DVD Reading Software.

[JRChadwick]

It stops part way through, how ever I took it to Geek Squad and got the whole thing copied to another DVD. Cost a hundred dollars. Probably could have gotten a better deal, but I don't have time any more.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

edit: and clarify degrade. a DVD is a digital stream, if the data is playing back at all, it's playing back exactly as recorded.

Not necessarily, the degradation may not be like that of an analogical tape, but none the less you can have things like, per pixel noise, corrupted frames among other things.

@JRChadwick: The time thing was a bit relative. But now that you have a new copy, save it to your hard drive or external disk.

 

[JRChadwick]

I'll be getting a new computer with a better DVD drive soon. I'll make a copy in a week or two. It's fortunate I was given this disk when I was. Any longer and it may have become unrecoverable.

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

I don't think it was that extreme or serious as you might be portraying, unless ofcourse mold was building up like rabits.

 

[JRChadwick]

It's the only thing that makes sense given that the new DVD now works.

 

[scalyblue]

It's the only thing that makes sense given that the new DVD now works.

The substrate used in recordable dvd or cd media is typically an organic dye, and any exposure to UV will cause degradation, even normal in house lighting. You typically don't notice this degradation because the error checking inherent to the format is doing its job; eventually areas of the disc become unreadable even with error correction and you get the symptom that you were getting now. Depending on who makes the laser pickup and how it's calibrated can affect the readability of one of these degraded discs.

Anything important, keep mutiple redundant copies of, on the cloud, on more than one disc, on flash drive, on fixed disks, that way if you encounter this you won't be SoL.

 

[JRChadwick]

Thanks for the information. And thanks again for your help.

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

A bit late, I know, but a firmware update for the DVD drive might have "fixed" the problem, as was mentioned earlier.

If the drive hadn't been updated since before the DVD was created, it might not recognize the format of the DVD - hence, a firmware update (with the later formats encoded) would resolve the problem.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[scalyblue]

Greetings,

A bit late, I know, but a firmware update for the DVD drive might have "fixed" the problem, as was mentioned earlier.

If the drive hadn't been updated since before the DVD was created, it might not recognize the format of the DVD - hence, a firmware update (with the later formats encoded) would resolve the problem.

Kindest regards,

James

While you are completely accurate, unless you have one a few select brands, firmware updates can be very flaky endeavors that could end up bricking the optical drive and seemed outside the tech comfort zone of the OP.

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

Understood - but as he was planning on buying a new PC...

Kindest regards,

James