CD's and DVD's - The shocking news of them rotting away!

[Quadophile]

When the CD was introduced back in 1983 the manudacturers claimed that they were indestructable! Far from it, many CD's are now actually rotting away and not playable, why? There are many reasons and some of them include, bad quality of glue, bad manufacturing practices initially, bad quality of ink, careless storage, temperature variations etc etc. The list can go on and on.

I have a CD full of pinholes, going back to 1984, although I bought it when I first purchased the cd player in 1987, The cd is on Philips label. I use it even today as a test cd since many players seem to have a problem playing this one, I guess it is a good test of the error correction system. All my current players are able to negotiate this disk without any problems. My experience has been in the past that some of the cheaper players had difficulty playing this disc. I used this CD a lot when some of my friends wanted to buy players, besides the music, I used this disc to test out new players.

I remember having read an article long time ago probably in early 90's stating that the ink developed for printing initially would penetrate the polocarbonate layer and eat up the aluminium foil layer so Dupont did research into ink technology and came up with a new type of ink which would take care of the problem. Apparently after 92 or 93 this problem was solved. This does not happen with all the early cd's since I have a few still in my collection from the mid 80's and they are fine.

There is an interesting article in USA Today which should be an eye opener for most of us. Take a look at what the author thinks could be the reason and how we can protect our treasures.

CD's and DVD's - not so immortal after all

 

[Ian]

Oh dear!

I've had CDs "rot" after only a year once before. I made the mistake of buying a bundle of cheap CDs for about £1 each (very cheap at the time), after a year none of them would play and they looked as if they had "rusted" inside

I've learnt my lesson now

 

[infernojim]

Apparently after 92 or 93 this problem was solved. This does not happen with all the early cd's since I have a few still in my collection from the mid 80's and they are fine.

Yeah, I'd heard about this as well, I think thats why so many remastered cd's from early artists were bought out in 93 an 94... Pink Floyd is the only example I can think of, off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are others.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've had some older audio CD's start turning brown from the edges inwards, but they still play OK.

I didn't actually get a home CD player until '92, so I don't, as far as I know, have any really early ones.

I've been burning CD's since around '98 I think, and the only problems I've had are with the generic cheapos.

So much so, that I've actually reburnt all audio CD's that I originally burnt to a cheap medium.

Insurance

 

[ChristopherP]

I use cheap cd's (100 pack of whatever is cheapest) and i never ever have problems

 

[floppybootstomp]

If you take a look Here you'll notice that you can get 50 Verbatim 80 minute CD-R's for a tenner plus postage which works out to less than 25p a CD.

At that price, no excuse for using cheap medium, really.

I suppose you'd have to take into account buying some cases, singles bought in packs of 100 would probably make each CD cost about 30p each, so it's still good and we're talking a good quality brand here.

I've used this supplier for about 6 months and don't buy my recordable media and storage cases anywhere else now, although there are other suppliers offering similar deals.

 

[ChristopherP]

I went over to Missouri in the USA last year to stay with some friends and went to a place called sams club - its a macro type place owned by wal*mart - where you by things in bulk. I bought 100 verbatim 52x 80min CD-r's for 21 bucks that was about 16 quid maybe a little more. I have had no coasters out of them and i use maximum speed (52x) and they were good. Alas i now only have 1 left. Will have to ask my friends to bring some over when they visit in the summer. Also got "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 a Century Of Flight" for 45 bucks - retails here - or at least did for 45 quid!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Blimey, that's almost half price what they are here then - can't beat that.

I'm sure if I were to shop around I could probably find a better deal than what I'm getting atm, but the company I posted a link to - SVP - have been good so far - always a next day delivery and the products have been OK.

I bought two of their flight case style CD Cases, they take 200 CD's each with reference cards and numbered pockets - that solved my storage problems.

 

[ChristopherP]

no clue as to what they are here - i don't go to any bulk buy places over here so i dont know what to compare it to but verbatim are a good make and 16p a cd isnt bad!

 

[Reefsmoka]

I've got 15 year old CDs ere and they dont look a day older than a new born baby .

Maybe its because i look after mine pretty well?

 

[Quadophile]

I've got 15 year old CDs ere and they dont look a day older than a new born baby .

Maybe its because i look after mine pretty well?

Can you give us some preservations tips, pleeeeeeeeease!

 

[Reefsmoka]

Well i use my 2000/2001 Barcelona Home Strip to wipe the discs. The material doesnt leave a single scratch (no, not a sausage), but it takes off al the dirt! and i give my discs a wipe with that every so often.

I dont ever put anything else on it, like baby wipes, liquids or anything else. Just ise the shirt.

So maybe that has something to do with it?