re: a problem with dvd recordings that i have made

[reble]

I collect old movies. I record them off the cable tv when I find them. What is available around town in the way of blank dvd's that fits my budget are Philips, Maxell and Memorex. All plus R. I have about 28 movies that have stopped playing. I get error messages like "error no disk in tray" or "error on the disk, can't play". I am very careful with my dvd's. The ones that are giving me a problem are very clean, no scraches on them. They are keeped in jewel cases when not been played. There is 2 dvd players, a tower computer, my laptop, my dvd recorder and a portable dvd player in the house. None of the 28 dvd's will play on any of the dvd players or my laptop and my room mates tower computer. I can't figure out why all of this 28 dvd's stopped working in the space of 3 or 4 days

Steve

 

[basroil]

Just buy a 100pack of DVD+R Sony disks from newegg if you are doing PC only, or DVD-R if you need full compatibility with older players

 

[gdeangel]

The way DVD+R / DVD-R technology works is very different than the way commercial DVD's are burned. I read a long time ago that the chemical substrate that a DVD burner writes to is subject to deterioration over time, and that can be accelerated, for example, by being stored in direct sunlight. Since all 28 went bad at the same time, I would question whether they were kept in the same environment, whether they were all of approximately the same age, and whether they were all of the same brand purchased at the same time (you gave three different brands).

As far as advice on what to do, if you can see the data on your computer but it won't play, you might have luck with some of the various software out there designed to extract an ISO from a disk. This is getting into data recovery, which I think is best left to the professionals if it matters, and if it doesn't... well, just try reading up on the topic and pick a recovery application to use and see what you get.

As for going forward, get yourself a good 6-head VCR (if you can still find one) and record on the best (XD) setting, and you'll still be watching your movies in 40 years, even if they are a little grainy. Analogue degrades continuously Digital can degrade totally and spontaneously. Just don't leave them on your stereo speakers (magnets).

 

[reble]

All my movies are on a shelf in my room were the sun light doesn't hit them and my room is air conditioned and the room stays at a constant 70 degrees in the summer. All the movies that stopped playing are on Philips DVD + R disks.

Steve

 

[gdeangel]

All my movies are on a shelf in my room were the sun light doesn't hit them and my room is air conditioned and the room stays at a constant 70 degrees in the summer. All the movies that stopped playing are on Philips DVD + R disks.

Steve

You can try looking at the various constants and variables for causality as an academic exercise, but that isn't going to get your movies back. You did not mention whether all the Phillips discs were purchased at the same time, nor how old they were at the time you made the recordings, and when they stopped playing...

You can read up on the topic with a simple Google search if your interested. I found this site in <1 min with a nice overview: https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4.html

Would I stop buying Phillips DVD's because one spindle of disks went bad? Probably not. A closeout / discounter near me was routinely selling Phillips discs at an extremely low price a few years back. These are guys who sell the stuff that gets pulled from the main-line retailers because it's fallen off the truck, counterfeit, or the manufacturer has discontinued it, etc. You may have just got a bad batch of disks. Production is outsourced overseas, and subject to change under a given brand name from one code-batch to another.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm