Do DVD-Rs rot over time?

Reading many threads on different forums about CDR degradation, I dug deep and came up with an old VideoCD that I had recorded about 3 years ago. Sure enough there were the on-screen "sparkles" and slight stutters that I had not seen when I first recorded this VideoCD and watched it. So, I thought, CDRs really do decay over time. I began to think of ways of re-recording my valued SVCDs. But a friend of mine borrowed the VideoCD and played it on his settop DVD Pioneer, and it played perfectly. WTF !!!! End of story: I bought a new settop DVD player (which also played the VideoCD in question perfectly) rather than spend hours of time and money backing up my vast collection of SVCD VideoCDs. Now I am not saying that CDRs and DVDs do not decay over time. As this thread has indicated, noone really knows for certain. I have no doubt that some cheaper brands probably would. BUT, I am just adding a little more to the "thinking pot". Next time you see screen sparkles, ask yourself "Is it my media, or is it my DVD player"? Maybe the laser head needs cleaning? Tiff

Good post tiff. I'm glad you tried it on a friend's player. I suppose all we can do is wait and see how they do. I have some movies I burned a little over a year ago. I haven't tested them in a while though.

Looney Tunes 

Hey Ollie, I feel your pain, I recently bought a laserdisc player and recorded every Looney Tunes title available onto DVD. I know because of political correctness, these classic cartoons will never be released uncut on DVD, so I'm protecting them like gold, and hopefully the discs won't rot at least until the next format comes out, and we can back them up. CG

Its not how long it last, its how you copy a movie and when you play it, it freezes up on a certain scene. Then you discover (under a magnifying glass) that there is a "hole" on recording side of the DVD that caused it. Now that sucks !!....Coaster.

Yup, that's why I also copy to dvd-ram, and write-protect the caddy. Some old films and cartoons are just irreplaceable, whether the original source was laserdisc or vhs. The good thing about cartoons is that you get to view them often, and if anything goes awry, you go back to the original laserdisc and copy them again. Fortunately, this has not happened since I use Panasonic dvd-ram blanks, and Verbatim dvd-r blanks.

I usually get about 100 DVD-R ( Ritek )at a cost of less than a dollar each. But somewhere in that batch could be a bad DVD-R with a hole or holes in it.

Hmmm...while I do not dispute that this is a very valid discussion, given that the vast majority of this forum's members appear to be "backing up", rather than actually authoring original material, I wonder if it is really such a problem if the backup degrades a little after 5years, since the pressed original is likely to outlast the DVD-R by several times. All of you have the originals anyway, right? ;) Arky ;o)

"All of you have the originals anyway, right?" Sure do! My originals are on my Netflix cue ;)