By Nabil Bakri
Last Updated: 4 January 2021
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| Private Collection |
Now, I want to start this article by telling you my
story. I bought a DVD, the original one from a DVD store nearby, not in some
small store in some street. I bought couples of pirated DVDs long time ago,
just because I couldn’t afford original DVDs, I was in elementary school and
the only affordable format for average student in most Asian countries is VCD.
The picture quality sucks if you watch a VCD in a flat or curved screen, it
wasn’t that good even in old square TVs, pretty much like VHS but I’m not going
to talk about this now. The point is that I definitely bought an original DVD
and Fox advertised that a pirated DVD will spoil your enjoyment in watching a
movie but an original one ‘virtually last forever’ (this one is from Sony).
Today I’m gonna say, “Really?” Recently I revisited the so called original DVD
with a happy face that there’s no scratch on the silvery side, no dust, no
fingerprints, and definitely no black dots or whatever that we movie folks call
the ‘rot’. I know exactly what DVD rot is and the disc of mine has definitely
no rot. So, it preserved! But my DVD player gave me a slap to find out that the
disc won’t play.
Okay, there’s got to be a solution for this. First,
you have to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with the disc. Fine, I rechecked
the disc’s surface. It’s flawless. Then, the next step: try it on a different
DVD player. Usually, if a disc won’t play in a DVD player and there’s absolutely
nothing wrong with the disc, it’ll play in other DVD players, computer’s
DVD-ROM, and, most unplayable DVDs are playable on Blu-ray players, similar to
many VCDs won’t play on VCD players but flawlessly played by DVD players. Well,
I did try THREE other DVD players, two laptops just to check using the DVD
drive inside them, and a Blu-ray player. Still, the disc won’t play. What’s
wrong? I bought a 15 years old DVD (new condition! The last stock from the
store), it’s Disney’s The Great Mouse
Detective. Heck, it works just fine! The DVD I told you before was just 1
year old. What the f*** is going on? I paid like…$10 for the film. DVD is
freakin’ expensive in Indonesia and Blu-ray, wow, the regular one is almost $40
each and most Indonesian collectors buy Blu-rays from Amazon (esp. in black Friday!).
So damn it, I’m damned!
Turns out, I’m not the only one experiencing this. As of
today, I lost about $200 (probably more) from broken DVDs, they just gone mad
with practically no reason. Okay, if there’s scratch or rot, at least the
reason is clear. But, God, do you hate optical discs nowadays? And it happen
not only on DVD. Years ago I thought that VCD is tougher because I never see a
rotten CD so if I bought a VCD and I keep it for 10 years and I want to watch it
again, I won’t find any trouble. But no, VCDs and CDs are also affected. But
the thing is, I’ve never found broken VCD’s without any of these signs:
scratches, rot, whatever. So, no flawless VCD is unplayable, unlike the DVD I’ve
told you in two previous paragraphs. And you think blu ray is the answer for
our problem. I’m sorry to say that the answer is no.
Now, give me the answer why this curse happen to me
and many of DVD folks around the world? Is it humidity? Heck, humidity can
cause rot and there’s apparently no sign of that. After checking it all out, I
know that this is not the fault of us buyers, our players, and also not the
fault of our environment with its destructive non collector friendly curse
called humidity, it’s the fault of those manufacturers so I want to say WE PAY,
SUCKERS! Now, here’s the thing. Many studios such as Disney, Paramount, Fox,
and WB do not allow some countries (including Indonesia) to manufacture their
films’ DVDs. So, distributors have to pay more for the import process. Old Disney
DVDs with original Disney holograms are awesome. All of my Disney-hologramed DVDs are still playable and
flawless up until today though most of them are more than 10 years old. Newer
Disney DVDs that I suspect is manufactured by Indonesian distributor, though,
suck (They sell the film with the same old price, but they do not do import so
more money for them!). These relatively new titles are broken already: The Muppets, Oz The Great and Powerful, Frankenweenie,
Planes, Monsters University, etc. F***! Even the old Monsters, Inc. DVD is
still in good condition!
Look, optical disc, indeed, virtually lasts forever
with a condition: it’s perfectly manufactured! Everything on earth will
eventually degrade and fade away. That’s the rule. Books from a thousand years
ago are practically extinct. But hey, there are still few super-old books that
preserved up until today and still gonna stay in good condition even thousands
of year from now. Why? Because they take good care on these books. Think of old
celluloid that need to be kept in a special chilled
room. But still, none of these matters if the material used to make the stuff
is terrible. I’m sure that DVD collectors do not really concern about the high
price as long as the DVD is well manufactured, and they make the disc wholeheartedly. Screw them selling poor
DVD with high price!
Well. Nothing we can do but to take precautions.
1.
Best
DVD is the one with these words printed on the disc: SONY DADC. It’s usully the
DVD from Paramount. I found broken Disney DVD, Warner Bros, even Fox and many
other wings and dings whatever studios but none from Paramount. So, when Fox
took DreamWorks from Paramount, suck! The
Croods and Turbo of mine are
broken already while Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and even Chicken Run, basically all Dream Works
movie under the licence of Paramount, work properly.
2.
If
you want to keep your DVD (hey, it includes CD and BD), first you have to check
your room. Please be a quite big air conditioned room. If not, well…
3.
When
buying a shelf, make sure that it has anti-rot (and fungi) finishing, so you
don’t have to worry about humidity and how it affect your shelf and eventually
your collection (if you have a very limited space)
4.
It’s
better for you to purchase silica gel. Put each sachet in each and every one of
your collection. Unfortunately, you cannot put it in a CD and/or VCD jewel
case, so you probably consider buying an electric dehumidifier.
5.
Once
you put silica gel in each, it is now safe to wrap them with plastic (usually
OPP plastic) -->Update: NO, do not put your collection in a plastic UNLESS you really have to. Plastic can trap moisture and that is not good for your DVD. So, if you still need plastic, be sure you really need it, for example, it's for steelbooks that get scratches easily. Still, you need to put silica gel first or be sure that your movie room has a DVD-friendly humidity level. You can also purchase specialized plastic package made for steelbook online (more of this update in my youtube video). -->Update: There are many types of DVD boxes. Those boxes with super slim design is not good for silica gel. If you put silica gel in the box and it makes the box unable to close tightly (leaves a small opening), then do not put silica gel or, put extra small silica gel pack so it will close tightly.
6.
Watch
your collection regularly so you know which one is broken and which one is
fine. You can watch your least-favourite while cleaning your other DVDs or
doing steps above so you don’t really watch them, just…checking. After you do
all steps above, you can print a label or any kind of sign just using your own
printer and a sticker paper. Print a label saying ‘Done’ or ‘OK’ or ‘Playable’,
or whatever you like. Then, after you watch a DVD in a perfect condition, give
it a sticker saying the sign. You don’t have to worry about the case because
you already wrap them with plastic. Now, you can move to other movies.
Please, manufacturers, your business of making films
in optical discs is dying. Consider this a sign, to make better DVDs. They
probably making blank DVDs up until who knows when, we still sometimes need’em.
But a movie on a disc? Bullshit. So, when I buy a DVD, I’m not buying the movie
so you manufacturers have to give us something that cannot be obtained from
Netflix or Disney Digital, or even YouTube like, hey, more special features (that
really good! Like those in Titanic blu-ray, if you watch the HD documentaries
on YouTube, you have to watch it chapter per chapter=at least that’s the last
time I check which is years ago), better package design, more booklets and
pages, and definitely better disc quality. Maybe someday you consider to put
silica gel in every release. We all know how to get a movie. Just click or touch.
But we want ‘more’ than just the movie. We today’s buyers are Anton Ego, so
unless you wanna die, “surprise us!”
And I consider myself not as a DVD collector. Well, I
collect DVDs but I think it’s more than that. So, I made up a new term: DVD
Archivist. So instead of just making a collection, I’m making an archive.
And I think many of you are doing just the same. People might say that
collecting DVDs is insane, but not archiving. There’s a more less-sophisticated
reason in archiving than collecting. Well, I guess that's all and I hope this article is helpful. Thanks.
2021 update: Take a look at the imperfection on this DVD. Notice the massive gap? Not only this gap makes it easier for air to seep through and damage the disc, but also makes it possible for the disc to become unstable and makes it more difficult for players to read the data as it spins, resulting in skipping, freezing, and unredable data issues.
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| Private Collection |