|
Author
|
Topic: Blu Ray Disc Rot
|
Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted February 09, 2018 11:03 AM
Well I had hoped that Blu Ray discs would be immune from the disc rot experienced on many DVD's, as Blu ray discs are supposedly more resistant to damage. Unfortunately this is not the case. In the past month I have experienced two totally non playable blu ray's;
Cleopatra 50th Anniversary Edition, 20th Century Fox
- both discs non playable 2 years after purchase.
Patterns - The Film Detective, non playable 9 months after purchase.
I would like to know just how frequent this disc rot problem is, after all it is hard to believe that its just one or two discs failing here and there. More likely that a whole batch of discs are failing due to manufacturing defects. But of course the stores will not accept returns months or years after purchase, and the manufacturers will not replace them.
--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted February 09, 2018 11:53 AM
The version of Cleopatra that I have is the beautiful collectors edition with the digibook. This version is hard to find now, and even if you can it costs about $50.00. So last night I went to Best Buy and got the regular blu ray version for $6.99 and have replaced these into the digibook.
The movie itself is truly spectacular. Cleopatra's entrance into Rome is just awesome, and the projected picture quality is truly stunning. That said, I am not a fan of these 4 hour epic's. Give me a good 90 minute film noir any day.
Graham, I also had A Night To Remember DVD fail on me. It was the Criterion edition, and I have now replaced it with Blu Ray version.
--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rob Young.
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1633
From: Cheshire, U.K.
Registered: Dec 2003
|
posted February 10, 2018 02:44 PM
Hi Paul, let's try and get to the bottom of this as I've only ever had a handful of DVDs fail in the last 20 years, and all with explainable reasons.
As this is quite worrying, do you mind me asking which player you are using?
Osi,
"Though they never stated publically, i wouldn't be surpised if Universal did this with some of they're releases on DVD, as i has two of the deluxe DVD versions of Alfred Hitchcock films (Vertigo/Rear Window) that had absolutely no wear to the surface of the disc at all and yet, both mysteriously stopped being able to play back!"
Not a chance that limited playback was implimented deliberately on a sell through DVD.
Although firmware in early DVD players could cause tantrums with some later DVD discs and vive versa, causing playback issues.
Osi, did you play the same discs on same or different machines?
That's why the ability to firmware upgrade Blu-ray players is so useful in this day and age.
Also, Paul, as I'm sure you know, Disc - Rot is a term originally developed to explain the decomposition of the adhesive layer on analogue Laser Disc system and render some unreadable, so I think we need to explore this further before jumping to the conclusion of disc degradation?
Although the term was subsequently applied applied to physical failure of CD, DVD, etc. Disc - Rot is usually visible upon the media playback areas.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rob Young.
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1633
From: Cheshire, U.K.
Registered: Dec 2003
|
posted February 11, 2018 03:15 AM
Paul, if you go to the Panasonic web site and make a CD carrying the upgrade, it is very unlikely for things to go wrong.
Back in the day, HD DVD players were notorious for "bricking" when performing firmware upgrades, but I think this is very unlikely with your machine.
Updating the firmware is fairly standard practice these days, so all should be well.
I see there is a firmware upgrade as late as 2015 for your Panasonic, so definitely worth doing, even if just to assure correct playback of new discs.
It can be a lengthy process, up to 20 minutes using a disc as the upgrade source, with the machine switching on and off several times, but nothing to worry about.
Version 2.0 machines that have wifi enabled just look for any current upgrades and inform you when one is available, taking minutes to upgrade, although as Blu-ray has become more standardised, fewer upgrades are now required.
If you have never upgraded the firmware from new, I won't hesitate to do it now.
[ February 11, 2018, 07:45 AM: Message edited by: Rob Young. ]
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Rob Young.
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1633
From: Cheshire, U.K.
Registered: Dec 2003
|
posted February 11, 2018 12:17 PM
Paul, bit busy tonight, but first thing tomorrow morning I'll run myself through the download new firmware for your player and be in a better position to advise.
As long as your PC can burn CDs you should be ok.
I've upgraded my 2009 Pioneer numerous times over the years.
I'm also running a Panasonic BMP-BDT460 for the last couple of years on my JVC DILA projector, which cost about £180.00 and thus far has been totally reliable.
I rent Blu-ray discs which my £600.00 Pioneer jitters with, purely because of marks or finger prints on the disc, but this Panasonic has proved totally flawless even with noticeably marked discs.
The Pioneer is marvelous with brand new discs, although I have found a couple of discs ("Jaws 2", for example...who'd have thought...) that will not play correctly on it, but will on the Panasonic.
I'm also running a £60.00 Panasonic Blu-ray player on my TV just out of interest and thus far it is OK.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted February 13, 2018 09:30 AM
Well I was able to download the firmware update file and copy it to a CD, but the player would not perform the update, posting the message "unsupport". Not sure where to go from here, since I know the firmware has not been updated since 2010, and that was using a CD supplied by Panasonic, and the latest update is 2015, so the player should not reject it.
--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
| IP: Logged
|
|
Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
|
posted February 13, 2018 11:58 AM
Rob ...
Yes, I have tried to play the above mentioned discs on various DVD players, my more modern bluray players, (I'm on number two already, as I have used them for playing my DVD's as well as limited collection of blurays), AS WELL AS even attempting to playback on my various PC's over the years, ranging from windows XP to my more modern Windows 8 (Haven't upgraded to Windows 10) ...
I should also be mentioned that at least, in my case, it only appears to have happened with Universal DVD's and not any other company. I mean, I have bargain bin dollar DVD's that still play after all these years, (cheap cartoon collections from walmart) nd yet, these official Univeral DVD's are the only ones that I have ran across that have this problem ...
but i must confess that, in a matter of speakibng, this whole post is rather moot on my part, as i have beautiful bluray copies of both films now. Come to think of it, I really don't know why i still have these silly DVD's lying around.
OSI, the packrat? ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
lol!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
