My Apollo 13 dvd disc rotted

[Keatah]

My Apollo 13 DVD disc rotted. Or more accurately, bronzed itself. It was kept with my other 2700 discs and those appear to be fine. Or at least a good random check. Well hell, I stored them all in my master media room which is pretty much room temp year round.

I hear this can be caused by a bacteria?

[Pyromaniac605]

I've never heard of anything like this happening to discs, aren't they plastic on the outside anyway? (I could be wrong (I probably am(Shut up brackets(Okay))))

Anyway, have you tried cleaning it at all?

[Urwumpe]

at least a kind of microbes...maybe a kind of fungus. I remember that there was a problem with some DVDs in the last years, which had been sensible to such damage, especially if the moisture was not controlled well.

Temperature isn't that dangerous to DVDs, they have to bear a lot more when inside your drive. Worse is moisture and light, especially UV.

[Keatah]

These were kept pretty much in the dark more or less, average room conditions I'd say. Perhaps with a range of 20%-80% RH throughout the years.

The disk is not scratched or marked. Just bronzed. And so some online research revealed that the first runs of Apollo 13 from Universal will indeed fail. Just a matter of time. Many of my other universal titles are ok. But putting this disc next to my other discs show a definite, but very slight bronze copper tint that seems darker and more toward the brown side of the "spectrum" than "gold/silver". The luster is there, but the color has changed and is a bit darker than what you have with a normal dvd.. The reflections are clean and even, but they lack "punch". Kind of a flat spectrum. Not blindingly sharp. As if the layer is absorbing something. The colors reflected back are a little tan/bron colordYou can tell this is a sick disc. It feels that way. No player, will read this. Not players from the 1998 era, nor a modern-day blu-ray.


Plastics are petroleum products and are susceptible to bio-degrading. But I believe, in this case, the bacteria/mold is living in the metal and working that way.

There are no visible undulations or asymmetry in the color of the disc whatsoever. It just feels sick. The tight vibrancy doesn't blast you in the face!

[Rtyh-12]

Don't worry, just put the disk behind your DeltaGlider and fire your engines. You'll see that that's the easiest way to make the bacteria go away.

[Keatah]

Before I do that, I had contacted Universal Studios and they said they'd replace it free of charge! A 12-yr old dvd gets replaced for free!