WARNING Funimation's late 00's early 2010's DVD's are all Getting Disc Rot

Grimraven

Grimraven

Student Council President
I have been doing some checking and reorganising my dvd collection and i have noticed a very particular trend. All the DVDs from funimation releases particular those of the early 2010's all seem to be getting disc rot. Especially those from the S.A.V.E and Anime Classics Line and some other titles. I think Funimations manufacturing from this period might have been flawed if any of you have these titles you should check.
disc rot.jpg
These Are the Titles i have checked and found disc rot in them: Vandread Anime Classics. Shiki BR/DVD S.A.V.E (dvds are rotting, br seem fine). My Bride is a Mermaid S.A.V.E and Hagani Next BR/DVD (same as Shiki The dvds are the ones showing disc rot).

This is especially worrying as many of these never even got a pal release or even a blu ray release. Im fearing funimation either used a factory with a fatal flaw or cheaped out.
 
Have you played the discs, or is it just a visual inspection of the surface? Because some Funimation DVDs actually have a patchy look to them as seen in your photo, but play just fine.

DVD delamination, a.k.a. disc rot tends to have a residue on the surface of the disc, which feels sticky instead of smooth, and it can actually be washed off with warm soapy water to make those discs, temporarily playable again. The residue comes back after a few years. I've been nursing a Sleepy Hollow disc that way for the last 15 years.

Of your list, I have Shiki, My Bride is a Mermaid, and Haganai Next, and the DVD discs look fine when visually inspected. I also checked Funimation DVD discs of a similar production era, Michiko and Hatchin, Princess Jellyfish, and the first Haganai series, and they looked clean as well, except for the usual smush that any disc inexplicably gets on its surface, despite being packed away and untouched for several years.
 
Just Passing Through said:
Have you played the discs, or is it just a visual inspection of the surface? Because some Funimation DVDs actually have a patchy look to them as seen in your photo, but play just fine.

DVD delamination, a.k.a. disc rot tends to have a residue on the surface of the disc, which feels sticky instead of smooth, and it can actually be washed off with warm soapy water to make those discs, temporarily playable again. The residue comes back after a few years. I've been nursing a Sleepy Hollow disc that way for the last 15 years.

Of your list, I have Shiki, My Bride is a Mermaid, and Haganai Next, and the DVD discs look fine when visually inspected. I also checked Funimation DVD discs of a similar production era, Michiko and Hatchin, Princess Jellyfish, and the first Haganai series, and they looked clean as well, except for the usual smush that any disc inexplicably gets on its surface, despite being packed away and untouched for several years.
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The problem is that i don't have a region 1 dvd player to play em at the moment cause mine broke but your telling me the smudges are normal? hmm... I got to get a dvd r1 player soon, I really hope its not the case as quite a few of these only ever got that particular release and with funimation now gone it is almost impossible to get access to them for replacements. Especially since a lot of these never sold a lot so its not likely to get any re release.
 
For example, here's disc 2 of a similar era release of a SAVE Oh Edo Rocket

IMG_0155.jpg

and to look at it, it's as if someone glued two discs together. It plays just fine.

EDIT: Also, if you have a DVD drive for a computer, then installing VLC will allow you to play DVDs from any region.
 
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I've got a few but haven't looked at them for years.

Dragonar Academy and Dragonaut the Resonance better be okay.
Joking aside, I don't think I'd ever watch most of my collection again but I'd still be sad that I didn't have them.
 
Otomo said:
I've got a few but haven't looked at them for years.

Dragonar Academy and Dragonaut the Resonance better be okay.
Joking aside, I don't think I'd ever watch most of my collection again but I'd still be sad that I didn't have them.
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All the same you should probably still check on them just in case.
 
I've definitely bought DVDs that looked like this when they were new and played fine; can't say if those were Funimation or not since it would have been 10-20 years ago. That's not to say it can't be a symptom of a problem, but it might just be a visual flaw in the manufacturing process rather than anything functional.

I don't have that many Funimation DVDs, surprisingly, but did a spot check on a few. Some of my US Air Gear SAVE set and UK Blue Gender DVDs have this kind of pattern. They load up fine and played some test scenes with no issue. I haven't watched them all the way through in a long time though.

The scary thing about DVDs is that they can wind up unplayable while the disc looks flawless. For more on this and other disc-related woes, see the thread: In Memoriam: When DVDs become coasters.
 
Dai said:
The scary thing about DVDs is that they can wind up unplayable while the disc looks flawless. For more on this and other disc-related woes, see the thread: In Memoriam: When DVDs become coasters.
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I checked my Witch Hunter Robin DVDs a while back and they seem to still play OK. Both Bandai Entertainment and ADV Films on occasion pressed up some bad discs. as I said previously in that thread, only my Space Battleship Yamato movie disc has ever gone bad. Other than a few discs just pressed poorly that wouldn't play first time, I think I've lucked out.

The other DVDs that have crapped out after several years is my Blade Runner box set. Tried to watch the Dangerous Days documentary disc a few weeks ago and it just refused to play beyond the start of the second layer. Later found out later that Warner Bros pressed up so many bad discs during the late 2000's.

Just weird most of the issues I have with bad discs start at the second layer of dual layer discs. Wish there was a list of know badly pressed anime DVDs out there. I know most would end up being Bandai Entertainment DVDs from the last few years before they ceased operations.
 
Turns out I've only 8 SAVE Editions.

Blu-ray DVD combo
Maken-Ki S1 The school Doctor!!
Dragonar Academy only one that's A and B
DVD
Corpse Princess disc 3 does have 2 colours.
Dragonaut the Resonance or Boobynaut as it should be called.

All play properly.

Still to check these combo sets

Nobunagun
Senran Kagura S1
Hyperdimension Neptunia (more preverted than I thought).

More good news.
I found my Cross Ange complete Blu-ray.

Blu-ray only
Oniai
 
I have a lot of old anime dvds from various vendors and a lot of them have different shades of bronze and they all play fine. I think that it's just a characteristic of some dvds. Disc rot is a term that originated with laserdiscs when due to poor manufacturing the laminated layers would separate and the reflective aluminum layer would oxidize rendering them unreadable. A lot of the early dvds had a gold color because they used actual gold for the reflective layer.
 
I've been digitising my DVD collection (moving to France next month - don't ask) and so far the SAVE sets have worked fine. Haven't checked some, including the Tsubasa discs, yet but I hope they'll be OK too. I've gone through a couple of hundred discs (not all anime) and only a couple have been unreadable.

So if you see a surge of rare anime in CEX or on eBay, that's probably me.

And I've still got 2.5 storage boxes full of (mostly) Blu Rays to take with me.
 
Grimraven said:
I have been doing some checking and reorganising my dvd collection and i have noticed a very particular trend. All the DVDs from funimation releases particular those of the early 2010's all seem to be getting disc rot. Especially those from the S.A.V.E and Anime Classics Line and some other titles. I think Funimations manufacturing from this period might have been flawed if any of you have these titles you should check.
View attachment 42130
These Are the Titles i have checked and found disc rot in them: Vandread Anime Classics. Shiki BR/DVD S.A.V.E (dvds are rotting, br seem fine). My Bride is a Mermaid S.A.V.E and Hagani Next BR/DVD (same as Shiki The dvds are the ones showing disc rot).

This is especially worrying as many of these never even got a pal release or even a blu ray release. Im fearing funimation either used a factory with a fatal flaw or cheaped out.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this is actually disc rot. I've only had one confirmed case of disc 'rot' and it was on a Blu-ray disc that I had purchased second-hand from CEX, which had clearly been stored in less than desirable conditions (i.e., rooms which are damp).

The 'rot' looked more like a coffee stain/splotch, at the very edge of the outer disc, that didn't come off with any attempt of cleaning it. Little pin-pricks are also a sign of disc rot - try holding it up to the light and see if any are present.

I'm no expert, but this looks more like a manufacturing quirk, than it does disc rot, as others have alluded to.
 
Just Passing Through said:
For example, here's disc 2 of a similar era release of a SAVE Oh Edo Rocket

View attachment 42131

and to look at it, it's as if someone glued two discs together. It plays just fine.

EDIT: Also, if you have a DVD drive for a computer, then installing VLC will allow you to play DVDs from any region.
Click to expand...
If it looks like 2 discs glued together that's because it is, dvd9s have 2 read layers as opposed to dvd5s which have a single read layer.
 
BrokenPhoenix said:
I'm not sure if this is actually disc rot. I've only had one confirmed case of disc 'rot' and it was on a Blu-ray disc that I had purchased second-hand from CEX, which had clearly been stored in less than desirable conditions (i.e., rooms which are damp).

The 'rot' looked more like a coffee stain/splotch, at the very edge of the outer disc, that didn't come off with any attempt of cleaning it. Little pin-pricks are also a sign of disc rot - try holding it up to the light and see if any are present.

I'm no expert, but this looks more like a manufacturing quirk, than it does disc rot, as others have alluded to.
Click to expand...

The highlighted is my experience as well. There's a certain time period for blu-rays, many early Criterion US discs, that do this too. Because of the appearance I've seen it generally referred to as "bronzing." (Criterion will replace those discs still, as long as it is something that is still in print so that they have copies to replace with.)

Many old Warner Bros. US DVDs also suffer from disc rot. There was some particular manufacturing facility(ies) that made bad discs for a while.

DVDs that look like those in the OP are quite common, and while I suspect aren't ideal in terms of quality, generally play fine. If you see that appearance on a blu-ray though, it's probably defective or soon will be.

I don't have any particular experience with pinholes. I know in the early days of CDs, I think it was a Philips plant in Europe, that produced discs that came like this. They were generally fine but if it happened too many were in close proximity then the discs wouldn't play properly.
 
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