5 ms·

Nobody can take them away, but the problem that I've found with with physical DVDs (I can't comment so much on CDs) is that they deteriorate after just a few ye

Nobody can take them away, but the problem that I've found with with physical DVDs (I can't comment so much on CDs) is that they deteriorate after just a few years. For a while in 2010, my wife and I routinely borrowed DVDs from a library, but we gave up when it seemed like half of them were unplayable; sometimes from the beginning, sometimes freezing an hour into the movie. Over the next five years, we found that our own small collection of DVDs was becoming unplayable even though we rarely handled them. Now we have only a few DVDs left for our kids to watch in our minivan's DVD player, and I've ripped them so that I can burn new copies every year or two when the previous copies wear out. Replacing our favorites from our old collection with Amazon video purchases seemed like the best option.

goosedragons 4y ago
That's weird. Are you sure wherever or however you're storing them isn't damaging them somehow? Or maybe your player is on the way out? I've played some very old discs that work just fine. I haven't had any issues with DVDs despite having a few from the early 2000s. Library discs are another story. Those are abused to hell and back.
- autoexec 4y ago
  writable DVDs degrade, but a typical DVD won't on its own for a long time in reasonable conditions. I suspect that over the years those library disks have been scratched to hell several times over and ave had to be buffed down to the point where it's causing problems even though they now look clean.
- warner25 4y ago
  It's a fair question, and I don't have a good answer. My best guess is the effects of heat while the discs were in moving boxes for several cross-country and overseas moves. Some of our discs looked like they were delaminated.
TacticalCoder 4y ago
> Nobody can take them away, but the problem that I've found with with physical DVDs (I can't comment so much on CDs) I do exactly like GP: I rip everything to bitperfect (and it's verifiably bitperfect, using online DBs of other people who ripped the same CDs) FLAC files but I still keep my audio CDs. We do not care if they're unreadable: we've got the bitperfect digital files on our SSDs / servers / USB stick and whatnots. Now of course it's not convenient if you're always on the road. But yeah: moved to another country a few weeks ago. My trusty old CDs were in a big cardboard box!

goosedragons 4y ago

That's weird. Are you sure wherever or however you're storing them isn't damaging them somehow? Or maybe your player is on the way out? I've played some very old discs that work just fine. I haven't had any issues with DVDs despite having a few from the early 2000s. Library discs are another story. Those are abused to hell and back.

autoexec 4y ago
writable DVDs degrade, but a typical DVD won't on its own for a long time in reasonable conditions. I suspect that over the years those library disks have been scratched to hell several times over and ave had to be buffed down to the point where it's causing problems even though they now look clean.
warner25 4y ago
It's a fair question, and I don't have a good answer. My best guess is the effects of heat while the discs were in moving boxes for several cross-country and overseas moves. Some of our discs looked like they were delaminated.

TacticalCoder 4y ago

> Nobody can take them away, but the problem that I've found with with physical DVDs (I can't comment so much on CDs) I do exactly like GP: I rip everything to bitperfect (and it's verifiably bitperfect, using online DBs of other people who ripped the same CDs) FLAC files but I still keep my audio CDs. We do not care if they're unreadable: we've got the bitperfect digital files on our SSDs / servers / USB stick and whatnots. Now of course it's not convenient if you're always on the road. But yeah: moved to another country a few weeks ago. My trusty old CDs were in a big cardboard box!