How much damage can a DVD take?

[roastedpekingduck]

I am asking this because today, I just recieved Planetes 2 and opened to find two insanely scratched discs within the cases. The damage was evidently quite deep, too. Yet, when I played the disc, expecting the worst, aside from several minor skips, the two discs worked perfectly, even though the data side was scratched to hell. How much damage can a DVD take before not functioning at all?

[Kellory]

Thats really a subjective question because it relies on a number of variables.

In general, however, DVD's and CD's can take a fair bit of punishment. DVD's often more so than CD's. The scratches that you see in a store bought DVD or CD are often just surface level scratches. A DVD or CD is protected on both sides by a polycarbonate plastic layer. Polycarbonate is fairly tough stuff, so even if you see scratches, there's a good chance it never penetrated to the inner data carrying layers.

The second bit to keep DVD's playing is the error correction on the player. In general I've found DVD players to have better error correction than CD players and its another reason why DVD's can play even when fairly badly scratched.

Of course, even if a scratch doesnt penetrate to the data layer it can still cover enough sectors that error correction cant correct and the DVD will skip or not play at all. Also the amount and sophistication of a player's error correction does vary greatly not just from manufacturer to manufacturer but also model to model.

Its this very fact that scares most people. Even if a disc plays well on their current player (mine plays pretty much everything...Go Sony!) there is no guarantee that it'll play on a different player or a new one if they have to upgrade. At least it probably worries those of us with older players that have fine error correction, but one day...

In any event, I'd probably look at exchanging the discs myself. Bandai has a pretty good CS department and if you got it from TRSI the return should be even easier. Although I'm guessing you got it from DDD? The first 2 volumes of Planetes had a lot of problems with floaters so Bandai is aware of the issue and should be able to fix it for you.

[roastedpekingduck]

I just checked the disc with Nero CD-DVD Speed and found that the main disc's sectors were 97% good. If this is the case, does that mean the disc is heavily damaged or lightly damaged?

[TAS]

[ QUOTE ]
Kellory said:
A DVD or CD is protected on both sides by a polycarbonate plastic layer. Polycarbonate is fairly tough stuff, so even if you see scratches, there's a good chance it never penetrated to the inner data carrying layers.

[/ QUOTE ]
Only on one side for CDs, scrach the top/lable side of a CD and it's toast.

For DVD scratches at 90 deg. to the data (from the center to the edge) cause less problem then scratches paralle to the data. I had one DVD with a single scratch in just the wrong place that would not play at all, I've had floaters that looked scratched to hell that play fine (but still had them replaced).

[TAS]

[ QUOTE ]
roastedpekingduck said:
I just checked the disc with Nero CD-DVD Speed and found that the main disc's sectors were 97% good. If this is the case, does that mean the disc is heavily damaged or lightly damaged?

[/ QUOTE ]

3% bad on a DVD is heavily damaged. Add a little dirt in the scratches and it may not play at all in a while. I'd send it back for a new copy or get a replacement from Bandai since it's a known problem for that disc.

[Iridium]

In my opinion, the only acceptable rating is 100% good.

Anything less means that not all of the data is available, therefore you did you receive what you paid for. I would complain to Bandai directly for an exchange, as going through the store may just get you another floated set.

(OK, well the defects might be in a part you don't care about. My Rahxephon v2 has a bad sector, but I didn't return it as it only glitches for about 0.5 seconds in the dub actor interviews, which I don't care to see anyway.)

[roastedpekingduck]

I'm now very confused. I used a different DVD drive (I have multiple DVD drives on my computer), and when I scanned the disc again using that drive, I got a 100% rating after Nero CD-DVD Speed finished scanning. The original drive I used was a DVD RW drive. The second time I scanned, I used my secondary DVD drive which is simply a DVD Rom drive. I also played the disc today and came across no problems whatsoever. Which drive is correct, and why are there inconsistencies between the two drives?

[JeffDM]

[ QUOTE ]
roastedpekingduck said:
Which drive is correct, and why are there inconsistencies between the two drives?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think maybe the quality of the optics and the detector.

[TAS]

[ QUOTE ]
JeffDM said:
[ QUOTE ]
roastedpekingduck said:
Which drive is correct, and why are there inconsistencies between the two drives?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think maybe the quality of the optics and the detector.

[/ QUOTE ]
Could be better error correction too.

You can see the same thing on regular players too, one may play the disc without errors, another my glitch all over the place.

[Iridium]

[ QUOTE ]
JeffDM said:
[ QUOTE ]
roastedpekingduck said:
Which drive is correct, and why are there inconsistencies between the two drives?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think maybe the quality of the optics and the detector.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, it is known that some drives are better than others when it comes to reading discs with marginal areas. In particular, LG and Plextor are known to be very good, while NEC is poor in this area.