checked for this condition? I have the 2005 MGM special edition of Raging Bull. Just checked it and it looks ok. Great video and topic. Hope you are doing well.
Thanks Dave, after discovering a few MGM 2001 titles with issues, upon further inspection in my collection all my other MGM titles (1999, 2000, all the way up to 2007) were fine! I've found now other issues in my collection, including my very first DVD EVER (Blade 1998) is still fine and plays with no issues! Just wanted to make some people aware there seemed to be an issue with 2001 MGM DVD's, at least for me!
It's so strange Chris, even though all the other 2001 DVDs had issues, those three didn't! I upgraded Raging Bull to Blu Ray anyways, so at least I have the movie in the even the DVD does start to degrade. Pretty scary though! Imagine one day we all wake up and EVERYTHING is unplayable!!! 😮😱
This doesn't bode well for me Rob. I have my MGM collection on a separate shelf and I have at least 30 titles. I will check them out tonight and I'll let you know what there like
A bit scary Keith, but luckily it was just those 3 titles for me, hopefully it might be just that I got bad discs, hopefully you don't encounter the same in your collection 👍🏻💿
@@themovievault it really is scary Rob. Even though DVDs are a thing of the past for me they're still part of my collection and I don't want anything to happen to them
It's especially horrible that when the CD and DVD first came out, they said that CDs and DVDs would last a lifetime under normal use. That is now a false statement. I remember when the CDs hit the market they were double the price of vinyl records. Then vinyl records disappeared from the record stores overnight.
Mass majority of media will not have disc rot. Most of this is due to poor QC and poor storage habits. You the end user basically have to force this to happen
That's actually not true (that user error "forces" this) - while it's true that mishandling will of course lead to surface issues, many of us (me included) are experiencing this issue with IMPECCABLE storage and handling habits. As of late, I have been experiencing old DVDs in my collection - three so far; American History X, Selena Special Edition and JFK Two Disc Special Edition - that pixelate and freeze up in my Panasonic UHD BD player. This just started happening out of the blue, but what's interesting is that when I take these discs and play them in our upstairs bedroom Blu-ray player (a first generation Panasonic DMP-BD10A), they freeze up in the exact same spots - this tells me that it's not the Panny DP-UB9000 in my primary system.
Looks like i’ll have to go through 2200 discs now! Thanks! I know my OG Nightmare box set got rained on 18 years ago! I better check that! Just checked and my term set doesn’t look like yours(wipe ,swipe oil markings burned into the plastic) It does have those odd water looking spots on it tho! I’ll try to buff mine and let you know what happens! Buy that Terminator on /from Amazon,not a private seller tho! buy used in new cond bought and shipped by Amazon! You wouldn’t want to get over on a private seller. Send them that messed up one in return!They’ll just toss it or it’ll go on a palette where it’ll sit and nobody will have to pay for! No sweat off JB back! Or just re buy that one! It’s not like it’s T2 or anything! Ha! Is the plastic brittle like it’ll crack if you try to buff it or put pressure on it? Like old CD’z from the 90’s? I’m sure you know the other side is the important side not the plastic side! That’s the side you need to take care of! You have scared me tho because my DVD collection goes back to 1995! I remember buying Hackers and Billy Madison in 1995! Prior i had to find it on VHS which i still have! I think you get to see part of the Collection on my chan in my “Intro to the channel upload”
That's what you get for using cheap cabinets loaded with formaldehyde. I just transferred 1,000 of my titles to my server and didn't have one of them not play. Not one. I use solid oak cabinets with louvered vented doors.
This is the primary reason I offloaded my vast retro videogame collection on eBay the last couple of years. It was all aging hardware, be it cartridges and disc-based games. Most were hitting the 15, 20, even 25+ year mark. Just the right time for disc rot/data rot to creep in. I thought it best to get rid of them while most were usable and collector's were still paying good prices. Now, I just emulate my classic video game library.
Disc rot def sucks, the only disc I've had go bad on me so far was my Basic Instinct Blu-ray. When the UHD comes out, I'll grab it. I should go through my entire collection and see if there are any more casualties. Hope I don't find any, I've been lucky (knock on wood) hope you don't find anymore either.
Oh wow a Blu Ray disc, that's crazy! I'm not entirely surprised I've found it on some dvds, but it's only been those 3 mentioned in the video so far, everything else is fine!
Any DVDs that still play backup using a computer DVD ripper and store to an external hard disk. Review the legalities of this before taking such action. You are legally responsible, not me.
I would just rip ISOs to an HDD on PC A third copy could be stored on a cloud, LTO tape, another HDD, or optical Disk, or even on an archival optical called M Disk. Any free space on DVD or BD could be filled with recovery information With MultiPar or WinRar. All media have a limited life span :) M Disk supposedly lasts at least 100 years in a dark climate climate-controlled place.
This is not actually disc rot. It's a chemical reaction from the plastic case reacting to the surface of the DVD. Disc rot is the degrading of the silver coating under the layers. Your issue is with the surface of the disc. The cases leave some sort of residue on the disc. Wash with warm soapy water I guarantee most of it will come off. This issue won't happen with blu-ray because of the proctected coating.
@Unknown yes and no, it just really depends how good you clean it.
This is the only right answer and a valuable comment. I have the mentioned titles as well and I can confirm it's the packaging causing the cloudy residue on the discs. It can be washed off. I used non acidic window cleaner (doesn't stain and vaporizes) with a soft TV cloth and got them back to a "good-as-new" state. They play without problems again.
nope, from wikipedia:
"Disc rot is the tendency of CD or DVD or other optical discs to become unreadable because of physical or chemical deterioration. The causes include oxidation of the reflective layer, physical scuffing and abrasion of disc, reactions with contaminants, ultra-violet light damage, and de-bonding of the adhesive used to adhere the layers of the disc together. "
so all these things are "disc rot"
@@Hexagore666 Totally agree! Ethanol or isopropanol worked fine to clean my dics. Some of my DVD’s looked like terminator. But after cleaning them with some alcohol, they all look and play fine.
Yes Ive had this happen with CDs too and it was the most bizarre beautiful thing as it looks like frost on a Window
This happens a lot if you keep the room at a good temperature at around 65 to 70 and keep the room cool. It helps alot
..... um ..... what? ...... you're saying 65 to 70 degrees is a Bad temperature for discs? That's not true ....
Who remembers the hybrid cardboard & plastic DVD cases, the ones where you snap the plastic spine shut, trapping the cardboard cover closed.
Be aware, the DVDs for sale at car boot sales, especially on hot sunny days, where the DVDs are left out in direct sunlight, even with their cases. If it gets to the point where it's too hot with black plastic DVD cases soaking in the heat, then the disc will probably warp, with no visible damage, & once that happens, RIP disc!
I fully remember the recall for The Terminator MGM special edition, read about it in DVD Review Magazine at the time.
I’ve still got plenty of DVD’s that came out back in 2000/2001/2002 and they all still play perfectly and look perfectly fine.
E.g. Bad Boys, Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Mission Impossible & Mission Impossible II, Starship Troopers, Striking Distance, Broken Arrow & Con Air to name but a few.
I have all of those specific dvds and had no problems with them. The only time I ever experienced disc rot like you showed was on the original dvd directors cuts of the 4 lethal weapon films from Warner Bros. I used zippo lighter fluid to buff them back to health 😂 Took a good hour or so to get all the rot cleaned away and discs buffed and now they play perfectly. I did expect it to come back at some point but now 4 years later they're still clean and good 😄
I can totally relate. I hate it when disc rot happens even if i take care of it. Ive been collecting dvds since 2000 so its hard to see your favorite film become unplayable.
How many of your DVDs and Blu-rays became unplayable since 2000?
convert them to digital man
@@Mike-t5r9q buy a new copy...
@stevenlornie1261 no thanks having a dvd copy converted to digital is more convenient and will last forever then a outdated dvd from 23 years ago..... convenienting them preserved my collection without worrying about them going bad in the future and i can watch them on any device i want
This is exactly why I'm converting all my dvds that matter to me to digital files so I'll have them forever without the movies being damage and its also nice to have them anywhere with me. i don't really care about the cases as long as i can always watch those exact dvds
Hey Mike ,question? What do you do to convert your DVD movies to digital files??? What do you use???
@@PlayitagainVHS i personally don't have a pc to do them myself since i do everything on my big screen smartphone nowadays but i go to a computer shop near me where i live he does it all for me for a cheap price
Forever until there is a solar storm which the know will happen and or an e.m.p. attack which hopefully never does.
The first time i realized that i have disc rot in my collection was when i opened my dvd of Madonna's Evita amd was shocked that the metallic fillings are having holes. I was so devastated...
My harry potter collection is now incomplete because chamber of secrets and prizoner of askaban have disk rot. My twilight saga as well, the only movies survived are eclipse and breaking dawn pt 1and 2. I hope my first 6 xmen collection will be preserved. My starwars collection ep 1 to 6 is starting to become yellowish. Its really frustrating even when you always put them in their cases and no scratches and also in room temperature. I hope my titanic dvd and the sound of musis will last...
Great video and subject that needs to be talked about. Luckily, I don't have much DVD releases left but I'm curious to look over my collection and making sure that there isn't any disc rot. Thanks Rob!
This is a really important video and one that I hope a lot of collectors see. I regularly check my discs about once every 2-3 weeks because my collection is stored in binders. So far, I've only ever found one DVD disc that had the same foggy mess on the back. Strangely enough, I was able to fix it by cleaning the back of the disc with Windex (a glass cleaner). It took the foggy-looking substance off completely and the disc played well in the player afterwards. If the damage is on the inside of the disc, I don't think there's any way to remedy that, unfortunately.
Thanks Vanessa, that's a good tip! Must try that and see if it works on mine 🤔 Although at this point I'm probably just going to upgrade these to Blu-Ray anyways just to be safe! 😂💿
Or just get rid of your DVDs like I did ages ago. Problem solved. 😄
@@themovievaultis it happpen to blu-ray movies?
Use cloth paper sleeves. Had mine in them for 6 years now and they're spotless
I had the same problem. Used neat washing up liquid rubbing from the centre to the edge. Went round a few times then polished off with a soft cloth. Cloudiness went and the dvd plays perfectly now
Humid and bad air condition in rooms are really affected in damaging stuff.
Hi Rob, I have all the titles you mention. I remember a recall for The Silence of the Lambs in addition to The Terminator. It was quite frustrating at the time - from what I remember it was due to the inks/printing process on the discs.
I had this happen to a disc in my Xfiles compete series collectors edition. We watched it fine one night, and the next day it was foggy and wouldn't play those episodes we had just watched.
Imagine spending a month using 4 pcs to rip over1100 Blu-ray’s and DVDs to a trio of 4TB HDDs.
I’ve lost my hd-dvd collection to disc rot. My terminator and lambs was the same. Luckily my Australian release was fine. Actually got a few blu-rays as well refusing to work.
Wow I thought HD-DVD would've lasted a bit longer!
@@themovievault no. Warner and universal ones have issues. Very annoying.
Occured to my 1000+ dvd collection too.
I recommend using a kleenex really wet with tap water and try cleaning the disc from the center to the outside and repeat as much as possible but always the tissue mist be really wet to avoid scratching the disc.
I managed to save almost all of them. If you live mear a shop that have the machine that polishes disc like a second hand game shop ,they can polish them for you .
I have the same definitive edition of the terminator but it came unplayable from the factory since the ss ene where the terminator attacks the police station ,i have also the platoon edition 😊, both of them were bought from mediamarkt madrid in spain.
It's worth to mention that this foggy layer is always sticky and sone tine you will find droplets of sticky substance around the center circle or arround the outer area of the disc. And again soft tissue+tal water and apply soft pressure to clean it ,repeat as necessary and change the wet tissue with a new one until you reduce the fogginess, try it on your player and it should pkay fine, if not, then polish the disc.
The worst enemy of the optical media is the high humidity and heat also the storage room conditions , and one thing very very important is the presence of moth in the room. Those little bastard(moth larva) destroyed 3 brand new dvds card sleeves like , they eat anything that is cellulose based like books ,papers etc. Any flood or water leakage in the storage room must be cleaned immediately and but some antihumidity product around the room but beware not leave the absorbed water in the room ,this can increade the humidity again.
And always store the media in their respective cases.
Hello. I am going through my Warner Brothers collections now. PA. plant 2006 - 2009, more apt to be bad. I tried hot water with Ivory dish washing liquid, and isopropol alcohol, then even rubbing my thumb on the side of my nose, then rubbing that on the surface ( to fill in minor scratches), every which way, and that worked, if I stand my DVD player vertically on end. On "iffy" DVD-R discs, or even reg. "iffy" discs, that skip, or jump ahead a bit, I stand my player on it`s side, and that does help the disc play skip free. But, no rot involved there. Must rise up against these multi billion dollar companies (like Warner Brothers) and demand FREE replacements, even though these DVDs are 15 years old. Don`t be silent about this !!!
i had disc rot with my Lethal Weapon director's cut trilogy but i managed to wash it off but it comes back plus i have the same problem with MGM dvds from 20 year's ago and i have problems with Supernatural season 4 and 5 around 9 years ago but by then i was already buying blu rays.
A few months ago I would have sworn that I didn't have any bad discs. During the Covid shutdown I had the time to look and I found problems on around 2 out of every 25 discs. Some of those are out of print and not easy to replace. The problems ranged from hazing to pin holes that had eaten all the way through. Unless you take the time to go through every disc you own then you don't know how big the problem really is.
My copy of Platoon seems to be on the cusp.. Terminator is apparently completely buggered. Good job I was planning to upgrade it to bluray! Is there a definitive list of affected titles?
I’ve never seen a complete list Daniel, but worth keeping an eye on those titles 👍🏻
Great video, you got me thinking may have to go through the collection take a look at some of the older DVDS just in case. Thanks for the video Rob.
Thanks for watching! Watch out for those pesky MGM 2001 releases!!!
@@themovievault I have Mississippi Burning, as MGM dvd I'll look Thanks again
My Terminator MGM special edition from 2001 is fine. Both discs. I got it late 2001/early 2002.
High temperatures and humidity will accelerate the process. Prolonged exposure to UV light can degrade the dye properties and eventually make the data unreadable. Heat buildup within the disc, caused by sunlight or close proximity to heated light sources, will also accelerate dye degradation.
Thanks for the info 👍🏻🙏🏻
Only happened once with me, and then it was def my fault. Left the disc laying in my window shelf for some reason. Time just flies by and it had been laying too long. Unplayable. It was Jackie Chan's Gorgeous, which isn't very good, but def charming, and now hard to find anywhere - both on dvd and streaming. There is a low quality upload on yt though.
It’s a mixture of poor disc manufacturing and poor storage conditions.
There’s also a bad disc out of the batch, which as good as manufacturing is today, it still does happen.
Only 1 I've seen with any disc rot is Soul Man by Anchor Bay.
Just checked the 2 MGM DVD's I have left . The 1998 double sided A Fish Called Wanda is fine . The 2003 Hot Dog The Movie has disc rot . I'm sure glad that Synapse released it on Blu Ray !
I've just been through my entire PS3 collection and 7 out of 50 titles I own have tiny marks on them which allow light right through the Disc, rendering the data in that area highly unlikely to be readable, so that's fun! I also noticed all of the 7 effected were bought second hand, that's either a bizarre coincidence or maybe it's to do with prior shop/user storage or as I suspect I've never miss handled any I've purchased, that said I have had prior Audio CD's do it so not sure what's to blame, bad luck?
I discovered the same problem earlier this year with 24 season 2 onwards on some of the discs and battlestar gallactica final season most episodes worked others skipped, pixelated and froze.
My original termator 2 lost its sliver coating just put it down to old age could this have been a sign 0f disc rot? Had to chuck it in the end? Got replacements since then from first sky store and then virgin store when I went over to them
My media is stored indoors. Temperature of my house seasonally varies from 30 degrees to 100 degrees.
Have yet to experience disc rot
It's because it's a myth. Some collectors don't take care of their stuff.
@YourPrivateEye my point exactly, these people are making it out like it's going to happen to every disc ever, in the history of discs. It's a myth, these retro content farmers are full of crap.
@@Phase2faze I almost died laughing uncontrollably while reading your piss poor comment that claims that what they're talking about is a myth if you watch or read about the Warner Brothers disc rot fiasco it's a big problem even though it was a defect in the making of the discs from a certain manufacturer that Warner Brothers used from 2006 to 2009 it's still happen. So to claim that it's a myth it's as wacky as what people are talking about who followed Trump and Trump himself.
@@Phreno_Xeno What you are talking about you can't compare it to DVDs because DVDs are way different even though they are both disc form they are way different in how you play your entertainment. So for you to compare your CDs from 1989 to DVDs it's as as if you were to own a Lamborghini and compare it to a Toyota they may be both vehicles but their vastly different in how they perform. So yet again you cannot compare two different forms of media to each other can't be done because they play differently and they both have different types of content respectively.
I was just wondering does it start around the edges. Because I saw a slight discoloration on a copy of Die Hard I have around the very center of the disc
The Silence of the Lambs and The Terminator problem was well known i exchanged mine with MGM in 2003 also less well known was the first Rocky collection that had the same problem i had to exchange those discs too, you may want to check those discs , apparently the initial MGM discs were affected by the adhesive that was used to label the discs, the only other problems i've had out nearly 3000 discs was all of Warners' HDDVDs and the original Universal Soldier DVD release.
No way! I actually own both Silence of the Lambs and Terminator (exact editions) in my collection. I'm not at mine so can't check, but will comment back asap :)
@Tim ljung They're fine. No disc rot
My copy of the original 2006 US Blu-Ray release of "The Devils Rejects" rotted away. recently picked the Rob Zombie trilogy to replace it.
Same for me, MGM Special Editions. I think it was most severe with the Digipack Editions. Some chemical interaction, i read somewhere years ago.
i also had problems with an mgm 2001 dvd speacal edithon release with chitty chitty bang bang 2 disc version i just thought it was not handled poply cause i got it second handed but it wasnt thanks the video was helpfull cause i wanted to pick up a nother copy for the bonus feachers but i wont ok thanks
Spent a fortune on the MGM Rocky set on DVD same year 2001 and every disk including the special features disk went bad. As I wasn’t connected to the internet then didn’t realise about the disk exchange scheme. Entire box set went in the bin.
Wow, that's crazy! You're the second person to mention that Rocky set, which I forgot to check making this video, I have since checked it and mine is fine!!! It's so strange how different people's sets are effected or not effected!
I have that Terminator and Silence of the Lambs DVDs without problems probably because mine are Nordic versions published by Svensk Filmindustri.
Maybe 15 years ago I ripped my entire DVD collection to ISO's to play on my media player..... its worth it....
and now, I don't even have a DVD player hooked to my TV, but I still buy some DVDs, they are ripped onto the media player and put away, never to be opened again...
I've got some cd also and some of them when visible in lenticular cd have a dot rot which is not good but only Minor ones will plays fine but bigger ones not much.
You can buy a dvd repair machine with wax on them to restore and clean a dvd and blu ray and it will look like brand new like the frist time
I have actually never heard of this dvd rot before a couple of days ago. Never experienced it or had it. I live in Norway. Could it be something about the weather/climate where this happens more perhaps? Very strange to me.
I've never had to deal with Disc rot but it makes me concerned for some of the things I have. I have a copies of the PS2 games Rule of Rose and Kuon which are NOT a cheap games to come by now. The last thing I want is for them to get rot.
The odds are almost nothing but if it ever happens it can be washed off gently with warm water
They ought to have used rhodium for the reflective layer. That would have eliminated the risk of disc rot completely. Rhodium is used on telescopes stored in exceptionally hot and humid climates like in the tropics to protect against rotting of the reflective mirror. Such telescope mirrors can be washed, whereas the usual aluminium or silver mirrors would soon rot away under those conditions.
rhodium on discs? Are you ready to pay for such discs? You must be a billionaire!
They just use gold. Besides this looks like mould growth.
i had the same thing on the Rocky collection box, and Delta Force and Missing in action starts a little to fog. All mgm dvd's.
iv got disc fog on my serries of ghost wisper i didint realise this was disc rot tho its only 10 at the most years old too
It's not rot in the classic sense (which is when the aluminium metal data layer degrades and oxidises, either because the disc is not properly sealed and allows oxygen to get to the metal layer, or because it chemically reacts with another component of the disc - some Anchor Bay releases had that, and turned a uniforn bronze colour). What you have here is a residue that forms on the plastic surface. In many cases this can be removed with a soft cloth soaked in warm soapy water. Beware using sp;vents, these can attack the plycarbonate of the fiscs. IIRC this "fogging" was caused by the plastics in the disc reacting with some part of the packaging, possibly, the solvents used in the inks.
Hi. Could you please tell if you have any DVDs that are foggy for a long time but still can be played with no problems?
Went through all my DVD collection a year or two ago and ripped em all to a HDD. Didn’t encounter any disc rot at all in over 100 titles. Worst I found was some minor scratches that cleaned and buffed out ok. Now I play any/all of them in iso format using my Raspberry Pi 4 4K media player
@Mike P bought a 4TB and still have room to spare
@Mike P image file. (.iso) so no compression at all. And as i said only around 100-150 discs
Back it up to digital with redundant copies.
I had this problem with star trek the next generation and ds9 dvds, but it can be washed off, washing up liquid to get off the oily residue, rinse with water and let dry before using a microfiber cloth on it to polish
The fact it can be washed off shows it is not disc rot but mould growth. The same type of mould loves growing on VHS tapes too.
@@dlarge6502 It is not mould, it is a residue that forms by the plastic of the disc reacting with the cmponent sof the case (most likely the solvents used in the inks). Although mould CAN grow on DVD surfaces it generally does not and you'd have to have very warm and humid conditions for it to grow so severely.
Never had disc rot yet. I use moisturizer pods in my dvd self to keep them from getting rot on them. And my vhs tape to. Not on as moulding. there is some from the 80s and they are like they just got bout
I’m new to this channel we had family emergency 🆘 Tuesday afternoon 1232 last month was my birthday I’m 39. We just lost my family member recently passed on.
I just had a look at my Terminator DVD (Which is the same version that you have) - and mine looks the same as yours - rotten.
I've only had one issue of disc rot: US disc of Bank Job with Jason Statham. I replaced it with the UK disc..
Hey Rob, were you able to clean the discs?
I never tried to clean them, was too scared 😱 🤣
@@themovievault Do the discs still work?
If not, try to clean them with some alcohol and soap. I can understand you, but don‘t be too scared. I had disks, that looked like yours. LookED, because I was able to clean them.
Good luck!
Could you contact MGM with photos of the defective discs? They might reimburse you in some way if they can't replace them.
Not too sure Nicky, never thought of that!
I have the same Terminator DVD with the foggy discs. I have the Rocky collection with the same problem. I think it was said to have been caused by the ink used to print the disc art, that caused some kind of reaction with the disc. I don’t have Silence of the Lambs as I had the Criterion release. I have Platoon and it is fine.
The first (and superior) MGM release of The Terminator was a flipper. It didn't have disc art. That was edition of the 2 worth owning anyway for all of the bonus features that weren't ported to Blu-ray.
I have The Terminator in my collection. I noticed the rot many years ago. Have since upgraded to blu-ray. Not sure what to do with the rotten DVD!
My whole collection of two and a half men looked like the Terminator DVD. I cleaned them with some desinfectant (ethanol or isopropanol). It worked fine; nothing to see anymore.
I was not aware of this problem. It was always my assumption that it was a permanent medium, since there is no contact with the disk during playing. The studios have done a disservice to their customers by providing such a shoddy product. The customer goes to great expense in order to build their own personal film library. It also function as a secondary film preservation mechanism. It's like a ticking time bomb for the customer. perhaps storing within a zip lock plastic bag inside the packaging would help. It is really up to the studios that issue these films to fix this problem. Also historic films that have been banned by the studios over controversial content should be released as well due to their historical significance. People being offended over content that wouldn't be concidered acceptable by todays standards, is immature. At the end of the day, it is still art and we are art collectors. Make them available and let us appreciate the art form, for art's sake.
I'm curious if some of the video games from that Era for the ps2 are experiencing this. Thanks for the heads up
actually, i have a couple ps2 discs experiencing this
@@noodlynoodlecat oh no! which games/publishers. I'll have to check mine
@@Mrpancake72 i'll check later if i'm able to. i'm pretty sure that most of it was caused by how we stored them for years (a lot of them were left out of their cases and stored in an old building full of mold and what not, so that probably didn't help them)
I have over 700 ps2 games and never experienced disc rot once. So quiet relieved haha
Interesting video mate. Love the original ROH world title you have there. That must be worth quite the penny nowadays
Thanks for watching. Not sure about the belt, I got it made by Reggie Parks years ago when you could license them to be made, not sure if that is still the case nowadays
Looks like its the packaging of those first 2. Same early dvd packaging.
This is not poor storage habits, its real, new discs in the package are rotted. A lot of my discs no longer work no more, yet the FBI warns you cant copy them? Fuck that... Will copy them all I want now because my copies dont rot.
Yeah mgm reissued the discs that were bad, never say never again from this time period also had issues and was replaced
I copped the Terminator problem at the time. HMV refunded me after 3 years! Great service, shame so many of their stores are now closed 😢
I just bought a sealed copy of the limited edition "holographic" dvd of The Terminator (Special Edition) made by MGM. It came out in 2001.The discs looks perfectly fine to me and they play. I wonder if your MGM's got disc rot from being exposed to hot weather? You're suppose to store them in a cool dry dark place. By the way I own 188 dvds. Some of my dvd's are from 1998-2002. Not one of them has a foggy looking disc surface like what you showed in the video.
The gamecube discs sucks. A recomendation to not happen disc root: sell it all your disc based media
Had the terminator suffered the same fate as yours. I thought it was down to the hard plastic inside the case
Hi Rob. Wow, you picked a topic that really worries me. Do you think that this is just an MGM/2001 release issue or all discs should be regularly checked for this condition? I have the 2005 MGM special edition of Raging Bull. Just checked it and it looks ok. Great video and topic. Hope you are doing well.
Just checked my Raging Bull as well. Looks good :)
Thanks Dave, after discovering a few MGM 2001 titles with issues, upon further inspection in my collection all my other MGM titles (1999, 2000, all the way up to 2007) were fine! I've found now other issues in my collection, including my very first DVD EVER (Blade 1998) is still fine and plays with no issues! Just wanted to make some people aware there seemed to be an issue with 2001 MGM DVD's, at least for me!
It's so strange Chris, even though all the other 2001 DVDs had issues, those three didn't! I upgraded Raging Bull to Blu Ray anyways, so at least I have the movie in the even the DVD does start to degrade. Pretty scary though! Imagine one day we all wake up and EVERYTHING is unplayable!!! 😮😱
@@themovievault Thanks. Great video and topic. It's good to always be checking the health of our physical media collections.
This doesn't bode well for me Rob. I have my MGM collection on a separate shelf and I have at least 30 titles. I will check them out tonight and I'll let you know what there like
A bit scary Keith, but luckily it was just those 3 titles for me, hopefully it might be just that I got bad discs, hopefully you don't encounter the same in your collection 👍🏻💿
@@themovievault it really is scary Rob. Even though DVDs are a thing of the past for me they're still part of my collection and I don't want anything to happen to them
Imagine waking up and nothing would play anymore 😳😭
@@themovievault well there's tonight's nightmare sorted for me
😂🤣 Sorry to cause panic 🤯😵
That’s horrible! Does it only happen to DVDs or could it happen to any disc?
I would assume any disc
@@themovievault Ok, thanks for your feedback! 👍
It's especially horrible that when the CD and DVD first came out, they said that CDs and DVDs would last a lifetime under normal use. That is now a false statement. I remember when the CDs hit the market they were double the price of vinyl records. Then vinyl records disappeared from the record stores overnight.
Is all the rot visible to the naked eye?
Mass majority of media will not have disc rot. Most of this is due to poor QC and poor storage habits. You the end user basically have to force this to happen
That's actually not true (that user error "forces" this) - while it's true that mishandling will of course lead to surface issues, many of us (me included) are experiencing this issue with IMPECCABLE storage and handling habits.
As of late, I have been experiencing old DVDs in my collection - three so far; American History X, Selena Special Edition and JFK Two Disc Special Edition - that pixelate and freeze up in my Panasonic UHD BD player. This just started happening out of the blue, but what's interesting is that when I take these discs and play them in our upstairs bedroom Blu-ray player (a first generation Panasonic DMP-BD10A), they freeze up in the exact same spots - this tells me that it's not the Panny DP-UB9000 in my primary system.
Copium is strong with this one u must have lots invested in your collection
@@BlueApple1987 What do you mean by "copium is strong with me"?
Looks like i’ll have to go through 2200 discs now! Thanks!
I know my OG Nightmare box set got rained on 18 years ago! I better check that!
Just checked and my term set doesn’t look like yours(wipe ,swipe oil markings burned into the plastic) It does have those odd water looking spots on it tho!
I’ll try to buff mine and let you know what happens!
Buy that Terminator on /from Amazon,not a private seller tho! buy used in new cond bought and shipped by Amazon! You wouldn’t want to get over on a private seller.
Send them that messed up one in return!They’ll just toss it or it’ll go on a palette where it’ll sit and nobody will have to pay for!
No sweat off JB back! Or just re buy that one! It’s not like it’s T2 or anything! Ha!
Is the plastic brittle like it’ll crack if you try to buff it or put pressure on it? Like old CD’z from the 90’s?
I’m sure you know the other side is the important side not the plastic side!
That’s the side you need to take care of!
You have scared me tho because
my DVD collection goes back to 1995!
I remember buying Hackers and Billy Madison in 1995!
Prior i had to find it on VHS which i still have! I think you get to see part of the Collection on my chan in my “Intro to the channel upload”
I for got I been on TH-cam since April 5 2012 9 years 9 years I’ll check this out
20 year's old they had a good run I have 1995 year DVDS
I’ve seen this issue before as well. Love the shelving for your collection, are they custom?
This is the reason i want digital
That's what you get for using cheap cabinets loaded with formaldehyde. I just transferred 1,000 of my titles to my server and didn't have one of them not play. Not one. I use solid oak cabinets with louvered vented doors.
This is the primary reason I offloaded my vast retro videogame collection on eBay the last couple of years.
It was all aging hardware, be it cartridges and disc-based games. Most were hitting the 15, 20, even 25+ year mark.
Just the right time for disc rot/data rot to creep in. I thought it best to get rid of them while most were usable and collector's were still paying good prices.
Now, I just emulate my classic video game library.
I had the Terminator dvd release and mine went bad exactly the same as yours.
Looks like a bad set of DVDs . Haven’t found that problem. As last resort maybe use DVD machine to remove scratches.
From what I heard, nothing can stop disc rot and nothing can repair disc rot either, unfortunately.
bought playstation 3 ad played movies on it and everyone soon had disc rot so i lost ay least 70
Thats not Disc Rot its a chemical reaction from moisture, it will come off with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and be like new again.
Disc rot def sucks, the only disc I've had go bad on me so far was my Basic Instinct Blu-ray. When the UHD comes out, I'll grab it. I should go through my entire collection and see if there are any more casualties. Hope I don't find any, I've been lucky (knock on wood) hope you don't find anymore either.
Oh wow a Blu Ray disc, that's crazy! I'm not entirely surprised I've found it on some dvds, but it's only been those 3 mentioned in the video so far, everything else is fine!
So it had to be at the beginning of 2001. Disc rot is the worst
Awww sorry dude that sucks. I got like 200 I tried to give to multiple charity shops but without even looking at them they refused to take them lol
Perhaps a printing error?
Any DVDs that still play backup using a computer DVD ripper and store to an external hard disk. Review the legalities of this before taking such action. You are legally responsible, not me.
Hi just checked your video i got that same Terminator as u just checked it and it has disc rot same as yours
What a shame.
my dvd of the terminator is fine nothing wrong with it
What is with the Fun house Lens !
Okay, do not buy any more discs. Borrow from your local library for free.
That looks like mould
I would just rip ISOs to an HDD on PC
A third copy could be stored on a cloud, LTO tape, another HDD, or optical Disk, or even on an archival optical called M Disk. Any free space on DVD or BD could be filled with recovery information With MultiPar or WinRar. All media have a limited life span :) M Disk supposedly lasts at least 100 years in a dark climate climate-controlled place.