- Some DVD Warner Bros will not play due to material problems
- Assigned discs were made between 2006 and 2008
- Warner Bros replaces discs, but all films are not always available
Of all the advantages of the physical media – image and sound quality, additional features, impressive visitors at home with your excellent and eclectic taste – one of the most important is permanence. Unlike films on the best streaming services, films will not suddenly disappear from your shelves overnight due to license or cost reduction problems.
Unless … they rot.
A new plague of disc rot has been discovered, and this affects Warner Bros entertainment at home made between 2006 and 2008. Pourority makes discs unplayable, and although Warner Bros offers replacements, it cannot replace them all.
Why doesn’t Warner Bros replace each rotten disc?
The short answer is that it cannot. As the company explained in a press release, “if possible, the defective discs have been replaced in the same title. However, as some affected securities are no longer printed or the rights have expired, consumers have been offered an exchange for a similar value title.”
The rot of the disc is not new – it has affected laserdiscs and CDs, and all the other brilliant disc formats since. But this particular epidemic occurs very early on the lifespan of discs.
The rot of the disc is oxidation, and it is very unusual to make this happen on discs which are still relatively young. Under ideal conditions and with meticulous storage and handling, a DVD could last up to 100 years, and even the lowest wait for the lifespan is around 30 years.
However, if the manufacture is not perfect, the lifespan can be much shorter: for example, the disc tanning phenomenon, a form of disc rot affecting compact discs in the early 1990s, was largely found in the discs made in a specific British factory between 1988 and 1993.
There is no remedy for the rot of the disc, so if you think you may have some of the titles affected, it is a good idea to check them now: the disc rot is often visible on the disc itself, generally as a cloudy area, but it is more obvious when you really play the disc: the rot means that it does not work correctly.
As for prevention, apart from handling and cautious storage, you cannot do much to prevent something that is mainly the result of manufacturing problems.
And everything is particularly frustrating in this case, where physical media collectors can keep these discs because a particular film – or a functionality or a comment – is difficult to find or not available now. This is not a problem if Warner Bros can really replace the disc, but when it cannot be confronted with the question of how can We guarantee access to art for the future?
People who tear discs to make a backup are not necessarily immune either: Blu-rays and DVD re-re-editor discs can only have five to 10 years. But it is more understandable than ever that people want a safeguard of things they want most – even the physical object is not immune to change.
