DVD Degradation

[Tunesman22]

I was talking with someone on another forum, and we got to talking about different media for video and audio storage. It was mentioned that after so many years, DVDs and CDs will degrade to the point of uselessness. Does anyone know any information on this? Since I consider DVDs and CDs to be the ultimate right now for any video and audio storage of any kind, it makes me unhappy to know, or suspect that maybe someday when I decide to pull out a DVD of some of my home movies, that I will be unable to watch them because the DVD I burned it on deteriorated. This is very unnerving to me because of the fact that I have already invested quite a bit of time and effort, not to mention money, in these new digital media storing all of my memories that I hoped I would be able to enjoy for what I hoped would be the rest of my life! To think that I will be possibly losing a lot of these memories and video and music to a flaw in these digital media makes me wonder
why we switched to this form of recording in the first place. I'd hate to think that the old style tape storage is actually "superior"
to our new state of the art digital media, at least as far as longevity is concerned.
If anyone knows anymore about this problem or if it actually exists, and if it does exist, what can we do about it, please feel free to respond. Thanks.

[Troopa]

DVDs can last up to around 100 years I've heard. That's over 4x longer than most VHS tapes will last, so be happy.

And don't worry if your DVDs will be here when you're old - in 10 or 20 years a new technology will come out and will make DVDs look obselete. You'll then convert all your DVDs to the new format once again!

[Tunesman22]

So basically what you're saying is that what I've been told from another source that DVDs and CDs can and do degrade is completely false? Are you completely sure about that? I know that we can only go by what the experts tell us, but CDs and DVDs are a relatively new media for the consumer, especially the recordable kind that we can do at home now, so we really don't know how long this media will last, whether it be ten years, twenty years or whatever. We pretty much have to wait and see if we can still be able to play our videos and music on these media after about ten years pass. I'm not really too worried about it at the present time, but scientists and lab technicians invented this technology so that it would be better than the old analog tape recording method we've been using, and we assume that what they've invented will last for generations to come. This of course must be put to the test in the course of years and if this digital technology lasts for more than ten years, I'll be happy.

[Troopa]

CDs and DVDs don't degrade.

VHS tapes degrade - every time you play them, the quality gets a little worse.

DVDs do not degrade - every time you play them it looks the same. It either works or it doesn't work. If the DVD is scratched or dirty (dust, fingerprints) then it may skip or freeze, but the picture and sound quality will remain the same.

DVDs will last much longer than ten years. I am sure about that. Music CDs from over 10 years ago still work fine, so it's safe to assume that DVDs will.

[joe bananas]

This topic was all over the tv & radio in my area 12 months ago. It was said that commerical dvds will only last around 10 years.

After a few days of this media frenzy, a dvd manufacturer spokesperson said that "if any degraded dvd were found they would be replaced, with no cost to the customer".

[Troopa]

Many experts say around 10 years for DVDs. However, when they say that they usually mean it as the bare minimum, and in all likelihood they will last much longer. I know of many "experts" who say that VHS tapes will not last longer than 5 years, but I have many that work perfectly from the 1980's.

As long as you have a good quality DVD, and as long as you take care of your DVDs well, you can expect them to last for well over 20 years most likely.

[Tunesman22]

Troopa, you've made me feel a bit better, although I'm still a little skeptical on this subject. The reason is that CDs and DVDs are prone to damage very easily. All you have to do is move your finger across the bottom of one and you might screw it up to the point where it won't play the same as it use to. It seems you have to take more extra care to keep your CDs and DVDs in playable shape than you did with VHS tapes, since the VHS tape is protected inside of the plastic shell. It's almost equivelant to taking the bare VHS tape in your bare hands to play it as it is with CDs and DVDs, because your handling the discs with your bare hands, and if you drop it, you might easily damage it beyond repair. So if the discs won't degrade, in time they could be prone to damage by just handling them.
Knowing how a lot of people handle tapes and discs, it's a wonder they play at all! Thanks for the info.

[Troopa]

You do have to handle CDs and DVDs with care, but they are pretty durable. Rubbing your fingers across them will most likely just give them fingerprints, which can be cleaned anyway.

My sister and I have played frisbee with AOL discs and got them all damaged up but they would still work! Although it can be easy to break them, discs are actually pretty reliable.

A simple drop onto tile or carpet will most likely not damage a DVD beyond repair. Like I mentioned to my fiancee the other day when we were discussing DVDs, "if DVDs were that unstable then no one would buy them."

Also in 10 years it will probably be simple and cheap to backup all of our DVDs to 1,000GB hard drives or some other type of storage and play them using that.