carrying DVDs

[ganchan]

Probably using bargain price disks.  Whenever I bought the cheaper brands fully half the disks in the package fail to inititalize.    Yes, even optical media can degrade, but far more slowly that magnetic.  And keeping the old vinyl records in a vehicle - bad juju!  I have had cassettes warp from vehicle heat too.
ALL storage media have their pros and cons.  I have found quality CD and DVD to be the most robust of the common types.

The other thing you had to look out for, back in the age of vinyl records, was the heat affecting the shrink-wrap around the sleeve and warping the whole package. You had to take that stuff off the second you exited the store on a hot day!

 

[LeeRevell]

Gotta be careful with some plastics too, used for storage. I had a clear smoke-tint plastic cassette box carrying about a dozen tapes. Sun heat warped the whole thing! Cassettes and CDs kept in my van's center console are still good after several years. Tougher plastic!

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

They make so-called "archival" cds and dvds that incorporate a layer of gold in the construction.  I've no experience with them so I couldn't say whether they are worthwhile or just a gimmick.  Amazon sells them, and the reviews are generally favorable.

Regards
John

 

[VJG1977]

[font=arial, sans-serif]Just my personal experience with CD/DVD storage.  Twelve to fourteen years ago I switched from cassette tapes and VHS tapes to CD and DVD formats.  I always rip the CD's to my computer, to listen at work. [font=arial, sans-serif]As I maintain ownership of the original disc, I feel I am honoring the intent of the copyright laws.  [/font] I keep the original CD in a CD wallet, that stays in my van.  By now I'm up to nearly several hundred disc in 3 wallets.  They would fit in a shoe-box.  Maybe I've been lucky but I've never had a disc warp.  I do keep them out of direct sun, usually 2 wallets on the floor under the bench seat and 1 up front. [/font]


[font=arial, sans-serif]My wife uses a wheelchair so we never go to see movies at the theater.  I covered one wall of the living room with shelves but soon ran out of room for movies and TV series on disc.  All of the movies, I put in Memorex CD/DVD sleeves.  You can put 125 disc in a box 1 foot long.  I've got twelve boxes now with over 1700 movies.[font=arial, sans-serif] [/font][font=arial, sans-serif][font=arial, sans-serif]I get most of my movies and music from thrift stores, especially Goodwill.  [/font][/font]

When I retire and hit the road, I plan to travel with several hundred of my favorite movies and TV series. [/font]

 

[RVTravel]

The latest in Mac DVD rip/endcoding seems to be using www.makemkv.com to rip and handbrake to encode.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2362781/how-to-rip-a-blu-ray-disc.html

 

[NWShortyFord]

Man...I got rid of all my dvd's when I moved into the van...then I realized how good it was to use a low wattage portable dvd player instead of my laptop or my t.v. I ALSO discovered that Goodwill has dvd sets for $4 and a place downtown has a clearance shelf that has sets for $3 and movies for $1...This has lead to my storage problem. I like to keep my cases so I re-sell/trade in my over watched stuff. I find that I just have to make the cut and sell things I have seen a few times and that helps me buy stuff I haven't. I have a couple disc cases that hold multiple discs, but they take their toll over time.

 

[Vic.]

A program called Handbrake was all I needed to rip my entire DVD collection. Now I keep everything on a 2 TB drive.

 

[Matt71]

Here's probably everything you need to know about CD & DVD storage specs
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec5.html

 

[compassrose]

Just an FYI... Redbox is a great way to rent a move to see if it's worth buying. I signed up with their "Redbox Playpass and that, combined with the many offers they send me via email, I watch a fair amount of movies for about half of what I would normally spend in a months time. For example last offer was rent a movie for Valentines weekend and get a promo code use later in the week. I get a lot of "rent one, get one night's rental free". I get an email from Redbox pretty much every day. I go online to "see" what is in the Redbox across the street from where I am staying and reserve the movie (got tired of walking across the street for a specific movie only to find someone rented it before I could get there. Plus I can return the movie at any Redbox, in any state. Handy for when I travel. Redbox has saved me a lot of money as I only buy movies that I will watch repeatedly. Since I don't go to the theatre (too expen$$ive and I always get the people sitting behind me or in front of me who are always talking thru the movies or I'm getting the back of my chair kicked, or I got a tall person (or tall hair) blocking my view. I prefer to sit at home, make my own popcorn (or whatever) and have the option of pausing the movie if I have to stop and do something, like go to the bathroom or swap the laundry over.

 

[GrantRobertson]

Here's probably everything you need to know about CD & DVD storage specs
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec5.html

Leave it to the librarians and archivists to have the definitive answers on this topic.

Thanks

 

[LeeRevell]

5.1.5 Magnetism, X-rays, Microwaves, and Radiation

The effects on optical discs of magnetism, X-rays, microwaves, and radiation can be summarized as follows:

• Magnetism should have no affect on CDs or DVDs.
  
• X-ray exposure (e.g., from airport detectors) will not harm optical discs.
• Microwaves in a microwave oven will destroy a disc. (It may also destroy your microwave oven because of the metal in the disc.)

During my time working in airport checkpoint security (well before the TSA was inflicted on us!), I often found it humorous how some people didn't want to put their CDs through the metal detector or X-ray scanner, thinking the disks would be 'erased'.....   I had to explain to them the way optical disks worked vs. magnetic media.  Camera film we took special care with of course, same with any magnetic tape storage.

Some of the old magnetic tape data cartridges I would try to copy onto CD or DVD at work were no good.  No special care was taken with storage in many offices, so the data would degrade.  But I did manage to save a lot of it for posterity.  The last batch of disks I made for a legacy application later discontinued, were last seen being buried under other work on the particular bean counter's (accountant's) desk.  Who knows when they will be dug out and put away properly?    
Some folks just don't understand proper storage procedures.