I got a DVD, never used with cellophane intact, produced in 1993 on ebay. I thought maybe, since I didn’t get a DRM warning, it predated DRM, and I could just copy it to my hard drive, so I did. Both the copy and the DVD are now corrupted and unplayable. I want to fix the DVD then rip it to my hard drive. Googling gives plenty of suggestions for ripping but none for fixing. Please help if you can. Thanks.
DVDs were introduced in the western market in 1997 so it can’t be produced in 1993.
If it’s an audio cd or a cd-rom, maybe it was damaged from the beginning. I have many original disks from the early 90s that have “disc rot”, the data layer decomposed and are now unreadable. Watch it with a light behind it, if you see many small dots, it has disc rot and it’s now gone
If then it’s actually a DVD from 1993, then it’ a prototype that can’t be read by modern drives because it predated the standard
On closer examination, the performance is from 1993. Discogs shows a 2005 release, and Presto Music seems to be selling a version that says it was released 29th Jul 2013. The back cover of the container I have says copyright 1993. I played it before trying to copy it. VLC is the only app I have that recognized it. Pot Player and Windows Media did not.
You need to try an actual DVD player software like PowerDVD, or standalone home theater DVD player before you write the disc off as bad. Attempting to copy a DVD to your PC literally cannot damage the disc. The disc wasn’t written by a laser, it was pressed by a mold, much like a vinyl record is made. Your reader can’t possibly alter it.
I’m sure you’re more technically knowledgeable than I am b/c most people here are. But I tell you for sure though that my copying the contents of a DVD to PC using File Explorer resulted in an unplayable DVD twice. It’s fixable. I’m bookmarking this in case I forget what a mess this causes and do it again. I’d be interested to know the result if you try it to prove me wrong.
Windows? Yeah, I’m talking out of my ass here, but probably only unplayable because Windows helpfully created some kinda corrupted data file related to the disc.
What he said is factual; you didn’t make the disc itself unreadable. Which is why I blame Windows doing something stupid and not helpful.
You’re half right for the wrong reasons. Disc rot just doesn’t happen to stamped original discs, only writable discs rot. Old cheap discs might degrade for other reasons of course (like scratches or labels delaminating and tearing away at a substandard construction), but the data layer of original stamped discs doesn’t decompose because it’s mechanically stamped into the data layer. Original discs would have been stamped foil pressed between two layers of plastic. Cheap discs sometimes just skipped the top layer of plastic so that the data layer was just under the painted label. Writable discs especially using this cost saving technique. Thus any damage to the top label would damage the data layer. Writable discs rot because the bits are burned into a different kind of data layer film that can fade or otherwise decompose, but I doubt you’d be able to actually see dots from rot. Using the wrong kind of pen or using sticker labels could easily damage the data layer. If you hold a disc up to a light source and see dots of light through it, the foil layer has been scratched and it will be unplayable, but this is physical damage not rot.