Warner Home Video DVD Disc Rot Update
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- #PhysicalMedia #DiscRot
After an extremely long time of not hearing anything and seeing others encounter problems I made my previous video about DVD rot. Since many people have now asked me about WB's response I decided to try contacting Warner Home Video again. I wanted to try to touch base to see if there was a possibility of getting some of my rotted discs replaced. To my surprise their response was extremely fast and they went ahead and sent me what they had available in the MOD line that was still in print. This was a complete surprise and a far easier process than I had anticipated.
I encourage anyone who has had this particular DVD rot issue to contact WHV and give full details of what affected titles you have. If the film is still in print and available from the suppliers they should be able to assist everyone with this issue. Again, this is only for the titles affected by this particular disc rot issue that happened in the period of roughly 2006-2009.
The contact email is: whv@wb.com
DFIC,
Just came across this video. Thanks for notifying us.
I found one film in my collection that was on your list - the 1943 musical "Du Barry Was a Lady."
Popped the DVD in my player. Sure enough, the movie was not watchable. Issue date: 2007. Exactly the time time frame you estimated.
I just sent WB an email, explaining my situation; and I included a few pictures.
Now it's time to wait and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.
And thanks again for this "public service."
Best regards,
Paul +
Where do you find the issue date?
@Serai3
Back of the DVD case, near the bottom. Likely in small print.
@@PaulTesta Thank you! I'm busily pulling out and ripping all my discs that fit this category. Luckily, there aren't many, but it looks like my West Wing box sets are degrading, dammit.
Thanks!!
Yes the manufacture date is always on the back cover at the bottom for WB DVDs. If you see a made in Mexico stamp you’ll be fine though.
@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
I heard back from WB already. I provided the information they requested. Now, it's a 4-6 week process for them to handle the matter.
I'll keep you posted...
Paul
This is good to hear.
My wife and just finished watching through all of our Warner releases made during the affected time frame (started when your first video on this topic went up), and thankfully only had an issue with 1 disc.
That’s the way to do a collection check! I’m glad you only had one with an issue. Hopefully it’s an available title that can be replaced easily.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Why don't you just get Blu ray replacements? ( if possible if the any of the films have a blu ray release) Blu ray doesn't have that problem
I just discovered my Superman Steel Case set was impacted... Every dang disc. 😭
There was never previously a disc rot problem on this scale as far as I’m aware, and it’s destroyed the only available physical media for some very important movies. I’ve started checking my old movies and the ones on your lists are almost all unplayable for me. I had no idea that some of my favorite DVDs of all time had all up and died like that. Depressing
Just adding my very recent experience for the knowledge base:
A coworker asked if I saw A Scanner Darkly but I completely missed it and hadn’t even heard of it. He said I had to watch it. The used bookstore across the street from our work had one DVD copy. The disc looked mint, but it would get to the 40 minute or so mark, freeze for a few seconds, then skip to the 80 min mark. Selecting certain chapters in the menu made the player freeze. It happened on both a PS4 and PC DVD drive with VLC player.
Today I received another copy I bought off a Goodwill ebay store. It originally belonged to Austin library and had one of those RFID sticker label things, but was otherwise in good condition. It had similar issues to my first copy, so I started looking up disc errors and found some forum threads and this UA-cam video. Sure enough, both are WB discs from 2006.
For the sake of the sake, I just checked a CD (Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight) I bought used a few weeks ago that made Exact Audio Copy throw some errors when ripping (happened on two different dvd drives at the exact same track/time on the CD). The CD is in mint condition and is from WB year 2007 haha.
I hope everyone has success getting replacements.
Oh geez I hope it doesn’t extend into CDs.
At least on A Scanner Darkly you can get the Blu-ray release-but what you’re describing is exactly what you’d run into with disc rot.
I encourage anyone who has had this particular DVD rot issue to contact WHV and give full details of what affected titles you have. If the film is still in print and available from the suppliers they should be able to assist everyone with this issue. Again, this is only for the titles affected by this particular disc rot issue that happened in the period of roughly 2006-2009.
The contact email is: whv@wb.com
Master list of WB rotted DVDs I compiled: docs.google.com/file/d/1CyLGHyuhA2mfhPr4Bkyj8RAapl_0LTmN/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword
Wow. I just went through that list and I literally had only ONE movie from it: Goldmember. Anything else was not the same pressing. Wow. At least I’m not sitting on a bin of trash...
That’s pretty awesome, I’m glad they helped you out! I don’t think I have any thankfully but I’ll have to take a look.
Found you because (like you said) you don't start searching until you come across a disk you suspect to have disk rot ... my feature presentation of Blade Runner Final Cut is impacted... two "awesome" rings go around the whole disk that shouldn't be there... they are a deep dark color while the rest of the disk looks fine... it is not recognized in the 5 drives I tried it in, however the features disk that was packed in the same 2 Disk combo worked fine immediately in all 5. Hopefully they can help me out in some way as I really want to watch that now lol. Thanks for the WB contact info, and I plan to check out some of the ones you mentioned to broaden my film watching horizons :)
Thanks for letting me and the rest of us know! Its 1 year later but still works. Got my whole Alfred Hitchcock set asked to be replaced and there now looking for my discs. Ill be shouting you out on and your video on my upcoming Tuesday video. Thanks, keep up the great videos and take care!
I would like to see Warner Bros fully own up to the problem and create a website that would allow you to research and order replacements as needed. I probably got 1000 or more Warner Bros DVD's from that era and its likely a good percentage of them are rotted. Some sort of website that you register at inform them of the problem. You could then mail the defective disc back to them and they will mail a replacement.
I wish they would at least say something official. For things available or on BD it’s not so bad but the things exclusive to dvd or OOP are very frustrating.
More than likely, none of the replacements are going to be pressings - they're going to be one-off burned media, like they tend to publish now. The major appeal of buying pressed copies was the (expected) durability since the bits are stored as physical geometry in the plastic, from the stamper, and not just the changed contrast of a photosensitive dye (as in burned MOD discs).
If these were like CDs (single-layer media), the insane part of me would wonder if you could strip off the metallization chemically and re-sputter the aluminum mirror layer. But DVD is usually dual-layer, and you couldn't fix anything naughty that happened at the inside of the sandwich after it was bonded together at the pressing plant.
I went through the WB 2007-2009 (2006 & 2010 don't seem to have issues). The ones that do not work are all Doris Day. All are in very good to excellent condition. But now all are available via Warner Archive. On Moonlight Bay, My Dream Is Yours, Romance on the High Seas, & Lucky Me. On Moonlight Bay I had an extra copy from 2011 with no issues. The other three I ordered via Warner Archive. I still need to check the Warner TV Shows, but I thought I would report on those four. All were 2007. Thanks for the heads up.
If I find more I will pass the list along. What a mess from WB. I wonder how many people just have the old movies in their library and never play them. They have no idea that there is an issue?
Another thing I’d like to add, looking at the dvd logo on those disc. They’re maybe using a dvd+r or some sort of VHS to DVD conversion
I don’t think Warner Archive would even do a VHS to DVD conversion for any titles, they would just use the old DVD master or restore it again.
This is why, back in the day, I used DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter like crazy, to create back-up copies of my DVDs. They seem to have had a better life as ISOs on HDDs and SSDs, though.
I've seen laserdiscs older than me that played back when DVDs, Blu-rays, and UHDs crapped out on me and streaming has data bottlenecking issues related to where I live.
@Attmay Yeah, some Laser Disc's remain pretty solid because the compression rate & bandwidth isn't as high. And plus LD processing was more studious & not as frequent, in comparison to the rushed mass manufacturing era of DVD.
yeah same here, 25 years later and disc's are perfect. Dvd decrypter & AnyDvd were the best.
I’m in England and don’t know if it will effect anything but I’m in the process of going though my collection of Warner dvds to check ! Fingers crossed it is not too high a number!!!!
You can also add some additional discs from the Adventures of Superman series, not only the 5th and 6th seasons. Pretty heartbreaking how that series finally got a release and then self-destructed and will probably never see a re-release.
I wish Warner would just do a standard budget re-release on DVD a they frequently do se we could get the series in print again and without rot issues.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusaderI agree completely. It's spooky to think that the series could just sort of fall off of a cliff and be forgotten in the future.
@jeffreyarnold627, man what a bummer!I had the complete series bought around the time it was released on DVD🤦🏻♂️ I knew about the problem with 5/6th season, do you remember what other disc/seasons were affected?
@@benglezI had the disc with Lois on it (I think it was disc 2) from Season two go bad, and the special features disc from Season 1 upon visual inspection is separating but still plays.
I have backed up dvd discs from 20 plus years ago that play just as good as the day they were transferred.
I went through my old Tiny Toon and especially my Pinky and the Brain series and Tiny Toons. I will definitely do that. Wow. I'll go through your list more to see if it has disc rot, or shows the signs of disc rot stains.
I have a huge collection of WB DVD and WB HD DVD and started going thru them. Low and behold so far out of 75 (250 more to check still) disk they all have rot including some I never got around to opening until now. My whole Harry Potter Box Collectors and HD Matrix box sets no longer works. So I guess its possible to get replacements? Wonder if they would provide digital copies instead if out of physical print.
I’m sorry you have so many rotters. For the bigger titles there are at least Blu-ray versions or later editions one can upgrade to. The Warner HD-DVD rot issue is much more well known than the dvd rot issue. I don’t think they’ve ever had a replacement program for those-you’ll have to upgrade to Blu-ray since it’s a dead format.
Definitely contact Warner and see what you can get replacements for depending on what is in print.
Disc rot is real. I have seven discs with rot around the outer edges. None are Warner, though. And I have loads of early ones with the snapper cases.
Happen to me with smallville, Batman the animated series, The Batman cartoon ,Tom and jerry spotlight collection, Lois and Clark the New adventures of Superman
They advertised DVD as the forever media back in the day.
Whenever a big corp. advertises something good, they do the contrary.
that was amazing!! I have about a dozen or so affected titles! I've replaced a few by rebuying or upgrading to Bluray!
too bad Sony wouldn't replace all those Laserdiscs from the 90s that had rot!!!
yikes that's a bunch!!
great video Spencer!!
I’m amazed they sent me replacements. I hope everyone else who contacts them can get things replaced wherever possible.
Lol it would be amazing to be able to get compensation somehow for all the DADC rotters.🤣 The crazy thing is this DVD rot problem makes those look like nothing. At least you know to avoid the worst DADC rotters or look for Austrian pressings.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader , 3M Ghostbusters is horrible its almost as bad as DADC Willow THX.
I haven't seen Network on the disc rot lists, but disc one of my copy is now unplayable. It was manufactured during this period and has the offending codes.
I'm not surprised on that one, I bought Network and Dog Day Afternoon when they were new and Dog Day Afternoon was rotted then and unplayable...in 2007. My copy of Network is still fine.
@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I just got wind of this thanks to a video by RetroBlasting. Among Sci-Fi fans, the Babylon 5 DVD box sets are notorious for disc rot. I tried to rewatch the whole series recently. More than half the discs I tried to play were rotten. None of them had visible scratches, but some of them had that bronzing effect. I checked the spine after I watched your video. Sure enough, they're Warner Bros releases. Maybe consider adding Babylon 5 to your master list. Don't just take my word for it. A cursory google search will return many many complaints of disc rot for Babylon 5.
I’ll check into it! The manufacture dates seem to be 2003-2004 for the first pressings but they could’ve been at the bad plant for sure.
For the rot issue, the spawn steelbook I know is on there. Is the re-release on the standard keep case also rotted or are those different pressed discs that are fine?
How about we talk about these brand new 4k boxsets like Game of Thrones 4K Complete Collection, Lord of the Rings 4K Motion Picture Trilogy, as well as the Hobbit Trilogy with ALL expired codes. Literally purchased all of these sets for a premium for the digital codes and of course only Warner Brothers expires their codes and in an absolutely unreasonable time frame. Ready to boycott Warner Brothers. Absolutely toxic for the Physical media collectors
Totally unacceptable
yeah, i had old fox and disney codes that still worked but my Godzilla vs Kong 3 movie set which is from 2022 had expired codes when i bought it in 2023. thats just stupid.
Here's another good one. My UHD player is from Panasonic, and when I tried to watch Kubrick's *Shining,* it gave me a "copyright violation" code! Even homemade discs don't do that!
But they don't care about that, they just care about cranking out as much *f(r)iends* crap as they can get away with before the creator of *Living Single* starts demanding reparations of about 100%.
Try it anyway. I can’t tell you how many supposedly long expired digital copy codes I’ve tried that worked perfectly.
Stop buying children's movies
Glad you got all those replacement discs. Gives one hope. Back to your original list, which you did not attach to this post, there some listings that you weren't specific about. With The Sopranos, Wonder Woman, and Elvis Presley Deluxe 2 volume 10 disc set, you didn't list either which seasons or which discs. With the Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition Tin, you mention "multiple films and extras no longer play. Some discs completely rotted". Again, specifics? Thanks in advance.
Sorry I forgot at first! It’s in the pinned comment now.
I wasn’t able to get full specifics on every disc that I haven’t personally seen like the ones you mention-I merely included the most information I could find to get everything listed in one place for people to be able to check their own collections.
On the Superman series I had some discs go bad but others have had other discs in the set go bad. In addition the non tin boxsets made in the same release wave also contain discs that go bad so I listed it as multiple things have rotted. On my own set it was the extended I, Donner cut, 3, 4 and most of the bonus discs that were rotted.
Just watched your video. Checked three box sets as you was talking. Forbidden Hollywood 1,2. Vol 1 looks fine but vol 2 has one bad one for sure. I was hoping you would not say Tarzan vol 2 and then you did. But so far mine look fine. But haven’t tried playing them yet. Will have to check the others on your list.
I hope yours is clear. It’s only one disc in my Tarzan Vol2 and others have said theirs are ok. The rot affects releases differently and doesn’t always appear in the same fashion.
This is an issue with WB HD DVDs from the same time period as well.
I knew about the HD-DVDs but had no idea about the dvd issue until encountering that htf thread and then finding my first rotter disc.
I will never forgive WHV for how they actively conspired to kill laserdisc under Warren Lieberfarb while allowing manufacturing standards to slide to sub-Discovision levels here. I lost my DVD of *Babes in Arms* to this very phenomenon and had to replace it with the laserdisc. The laserdisc was the cut version but the cut part was on another laserdisc in a box set of Judy Garland movies (without Mickey Rooney, oddly enough), so I got that, too.
The complaints about Discovision rot are overrated my American Graffiti CAV and Flash Gordon have minor speckling, dropouts but are otherwise clean. You want bad rot try Ghosbusters Criterion CAV, rotted every single side, Willow THX side one struggled to even play every side rotten.
I do not have many Warner Home Video DVDs outside of Looney Tunes Golden Collections, but I did find one disc I suspect is starting to fail, Count Dracula, the BBC serial from 1977 which was distributed by by Warner Home Video in NTSC countries and released on DVD in 2007. Some parts of the disc surface are looking a little cloudy and not caused by fingerprints. The logos had difficulty playing one one of my (cheap) DVD players. I ripped the disc and the logo track spat out some debugging errors but all the tracks ripped completely.
That definitely sounds like it could be developing and is in the rot timeframe. I'd advise to make backups of anything you think might be affected before something goes. I first had to start doing this with all the old Universal bad DVD-18 discs.
where is the Warner Bros website to request replacement DVDs, thank you!
whv@wbd.com
I have WARNER BROS cartoon DVDs that are "MADE IN MEXICO" are these DVDs safe from ROT? Any answers would be greatly appreciated.
Yes anything stamped Made in Mexico should be 100% fine.
I had assumed that the Warner Brothers Archive DVD's were burned and not pressed. I thought they released them again as MOD to rid themselves of having to store titles that were obscure and could do them as needed as burned ones. I really prefer pressed and do pay extra for OOP titles of older classics that I know are pressed and NOT burned.
They are burned discs but for these that are reissued the disc contents are identical to the original pressings. While like most collectors I prefer pressed discs, getting a mod burned reissue is perfectly fine since I’ve not had an issue with dvdr discs and the original editions for most of these are long out of print. (and likely would have the same issue)
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Thank you Sir for your very quick and kind reply. Sincerely, Tom Pennock
I have the same Errol Flynn Vol 2 Boxset and checked all of the discs, I got very lucky because all of them worked perfectly! I’m still paranoid about the other hundreds and hundreds of WB movies and boxsets that I own though
Glad your set was clear! Hopefully you don’t run into any rotters!
Do MOD discs last as long as regular discs? I've heard that cds you burn on a PC have a relatively short shelf life and I didn't know if MOD would too.
@@borandolph1267 they’re supposed to have a shorter shelf life overall due to being burned but ironically there’s no problem with them like the rotting on pressed discs.
Nice, thanks!
I emailed them about my Superman tin and they claimed they are sending a replacement. How I don't know since I know that tin is no longer in print. Maybe sending me the blu rays? We will see. But glad they are offering a replacement for this Superman tin.
I'm glad you got a response! It seems to be completely random if people get a reply or not. They will provide whatever version they have in print of the same format so my guess would be the latest reprints of the DVDs.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader k I wondered what they were gonna send. They said it would take a couple of weeks.
I emailed the whv email address last year but never received any correspondence from them about my uk copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I might try again as I purchased a replacement which appears to have the same pressing issue.
It's a total crapshoot on whether anyone gets a response or not. I wish I could say something other than keep trying but that's what I had to keep doing.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I managed to get a response and they sent me a replacement copy of the film, fortunately it was the newer pressing that isn't defective. It was from a vantiva email address in my case.
Wow... persistence pays off--good job, Spencer!
Just to reiterate for when I contact them regarding my own huge stack of cocktail coasters, were you required to show any pictures, or documentation showing proof of purchase? Any receipts from that era
I still may retain are probably serving as bookmarks in old Doc Savage
novels...
I included my original email correspondence which had all the info I had compiled back then. I included the list of rotted titles and video I had done since and was fully prepared to send photos, barcodes or whatever they needed. Then suddenly I got a box in the mail.
Originally two years ago at first I got the standard response asking for receipts and documentation and that I would have to mail back entire sets etc. of course none of us have receipts for mostly OOP releases going back to 2005 which makes that a bit pointless.
You had me at Doc Savage…
This came to my attention when I just tried playing my 4K Blu-ray copy of "Sully" and it won't load.... I'll try all my WB 4K movies.
i just found some - My Batman Animated Series discs, & My Superman tin set. I hope my Bladerunner set is okay. My Twilight Zone is fine
A short, half-hour update, lmao. It's all relative, of course.
Receiving all your replacements everything at once, those Warner madlads. It often sucks to not hear back from customer service for weeks on end, but when it turns out they DID listen and you find a mysterious parcel with your fixed discs inside, it's like a visit from Santa Claus (this was the case with my Alfred Hitchcock UHD set last October, bought old stock from Sunrise Records like a chump and had to email Universal. Silence for weeks and then a parcel).
I couldn’t resist describing each film a tad….there went my short update.🤣
Exactly! It’s as if you enter a communication free zone and then suddenly out of nowhere a mysterious box appears….and it’s Christmas in May…
What if my disc shows signs have early signs of disc rot but will play.
You should definitely go ahead and try to do a digital back up then. Basically the exact same process as you would do to put all of your films on a digital home server. There’s a number of methods people use and that was something I had to do back when Universal kept using those awful DVD-18s that would fail on the Legacy collections.
Very few of my DVDs have disk rot. Now my vhs collection on the other had are largely affected. Even one vhs I had still wrapped in the plastic new had rot.
The Huckleberry Hound show volume 1 (4 disc set) disc 2 won't play, got it from costco warner brothers dvd set disc 4 is a double sided disc both sides work all discs are clean no scratches.
Good on you for making this video and good on them for fixing this finally. As much as we wanna complain and it is frustrating we appreciate these companies many of them whether its warner bros universal fox that have gone alot farther with classic films and shows and keeping them alive. Being someone who is 22 but more like 52 at heart it means alot i have a pretty large physical media collection and i get along with old people very well bc at first there suprised my knowledge and then they are happy that some my age do care about vinyl or movies ot whatever it may be.. 😌😌
Damn, that's a lot of rotted discs.
Funny you've got 'Giant' up there- That's the only dvd I have that's rotted. Particularly the 2-disc special edition that comes with the complete James Dean collection.
That’s interesting. I thought the Dean dvd set predated the sort of defective era but it’s possible a batch was made at the bad plant at some point. I had a 2005 2 disc SE copy of Dog Day Afternoon go bad upon buying it new.
I had to buy two of the superman 2006 tin can box set, the one that you have on you right, and each one of them rotted in a bad way. By that time I had decrypted each one and have a backup on an external HD. @Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader did that happened to your box set?
Yep it did indeed. Most of the discs have some form of rot on a portion of the disc or extras, or the film itself. On top of that the plastic hinge trays they used for the DVDs are notorious for scratching up and making the discs unplayable. What makes the issue more problematic is that for a purist option you need some of these older transfers for the films to avoid color timing and sound remix issues on some of the modern HD and 4K masters. So then you have to go track down non-boxset copies but then also avoid rot problems on other pressings and releases of the same discs. The same rot problem happens on the discs in the standalone Christopher Reeve Collection box set.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader I’m also having the same problems with Blu-rays: A Christmas Story - Die Hard - Terminator 2 Sky net Edition and Kick-ass. I already made a decision not to buy more physical media unless there’s something special about the release.
@@JRLopez13 blu-ray shouldn’t have a problem unless it’s a one off thing like the bad run of criterion Blu-rays that they had to do a replacement program over a similar manufacturing issue. The only thing in physical media you should avoid entirely are HDDVD‘s, which are mostly warner, and they are completely rotted.
MOD copies have major rot issues In my experience and MOD's cost more or the same as pressed this is very informative though and I do prefer physical media over digital because digital files can and do get ripped away
Believe it or not, I do have one such title in my collection, at least the first go of it: Dr. Kildare, that hit NBC medical series of the 60s (the first go, 1961-62; one disc has apparently rotted, and don't know specifically which one it is).
I know this sounds like a dumb question, but does this also affect discs for different regions? Were they made in the same place?
No, it’s not a dumb question. Different regions are going to have different manufacturing plants typically and of course, for region two you’ve got the different PAL format as well.
As long as you’ve got one of these affected US titles manufactured by a different plant such as the ones stamped made in Mexico on the back, you’ll be fine.
So most stuff before 2000 is ok?
Do you have a link where I can download the list? I think I have a few of the titles. Thanks.
Sure! I had it in the description of my first video but here’s the direct link: docs.google.com/file/d/1CyLGHyuhA2mfhPr4Bkyj8RAapl_0LTmN/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword
Thanks. I think the only set I am super concerned about is the Tales from The Crypt. BTW Almost all of the Harry Potter movies (except 1 and 2) are garbage. I bought them from Target when they were first released on DVD and all but two (1 and 2) had issues. Brand new out of the shrink wrap.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader
What can you do when something is out of print. I have FOX Space Above and Beyond with disc rot. You can't do anything about it. It was only reissued in Pal territories.
With that you have to track down other copies used or hope a reissue would happen soon. If you find a replacement copy the best thing to do would be to make a backup before the second copy might go bad too. I had to do that with some of the old universal dvd-18 releases.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader , now that I have an all region player, I might just get the UK pal for my dead disc pal speed up or not i will have all the episodes. My ROTJ pal disc also has no rot, I've been told the US gout discs suffer from rot.
I looked for the Greta Garbo set on the WB shop, it’s the only thing I had with rot that I thought would’ve had an Archive reprint. I’ll just buy O Lucky Man! HD digitally, and an episode of Tales from the Crypt season 5 I really never liked doesn’t play, Food for Thought haha. That’s awesome WB shop sent all those replacements!
I think they probably have done most if not all of the Garbo films as individual archive mod discs. Grand Hotel got the Blu-ray upgrade.
I noticed the Batman animated series boxset is on the list..is that the most recent box set released? Is it the standard version or BRay..or both? I'm only asking as I was about to purchase that boxset but now I'm hesitant.
It's the limited and OOP complete series DVD boxset from 2008 or so. So you're fine with any other version. The original four volume DVD sets I have are perfectly fine.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Lol. i just asked about this and found my answer. Thx
Here in the UK the original releases of DALLAS & ER (both released on double sided format) are terrible.
I have every season of Dallas - of 8-10 episodes per disk, only the first 2 will play in many cases.
Same problem with ER, only not as frequent at this time.
I have the American DVD sets of *Dallas* and I am dreading the worst. Supposedly Warner is remastering that show in HD anyway.
@@Attmay I bought mine when they were issued on a season by season basis between 2004-2012.
They were all fine originally, and again in maybe 2016 all fine except for the occasional stutter/small skip.
In 2023 I decided to watch again - every season has numerous unwatchable episodes apart from seasons 13&14 (the only ones issued as single sided dual layer ) which are fine.
Hope yours have more resilience than mine - I'll be looking out for an improved edition as I love the show. 👍🇬🇧
I wanted to try an HD-DVD and bought the movie 300 from Warner Bros on HD-DVD. After 1h 26min the movie starts to skip very slowly the frames with visible glitches.
Yeah WB HDDVD titles are notoriously rotted. It’s best to avoid them.
Add "The Right Stuff" with a copyright of 2009 to your list. Edit: Just found that my "March of the Penguins" disc is bad as well the entire surface is fogged up.
I think cause the original version transfer was an issue due to the technology back in the day or a manufacturing problem with the re issue.
Hi I had a reply from WB regarding rotted DVDs from this period of 2005-2009. I had to reply with UPC codes etc . They gave me a reply stating they will check there inventory . I need 7 which are all in there MOD program. Fingers crossed.
Wow hope it works out for you!!!
That’s what they should have been doing all along with responses.
Mind if I ask which email address you contacted? When I tried, I was told they need receipts (ridiculous after so many years) & when I offered to send photos & UPC codes, I was ignored.
I haven't received the DVDs yet. I was asked for receipts too . I have so far kept at them , showing photos of the proof of purchase bar code on the sleeve.
@@neild4451 Thanks for replying :) Sorry to hear you're still waiting for your replacements. It's frustrating. I guess our only chance is being persistent and maybe they'll do the right thing if they get sick of hearing from us. This kind of customer service really doesn't make me want to purchase any new WB products, that's for sure. Even though I'd have the receipts for those :P
Almost every disc in my copy of Gilmore Girls Season 7 has rotted. Do you think they would send replacements for something that I didn't purchase directly through them? Or do they require receipts and such? I bought mine at Goodwill a couple of months ago but it was completely sealed upon purchase.
@@evan9227 All you can do is contact them through the general email and hope to get a positive response. The general rule is that they want receipts for newly purchased new items. But sometimes you’re lucky and get someone aware of the issue to respond who might send you what they have available as replacements.
I assume they don’t care. They figure that no courts or agencies would step in due to statute of limitations
I think the lesson from all of this is that backing up your discs digitally can be really important. Rip them in their entirety as soon as possible, while they're functional, especially DVDs that can be prone to these problems.
Did they replace any of your Superman TV Dvd?
I had problems with all dvds in my Blade Runner Collectors Edition. I see it’s on the list. I tried getting digital versions from Vudu, but they only offered me the Final Cut. I’m worried now about my collection. I’ll review the list.
I think I know another title to add. A Piece Of The Action. A Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier gangster comedy movie. I bought it still shrink wrapped, but it kept hanging up at Willy’s Interview, and wouldn’t play after that.
You should archive all your moves
You forgot Everwood tv series. It's not on the list. It is a WB production. I'm going to check my collection.
Would Warner help non u.s. customers who have had this problem.
I hope so! Send them an email and see what response you get. Unfortunately the email is the only method of contact.
Rooney&Garland set has a bonus disc that has disc rot , it wasn't redone in another set , proving to be a problem.
@@neild4451 that sucks. Bonus discs exclusive to a set could be a definite problem. That would likely be one you’d have to track down in a second but unrotted copy. The hardest one for me to replace will be the unreissued disc in Tarzan Vol 2.
When contacting Warner , how did you describe the issue so that they know , and are they fully aware.
@@neild4451 I sent them all the information I had collected and the list of affected discs I owned. After some back and forth I heard nothing for two years. Recently I decided to touch base with the new contact email. I sent them my previous email correspondence to show what I had already gone through.
Hello! Just a european insight from a quite dry place (Madrid, Spain) I once has a large ld collection composed of roughly 95% ntsc laserdiscs. Besides from the classic rotters we all know, and very early mca cav sets, all my lasers still plays fine (still have around 200 titles) Same with vhs tapes, all play fine even today even being recorderd as far as 1983. Again, cassette tapes. they all play fine with their limitations (mostly chrome type 2 ) and again about 1500 dvds or more, 50/50 usa region 1 / region 2. the only title I ever had a problem was Anchors bay Heathers thet never paly even when new……. To be honest its been a fairly good experiende…… Maybe y,all live in very humid regions with some spores in the air????
The Discs are rotting because with in the last 15 to 20 years they are being made very cheaply . The cheaper they are made, the faster they will rot away. The same thing happened with Floppy Disks and CD's. I have CD's that were pressed in the 1980's and they still work. I have a few CD's I bought in the 2000's and they recently became coasters. I have floppy disks over 45 years old and they still work just fine. On the other had I bought floppies in the 2000's, and after 3 to 5 years if I was lucky they were toast. I'm still very pro physical media, but it's annoying.
My collection has several thousand titles in it and I just went through 1,000 of them to transfer to my new central server, really sweet. I have not seen any of these problems with the disks. Even on my oldest disks. Nor any problems with the old Warner disks other than old full screen formats I replaced outright. The only disk rot I've seen is when they're new and had been sitting in a warehouse for a long time and even that, they're easy to spot and I've had less than half a dozen in total. All from very small houses. I've been buying DVDs from Amazon for 22 years and quality has been consistent the entire time across all the larger houses. Sets and series are surprisingly good quality. The Blacklist is the only series I've had that was junk in the box. Not rot, just a lot of disks that wouldn't play for no apparent reason. The replacement set was better. I never wasted my time with Laser Disk. I got burned by Beta (1,000 titles at over 100 dollars a piece) and wasn't going to get burned twice. As much as I like them, they're too big and too delicate, I didn't see a future for them and there wasn't. I never collected on VHS either and went directly to DVD. Overall, I've been very happy with them. I've never had one play once and not play again, ever. I have upgraded a lot of the old full screen/ letterbox to anamorphic widescreen and digital remasters however. These transfers to the server gave me the chance to do it. My system runs a Samsung 4k player, another Sony International 4k/ blue ray/ DVD player, and three 1080p upscale Sony carousels that just refuse to die. We use those for binge watching series and they still get excellent pictures. Combine that with a 4k 65inch LG television and a 7 channel 2,200 watt surround sound system and it's much better than most any movie theater you'll walk into; even with a 480p disk upscaled to 4k. (see above comparison) I have 1,000 watts of subwoofer power alone. One of my oldest series is Law and Order and we just started these (20 seasons). And they're perfect. I'd have to check, but I believe all my Rambo's will play just fine. Now I'm going to have to check it. I'd check it now, but I really don't care. Do you have anything acidic in your air? Any shops nearby that use chemicals? It sounds like an individual issue. If any of this was actually real, I'm pretty certain I would've heard about it by now. Especially the Warner and Rambo situations.
This is a known issue with Warner DVDs from this era. It is due to manufacturing defects and manifests itself on certain discs in varying ways. Similar things happened with Warner HD-DVDs and the bad run of Criterion Blu-ray titles from a particular manufacturing plant. It has nothing to do with climate or storage conditions and will develop on these titles no matter how well you store them. Sometimes you get lucky and have discs from the affected plant and era remain fine but there’s no telling if or when they may develop playback issues.
It’s the titles that have not been upgraded or likely won’t receive an upgrade to Blu-ray or UHD that are the main concern. Worst are the OOP titles that were never reissued.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Sure, whatever you say. But I just went through 1,000 of my titles and they're all clean. I'd look for something else to blame. Like air quality at the storage area. Even chemicals in the fake wood cabinets they're stored in. I'm sure formaldehyde will break down plastics glues and that's already a problem in home building. If it is a problem, I believe it's going to be local.
I wonder if they sent it to you because they realised you’re a UA-camr. I’ll give it a try myself, see if they’d entertain a nobody.
I would hope not. My aim in compiling a list and making a video on the first place was to help everyone. I told them in my email responses that I would let anyone else know to contact them to get replacements.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Fair enough, I understand the problem with links. I’ll just paste the list of my rotted DVDs here.
Robocop 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition - Steelbook (MGM/20th Century Fox, 2007)
Army of Darkness - Director’s Cut - Limited Edition (Anchor Bay/Universal, 2000)
Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope - Limited Edition with Original Theatrical Version (Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox, 2006)
Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - Limited Edition with Original Theatrical Version (Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox, 2006)
Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi - Limited Edition with Original Theatrical Version (Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox, 2006)
4 Film Favorites - A Nightmare on Elm Street 1-4 (New Line, 2008)
4 Film Favorites - A Nightmare on Elm Street 5-8 (New Line, 2008)
4 Film Favorites - Final Destination Collection (New Line, 2010)
The Road Warrior (Warner Bros, 1997)
Borat - Widescreen Edition (20th Century Fox, 2007)
A History of Violence - Platinum Series (New Line, 2006)
The Ultimate Matrix Collection - The Animatrix (Warner Bros, 2009)
Frankenstein - The Legacy Collection (Universal, 2004)
Dracula - The Legacy Collection (Universal, 2004)
Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated (Dimension Home Video, 20??)
@@bigmoviefreak several of those are WB but I’m not sure what they would have in print. Hopefully you can get at least some of those replaced.
I remember the trouble with those Universal dvd-18s in the legacy sets. It drove me nuts and they never addressed the issue-but they did make dvd-9 better versions for Netflix dvd rentals.🤦🏻♂️
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Thanks, I hope so too. I was pretty miffed to find all the Elm Street and Final Destination movies destroyed in one fell swoop. But nothing angered me more than the damn Star Wars original theatrical cut DVDs! Those were some of my most prized possessions. Even if Disney cared (which I’m very sure they don’t), I don’t think they’d be able to find spare copies of those lying about the warehouse.
@@bigmoviefreak I didn’t realize the GOUT discs could rot but it fits with the never ending Star Wars video curse. At least with those you can get the same master on Laserdisc with better audio.
I sent wHV a email
About my samaurai jack blu-ray set missing things that never got a reply. I hope I get a new set in the mail. I’ll need to try and reach out again
Definitely touch base with them. With both the pandemic and company restructuring it’s likely many emails got lost in the shuffle.
I have a rotted version badly of UK PAL - Laserdisc "Educating Rita" - To my surprise it stills plays but is bad - Laserdisc is a better format for playing rotted media.
@@be.spiritlove it’s astounding but true! LD rot can still be playable but the instant a DVD gets rot that’s it.
Have you tried foreign DVDs? Most were made by completely different companies. For example in Argentina many were made by a local company called Teltron, which also sold blank DVDs and computer stuff. They shouldn't have the same problem with rotting, since the materials and the factory are different. Maybe it's worse than Warner or maybe it's better. You can try Mexican or Canadian DVDs, or if you can afford more expensive shipping with European or Japanese ones.
Buy the British releases,no problems with mine over here in GB even the region1 DVDs are all fine.
I sent by email the online receipts on Amazon as proofs of purchase.
Imagine being thankful a company responded to their negligence? America!!!
*"Imagine being thankful a company responded to their negligence? America!!!"*
What evidence do you have that this was the result of negligence?
I am replacing the weiner dvds with blurays as soon as they are released next one is they drive by night.
My dude said, "it's amazing that they did this!" THIS being giving him what he paid for. FOH. Stop.
It's bio-pic, not bi-opic.
I will try this, Popeye the Sailor vol 1 and 2 has rotted, vol 3 is very discoloured and will probably rot.And most of my Looney Tunes Golden Collection has rotted.
Yeah I knew of the Golden collection sets going bad which is a shame. That’s why I’ve never gotten any along with the fact of bootlegs flooding the market and the hopes of a complete Blu-ray version of all the shorts on the golden sets.
At least with Popeye there are the WAC BDs.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Yeah I hope we get the Golden Collection on blu-ray, there are a few from the GC on the 3 Platinum sets.The volume 2 blu-ray on the platinum set seems to be out of print for some reason? The only other Looney Tunes blu-rays that seem to exist are Showcase vol 1, Chuck Jones Mouse Chronicles, Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, you would think there would be much more.
@@mrtea7562 the studio hit the brakes on classic animation until recently with the Bugs 80th set. Something else classic is on the way but no announcement has been made yet.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Can you disclose what is on the way? Don't worry if you can't
@@mrtea7562 both George Feltenstein and Jerry Beck have said something is in the works but no one knows what it is yet.
what exactly does out of print mean? I've often heard that...but in my mind.... it's out of print by who's choice? and why can't something be replaced because it's out of print? It's not like it doesn't exist...
It can be for licensing or rights issues or some other legal reason. But usually it’s just because they didn’t want to keep it in print.
@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader So they themselves have access to "out of print" stuff... just that they can't release it on a mass scale unless they decide to? Did I get that right?
WHAT'S IN THE BOX!???!!?
;)
“A short update…” *checks timer on video* 29+ minutes long 😂
That’s my curse I suppose. I think it will be a short video or even a short one I can cram in time to record…cut to hours later. Whoops.😂
While editing I’ll leave in me saying “this will be a short video” if it turns out to be long as an inherent joke…
DVD rot? I’d never heard of it.
Why should I "suffer" for watching actors playing characters from a different race is beyond me.
Im sick of companies using "The Covid Shutdown" as a fucking excuse for shitty company issues for everything that goes wrong🤬