For the first time since I have started to buy and use DVD’s I have come upon a DVD (a Dutch documentary called “I’ts magic time”) that doesn’t work anymore because of oxydation (aka “dvd rot”)! A scary thought because this DVD is from 2002 and it’s 100% legit. It is a welknown fact that DVD’s (or CD’s for that matter) that you burn yourself, have a shell life that is less than a regular DVD. Since I have over 375 DVD’s (about 90% I burned myself) it makes me wonder what will happen the next few years. Also: I think that this might be a bigger problem than manufacturers of DVD’s want to admit. A lot of people were enticed to start using CD and DVD’s because of the argument that the media itself would last longer than a videotape (magnetic) a record (scratches) or cassette. But now it seems that there might be a big problem going on!
A quick search with Google for DVD rot turns up a lot of hits with stories that really make me wonder what exactly the shell life will be of your collection of burned DVD’s. The problem is: no media is really good enough to stand time. So, if you think you have backed up your digital photo collection in a safe way: think again. The same might apply to your DVD with all the movies from your kid’s first steps!
What is also very alarming, is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a good way to prevent it or, once rot is occuring, to stop it or fix it.
Some reading material:
DVD Rot: fact or Fiction?
DVD Rot, or not?
