In the middle 1990’s I recorded 49 DVD’s of painting shows on TV. I used a Mitsubishi recorder. Now that I’m back to painting I’ve tried to view those DVD’s but nothing will play. Don’t know much about these things. A friend tried one on her player with the same results.
Does anyone have a clue what could be the problem ?
The Recorder I used is long gone. Bought a small new one— still nothing.
When burnable discs first came out, they were chemically unstable and over time, they would lose their information rendering them unplayable. I had several CD’s that I burned years ago which had old files and none of them are readable. This was a major issue with people who relied on DVD backups only to find them useless after a period of time.
You may be lucky in trying a PC DVD player as they have a greater error tolerance and may be able to get something off from it. Other than that, the discs may be lost.
The shows may be available in digital format, on YouTube or another platform.
What were the shows?
Welcome to a great forum Lou1
I think Omah has the best idea Lou1.
If you can’t find them on YouTube I would definitely try what @Graham suggested - a computer disc reader might be able to pick up the files which could then be used to burn new discs or watch on a computer. Rather than buying a PC DVD drive tho, perhaps a friend or family member might have one you could try?
Even the best quality writeable disks were only reckoned to be reliable for 10 years according to their manufacturers
Several possibilities come to mind
The chemical layer deterioration that has been mentioned.
Different disc recorder/players have markedly different read/write characteristics so you could try in friends machines ( try more than one disc as some may… just still be readable.
Also you can get a proper cleaning disc that cleans the optic reader inside the device.
The one I refer to that comes to mind has tiny vertical hairlike ‘bristles’ Best you find someone who sells them & then this will make sense.
All these devices are/were ‘supposedly’ similar in ability to read & write but that is far from
the reality.
IF you find some that are even in part readable - I suggest immediately save the data to ideally a desktop computer & designate the data appropriately. Then when possible write the data to a new decent quality medium - and - also re - read that newly written data to ensure the new ‘writes’ are valid. Not a bad idea to store the newly recovered ( if lucky ) in a cool dry place where the temperature remains reasonably consistent. This should be much less a problem than with the originals.
Better still however is to buy some GOOD QUALITY USB pen drives.
I can’t think of anything else to suggest at this moment.
Best of luck,
Oh the cleaner disk with the “tiny bristles” may require a few runs to achieve its best.
.
Thanks to all who offered help. Since writing to you I have found 3 of the painters that I used to watch on YouTube. Amazing how many painters are on that channel. It’s been 22 yrs. Since I quit trying to paint and all these folks have been a world of inspiration.
Hope all of you have a wonderful spring/summer.
LOU1
Same thing happened with some DVD+R and DVD-R. As far as I know, it has to do with the advancement of technology. Meaning that the DVD players of today are unable to read the ones of yesteryears.
I’ve lost quite a few that way. Luckily some did play in my XBOX One using the Blu-ray disc app.
The person above @Graham said the truth, those DVDs were unstable. He’s correct.
Personally, I remember when we came back from hubby’s overseas contracts, the DVDs we had brand new at the time, didn’t play in ordinary player due to the difference between NTSC formats and PAL formats here in the UK.
Basically, what we did was rebuilt our collection by visiting second hand shops. Granted films generally are easy to replace. Television series are a bit more difficult to find unless EBAY or AMAZON may have them in stock.
Finally, I’d love the series called “Knick Knight” but the cost and uncertainty that they’ll play in a PAL DVD player, at the end of the day, isn’t worth it.
I have just read an interesting article https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4/
In a nutshell, it says “under recommended storage conditions, CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs should have a life expectancy of 100 to 200 years or more; CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM discs should have a life expectancy of 25 years or more. Little information is available for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs (including audio and video), resulting in an increased level of uncertainty for their life expectancy. Expectations vary from 20 to 100 years for these discs.”
