Smear-y marks (Not from hands) appearing on DVDs?

[SunMoon]

I randomly decided to watch a bit of my Neon Genesis Evangelion Plantium Non-Thinpack collection after not having used the DVDs for maybe 2 or 3 years. I put in the first volume and jumped around the disc, only watching random parts and never watching a full episode. There was no skipping. When I was about to put the disc away, I curiously looked at the bottom and noticed strange smear marks. I don't know how else to describe it, and they are definitely not from my hands. Here is a link to what it looks like:
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/a...ticsim/eva.jpg
As can be seen, it is around the center ring of the read side of the disc. It should be noted that it can sort of be wiped off if I apply pressure with my fingernail through a DVD/CD Memorex Wipe cloth.

There are also marks on the whole read side of the disc (where the data is), but it is harder to see. For example, I can even see what appear to be block letters. I could not get an adequate picture of this due to the reflection, but here is the best I can show you:
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/a...icsim/eva2.jpg
It may be hard to see, but seeing it in person, I saw what looked like "block letter". Coincidentally, these "block letters" were on the opposite side of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" title on the print side. But the strange thing is is that the "NGE" title is in a Serif font, not the blocky Sans-Serif. When I tried to moved around the disc in the light when looking at the read side, I could sort of see through to the other side and could see the "NGE" title would align with the "block letters". I thought that these "block letters" were in reality just mirrored parts of the title on the other side but I cannot say for sure.

I noticed this only on a few discs of the NGE Plantium Collection. I had only used these discs each maybe once or twice. The others looked as if they were new, no marks whatsoever. I bought all of these new and individually, ie, I bought the artbox plus volume 1 and then each individual volume.

In addition, I looked at my NGE Perfect Collection (Before plantium). Again, I found the same thing on only a few of the discs. I had also used these at most two or three times each. The ones that weren't affected looked new as well, no marks at all. I bought this as a whole set, new.

What exactly is happening? I am pretty sure I handled them correctly.
- I store them vertically in a media cabinet.
- I've only watched them in either my slot loading Apple Powerbook or my PS2. I am pretty sure the PS2 is not leaving these marks because I have had games in there for many more hours and none of them have these marks.
- They do sort of look like grease smudges from hands or something, but I always hold the discs by the outer edges and never touch the center area.
- They were new and not like this when I first bought them.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[Faris Kalin]

I get something similar to this when I leave cds in my slot loading car cd player for an extended period of time. I have no idea what could be causing it.

If I had to speculate, then I would guess that it has something to do with the heat having some sort of reaction with the materials surrounding the cd which causes the deposits that you see on the bottom of the disc. I suspect that due to the way that the dvd player in your powerbook is enclosed that there would be more heat around the dvd than there would be in your ps2. Thus, that may be the culprit.

[Sensuifu]

the cement between the layers might have loosened up a bit...possibly from excessive/overexposure to temperature changes. Humidity, heat, and even the cold can alter the adhesive. You might not experience skipping or read errors yet, but if the layers become even more distant from each other, then you'll probably start running into playback problems.

[joelgundam01]

The smears can be coming from many things.

- Oils from the disc, anything from the anti-scratch coat to machine oil from the replicating process (very likely)
- Oil from your skin can also create finger prints and smears (likely)
- The glue on the disc (less likely)
- Early signs of disc rot (possible, but not likely)

[SunMoon]

Originally Posted by Faris Kalin

I get something similar to this when I leave cds in my slot loading car cd player for an extended period of time. I have no idea what could be causing it.

If I had to speculate, then I would guess that it has something to do with the heat having some sort of reaction with the materials surrounding the cd which causes the deposits that you see on the bottom of the disc. I suspect that due to the way that the dvd player in your powerbook is enclosed that there would be more heat around the dvd than there would be in your ps2. Thus, that may be the culprit.

Do you think it's possible to happen to only a few of the discs out of a collection? Maybe the way some were manufactured? I am pretty sure I used each disc roughly the same amount of time in my Powerbook and it's strange that it only happened to some of them.

Originally Posted by Sensuifu

the cement between the layers might have loosened up a bit...possibly from excessive/overexposure to temperature changes. Humidity, heat, and even the cold can alter the adhesive. You might not experience skipping or read errors yet, but if the layers become even more distant from each other, then you'll probably start running into playback problems.

Does this cement seep through onto the outside? Or is it something that is in one level below the plastic? Because I *think* I can sort of rub it off in certain areas if I use my fingernail through a wipe cloth (I didn't want to harm the disc, so I didn't do it really on the read side), which makes me think that it is on the outside. Then again, it's possible that the pressure I am applying is going through the plastic and making it appear as if I am wiping it off when it is actually a layer below.

Originally Posted by joelgundam01

The smears can be coming from many things.

- Oils from the disc, anything from the anti-scratch coat to machine oil from the replicating process (very likely)
- Oil from your skin can also create finger prints and smears (likely)
- The glue on the disc (less likely)
- Early signs of disc rot (possible, but not likely)

Is it possible for the effects of those things to not be seen after the discs were made (making the disc appear in perfect condition) but then appear later? Are the oils from the disc (the anti-scratch oil or machine oil, or whatever else it can be) on the outside of the disc or in between something? What about the glue?

Also, some other things I noticed on these "affected discs" that I will add. On one disc, there is something that looks like the remnants of a spill. It's hard to describe, but the best example I can think of is if you were to spill milk or a liquid with some sediment in it on the floor and it were to leave an outline on the ground if it wasn't properly wiped up.

[Sensuifu]

Originally Posted by SunMoon

Does this cement seep through onto the outside? Or is it something that is in one level below the plastic?

the adhesive between layers can seep out, but incidents of that happening are almost non-existent, or in rare cases where you can probably also notice the residue (string-like, hardened glue) on either side of the disc. This happened to me a couple of times when DVD was relatively new on the market. The outer edge of the discs shouldn't have that kind of problem and are generally smoothened out, making the separations barely visible. There might be some inconsistency from time, but again, that's probably from shoddy manufacturing.

[Faris Kalin]

Originally Posted by SunMoon

Do you think it's possible to happen to only a few of the discs out of a collection? Maybe the way some were manufactured? I am pretty sure I used each disc roughly the same amount of time in my Powerbook and it's strange that it only happened to some of them.

It is odd that it's only happening to some of your discs. It happens to all of mine in my car cd player which is why I only play my backup discs in it. Thus protecting my expensive import cds.

I guess that certain other factors could explain why some discs are affected and others aren't. Maybe the location of the computer at the time certain discs were played caused a higher internal temperature or maybe other processes were going on (other programs for example) which caused more cpu heat.

At any rate, it's definitely an odd phenomena, and I don't know how to stop it.

[SunMoon]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

*sigh* How frustrating.

[IkariShinji]

I'm having a similar problem with several of my discs. They have some weird marks that weren't there before. Some of them look like fingerprints, which is strange since I'm extra careful with my discs.The marks appear on both discs that I have watched completely and discs that I've only checked to see if they played after I got them. I watch them on a regular DVD player, by the way.

I always guessed it was because of the humidity or the changes on the weather, since it has happened to me in a place with four seasons and also one with tropical weather.