this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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Most DVDs produced will be rotted out within 20/30 years at most, only option is ripping what you can and migrate the collection to a new drive every decade, just make sure it's a secondary drive and is of archival quality.
Burned disks, you'll probably lose some over 30 years, i've lost a few in 20 years, most are still readable.
Poorly pressed disks, you might lose one here or there. I had a two where the aluminum was poorly sealed and flaked off the label side.
I have hundreds of DVD's in the 20-30 year range and have never had a problem reading any of them that weren't scratched save the couple that were lacking in top lacquer.
Rotted within 20/30 years? Honest question where did you get that ? I have 40 yo cds that are in pristine condition why would dvds be different?
The density of DVDs makes them less resilient than CDs, but CDs will also suffer the same fate. It's going to be a very serious conservation problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
Exactly, and I imagine blurays and DL dvds will suffer even quicker. However the quality of the plastic is also important, we started cheaping out and it's noticable, look at VHS or Tapes as we moved forward the quality of them dropped.