Re: DVD disc read errors


"Smarty" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BBqNk.783$225.258@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"surface9" <davsf@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:72b3c3d0-4def-4209-bed9-0d71a5620128@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a couple thousand mpeg movie recordings on DVD discs over that
last five years. I always tested each disc right after burning it by
reading it back successfully.

I have been trying to watch some of these DVD's lately and I am
finding about half of them encounter read errors. I make sure the
surface is clean and I have 5 different DVD readers, all of which
encounter the same read errors at the same spot within the recording.
The discs I used over the years were middle of the line and I
recorded them on LITEON recorders, and, as I said, I read each disc
back successfully immediately after it was recorded.

I am stumped. I have stored them in plastic sleeves at room
temperature, and, I can't figure out why half of them now encounter
read errors. I am wondering how reliable data stored on DVD medium is
going to be over the years.

Also, is there a rugged reading program that will skip over the clumps
that have i/o errors and go ahead and read the remaining of the
recording. Sometimes the error is near the beginning of the movie and
I could at least see the rest if I could get a reader program to go
ahead and just skip over the part that has read errors.

So, I have two questions: 1) Is there anything that can be done to
improve the reliability of long term storage on DVD discs that are
checked out successfully at the time of their original recording? and
2) Is there a windows program that will read as much of the disc that
can be read, skipping over bad sectors, and then try to piece together
as one mpeg from the parts that could be read without errors?

Thanks.


Join the club! I too have found that a large proportion of my (several
thousand) DVDs cannot be read. The problem is instability of the dyes,
combined with gross dishonesty by the disk makers claims that these disks
will last a long time. Mine were very carefully stored, carefully
packaged, and not subjected to any unusual conditions. Burned older CDs in
the same environment work without errors.

The best solutions are to find a PC drive which can read them with a high
retry counter, with software designed to ignore hard errors. MPEG2 is
entirely intolerant of dropouts when an entire disk block is missing, so
gaps will be created which some software can handle.

To reduce future problems, the best solutions are low recording speeds to
maximize contrast and spot size, highest quality media to ensure dye
stability, and then very careful handling.

I personally will never again accept the premise that burned optical media
has any life expectancy to speak of. I have EVERY reason to think that
blue laser burned disks such as I record with my BluRay burner will be
much much worse in this regard owing to their much smaller spot size and
much much fussy servo and optical tracking loops.

In the final analysis, tape is the best solution, with hard disk archives
being a close second.

Smarty

We all are seeing this result, to one extent or another. I've been
lucky for the most part, but I have moved almost all of my older
DVD "archived" video to redundant Hard Drives. Where digital
tape material was a componet, the tapes are saved, as well.

With the cost of true digital data tape storage falling, as newer
formats are being adopted, it is getting to the point where the
home user might afford such tape drives. Any of the pre-LTO
generation would make fine canidates for that type of archiving.
There is, and will be for some time, a large base of commercial
storage in those media. The VXA format peaks my interest the
most. The tapes are the major cost so that could drive the drive
selection.

Luck;
Ken




.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: CD/RW not reading discs
    ... The recording tab was the first thing that was checked and is on. ... Check the Upper & Lower filters for the optical drives.. ... Also, there should be just 4 MS signed drivers in the Drivers tab, driver ... message now that there is no disc in the drive, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • OT: Disc storage
    ... We have been recording all of our home videos onto DVDs but a friend told us to keep our source tapes anyhow. ... With tape, every pass of the media over the playback head causes some small degradation in quality. ... There have been reports of some early CD's where the plastic encasement failed and the metallic layer oxidized causing failure of the disc. ...
    (rec.arts.disney.parks)
  • Re: CD-RW drive will only recognise CD-R as CD-RW
    ... removable storage', and choose 'properties', I do not get a 'recording' tab. ... > have to first open and then close the drive with the disk in the tray. ... Some third party software as well as some drives don't always ... I assume this is because the disc is showing up as a RW disc. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: copy protection dvd recording
    ... > Perhaps you prefer the *disc filling* fancy menus as on commercial DVD's? ... Originally I bought a cheap Alba and it was not working properly. ... for recording something quickly at the last minute. ... Whereas with tape I can just record over whatever is on the tape and not ...
    (uk.media.tv.sky)
  • Re: copy protection dvd recording
    ... > very good for recording something quickly at the last minute. ... > disc, wait 20 seconds or so for it to come off standby only to find that ... Whereas with tape I can just record over whatever is on the ... tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com ...
    (uk.media.tv.sky)