I hate headlines like this as they just fuel anti-physical media rhetoric despite the problem cited in the article being exceedingly rare. Even in this very case, it is only regarding DVDs from one studio in a couple year period of time. Not every WB title on DVD. www.joblo.com/hundreds-may... - ThreadSky

jlalibs.bsky.social • 7 days ago

I hate headlines like this as they just fuel anti-physical media rhetoric despite the problem cited in the article being exceedingly rare. Even in this very case, it is only regarding DVDs from one studio in a couple year period of time. Not every WB title on DVD.

https://www.joblo.com/hundreds-maybe-thousands-of-your-warner-bros-dvds-dont-work-anymore/

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damnfoolcrusade.bsky.social•7 days ago

The article headline and text is definitely a bit misleading. However, this particular manufacturing defect is a far bigger problem than most people realize. Thankfully it’s possible to get other versions of most affected titles, but not everything has another release.

damnfoolcrusade.bsky.social•7 days ago

I ran into this problem a few years ago and had to check every WB disc I owned. Then I cobbled together a list from every forum mention I could find and made a couple videos just to help people who ran into this. It’s weird seeing it pop up as an article now since most people told me I was crazy.

damnfoolcrusade.bsky.social•7 days ago

And sadly, I’ve had more discs go bad since the last collection check I did. That was another exclusive DVD I had to replace with a second standalone copy pressed at the Mexico plant.

damnfoolcrusade.bsky.social•7 days ago

It’s funny that now if I see a stamp that says “disc made in Mexico” on the back of a Warner DVD I breathe of sigh of relief. That’s the same thing I do when I find a Sony laserdisc that says “manufactured by DADC Austria”which in both cases means it’s not a rotter from the bad plant.😂

jlalibs.bsky.social•7 days ago

It’s certainly a known, specific, issue but the article (or especially the headline) makes it sound a lot more all encompassing for WB discs than it really is and without any technical information or context, it just reads like they want to rile people up rather than educate.

damnfoolcrusade.bsky.social•7 days ago

I fully agree. Somebody told me they had referenced my videos and as soon as I opened the page, I saw the headline and facepalmed. I’m glad this will reach more people who might have rotters on the shelf, but it sucks that it has zero context.

normwilner.bsky.social•7 days ago

My only borked Warner disc from that period is ... the HD-DVD of MUSIC AND LYRICS.

The DVD side plays fine.

justingibbins.com•7 days ago

To some extent I feel the intention of the article is just to make this issue known, and encourage people to seek out newer versions. Ideally, it would encourage studios to make newer printings in 4K.

I wish my copy of Clerks the Animated Series hadn't rotted / had an updated version.

jlalibs.bsky.social•7 days ago

The headline is very alarmist though, there’s no real nuance there. It doesn’t read like a word of caution and a desire for something new, it reads like another doomsday hit piece for home video, which we don’t really need. I would love for everything to be upgraded though, I’m down to ~50 DVDs left

popoccultist.bsky.social•7 days ago

Especially when you phrase “lost media” shows up in there.

nickxcom.bsky.social•6 days ago

I have probably a thousand or more DVDs left from my days working at a movie store, all in the horrid shitty big binders, and even then I can count on one hand the number I've had to toss due to rot. I've also just replaced them all at this point. Even bootleg is cheap if it's out of print lol 🤷🏻‍♂️😆

24fpsuk.bsky.social•7 days ago

I'll have to check for some specific releases that match these criteria, but I've got over 6000 discs, some dating back to the start of DVD, and I've NEVER seen one stop working due to disc rot.

jlalibs.bsky.social•7 days ago

Same

filmsonwax.bsky.social•7 days ago

I hate what media writing and reporting has become.

dbmcweeberton.bsky.social•7 days ago

It's just clickbait targeted as physical media collectors

jlalibs.bsky.social•7 days ago

A fair amount of these have also been upgraded to Blu-ray, if not UHD even, by now so there’s no real reason to hang onto these DVDs in 2025. Who is popping in the 2006 DVD of Shawshank Redemption when the 4K is readily available? It’s not obsolescence as much as it is consumer stagnation here.

phavnosnibor.bsky.social•7 days ago

There's plenty of stuff I was happy to spend five bucks on for a used DVD somewhere that I can't be bothered to upgrade over and over and over. Luckily, after a quick check of titles here, there seem to have been Canadian pressings of several of the ones I still own.

jlalibs.bsky.social•7 days ago

I have zero desire to watch a twenty year old DVD on an OLED when a Blu-ray exists, especially considering how cheap blurays are now.

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