DVD shelf life question....

[GRMonLI]

The "Today" show this morning had a report about how DVD's may be out of style due to the popularity of digital movie downloads for computers.

They said that DVD's have a limited shelf life. MY question is do DVD's wear out just by existing?

I mean if you abuse them and scratch them or crack them that is one thing but if you are very careful and clean them regulary as you play them how long will they last?

Thanks!

[CivilDefense]

I have some cd's that I burnt about 10 years ago and the silvery surface just flakes right off the disk making them unreadable. I would think that they have fixed this issue, and I suspect commercial cd's would be alot more durable.

[MinionZombie]

Aye, I would have thought these discs are good quality and will last a long time - in this sue-happy culture a company would be foolish to put a product out (that people are spending a lot of money on) that fails in 10 years. 10 years isn't that long when you think about it.

Also, indeed, if you look after your stuff it'll last longer. I'm ever so careful with my DVDs. They remain in the boxes unless being moved to/from the player tray. I blow any dust off making sure I don't spit on it, and wipe them with a non-lint cloth if there are any marks. All my DVDs are in immaculate shape.

I was shocked, when I did some of those DVD rental trials, to see how scratched and messed up some DVDs can get - and yet they played perfectly/99% fine.

[_liam_]

cds will last as long as the material the actual information is stored on will last, i dont know what that is, im afraid, but plastic has a half life of hundreds of years i think..

[GRMonLI]

I have some cd's that I burnt about 10 years ago and the silvery surface just flakes right off the disk making them unreadable. I would think that they have fixed this issue, and I suspect commercial cd's would be alot more durable.

I would think that writable cd's and regular cd's would be made of different material no?

Are DVD's made of the same stuff?



Also, indeed, if you look after your stuff it'll last longer. I'm ever so careful with my DVDs. They remain in the boxes unless being moved to/from the player tray. I blow any dust off making sure I don't spit on it, and wipe them with a non-lint cloth if there are any marks. All my DVDs are in immaculate shape.

I was shocked, when I did some of those DVD rental trials, to see how scratched and messed up some DVDs can get - and yet they played perfectly/99% fine.

I agree 100%. I keep mine in the box and use a DVD cleaner often. I have one of those little battery operated machines that you place the DVD into after spritzing it with cleaner.

I use NETFLIX a lot and always clean every DVD I get from them. I do not need their dirty DVD's messing up my nice clean player.

The other day I got a DVD from them that was actually warped! I was shocked.

[Dawg]

I heard a long time ago that CDs and therefore DVDs have a shelf life of at least 100 years. (If you take care of them.)

But, how does anyone really know yet? Since the CD was invented only about 25 years ago afterall, it hasn't exactly been 100!

:dead: Dawg

[Eyebiter]

Store your CDs in cases when not using them and avoid direct sunlight.

[MinionZombie]

Tell me about it, one DVD I rented out from Blockbuster was split in half! Another had a big gash in it and another one had goop all over the data side, some kind of sticky stuff that had gathered dust and muck ... that was fun to clean off.

Then I did a trial with LoveFilm and the discs were of much, much better quality than those from Cockbuster - but still inferior to my own, personal DVD collection.

[capncnut]

What is it with Cockbuster these days? Every film I buy out of that damn place has either got a scratched front, a cracked spine or a marked disc. Do they put each dvd through some kind of damage test to check if their truly saleworthy? :D

[Danny]

worst case ive seen is i bought a copy of quake 4 and it had a deep perfect circle about 50% of the way in all the way round, needless to say it didnt work, but the only thing that can screw one up without anything like that is them spinning too fast an rpm in a drive and the shatter ,and putting em in a microwave for your own private fireworks display:D

[MinionZombie]

lol, back at uni (for Uni Video 7) we did the old "let's put stuff in the microwave" thing, including a lightbulb in milk and of course CDs, which was fun ... oh, and tin foil. It was fun ... made our heads a little sore though ... got it all on film, fun times. :D

[Danny]

students plus tin foil, is there anything the two cant accomplish when combined?:lol:

[MinionZombie]

I duno, but we had fun with cling film, wrapping each other up and then pushing them over. Me and my mate Adam even wrapped our heads in cling film - lol, kids don't try it, ha - and popped mouth and eye holes with a pair of scissors before running upstairs to scare the girls. :lol: Got a pics of that in all, ah memories...

Anyway, DVDs ... shelf life ... erm, they'll last a good while I'd imagine. No need to worry I'd have thought.

[MoonSylver]

I heard a long time ago that CDs and therefore DVDs have a shelf life of at least 100 years. (If you take care of them.)

But, how does anyone really know yet? Since the CD was invented only about 25 years ago afterall, it hasn't exactly been 100!

:dead: Dawg

This is pretty much what I heard, 50-100 yrs, depending on enviromental conditions. Apparantly it has to do w/ the aluminum oxide COATING the plastic disc, which stores all the information. When it degrades, flakes off, etc, there ya go....
---MS

[HLS]

i have some cd's that are close to 10 years old and are still good