DVD Laser Rot Makes Discs Unreadable

[Alpha8472]

Hundreds to thousands of DVDs are succumbing to laser rot. This is affecting DVDs from the mid 2000s from Warner Brothers including Looney Tunes, Shawshank Redemption, and The Dukes of Hazzard TV collections.

Warner says they will replace some discs but only the ones currently in production. However, most of those are no longer in production.

Now many of these discs are useless.

Most stores have stopped selling DVDs and Blu-ray movies. The only place that still has several rows of movies on disc is Walmart. There is actually a decent selection of recent movies, popular classic movies, and some TV show box sets.

I bought many movies and TV series on Amazon. However, they have disappeared from my library. Apparently, the rights to some of these movies went to competing streaming services and now they are gone from Amazon.

When you buy a movie or TV show it is no guarantee that you own it for life. It might just self destruct one day.

https://www.joblo.com/hundreds-maybe-th ... k-anymore/

[BillyGr]

Makes sense, though probably no different than older formats (like tapes) that also can decompose to a point of not being usable, even if someone has a device to use them in.

[pseudo3d]

A lot of it has to do with bad quality when pressing. This was a known issue ten years ago, even twenty years ago.

I bought many movies and TV series on Amazon. However, they have disappeared from my library. Apparently, the rights to some of these movies went to competing streaming services and now they are gone from Amazon.

When you buy a movie or TV show it is no guarantee that you own it for life. It might just self destruct one day.

The solution is to pirate your media. It's an unpopular topic but it's the truth.

[storewanderer]

Another reason to let it all be up in the cloud.

I am sure they planned for this with the DVDs figuring people would have to buy new ones. Pretty disappointing though.