Check Your Media Asia/Mega Star Blu-rays

[sonicassassin]

Originally Posted by Futurhythm

Going by those photos, I think even though my discs seem to play fine, there is definitely some kind of bronzing happening.

If the distortion occurs even on backups, does that mean all discs should be scanned with VSO Inspector before a backup is made? I mean, otherwise we're all gonna be making corrupt backups...

Is it also safe to say that the bad discs were all released prior to 2011? Also, any issues with Deltamac, Mei Ah, Edko, or IVL discs?

I would rather be safe than sorry and make backups on at least the movies which will be hard to replace or all time favorites. I recently made a backup of a Well Go USA disc which had bronzing with a dark ring around the outer edge and it played back fine.

My copies of Election & Election 2 are now all bronze in color, but without the darker ring around the outer edge of the disc. I made backups. I haven't had a chance to watch them yet. I'll post back later.

Maybe just work on the older releases up to 2011.

[FungManHin]

If my PC drive can read the disc, I will attempt to make a backup no matter what even if the distortion gets captured.

I'd also like to add that I don't know how well of an indicator that VSO program is. I downloaded it last night and ran Long Arm of the Law on it. During playback on bluray and pc drive, I see distortion. However, when I ran the disc through VSO, everything seemed to be fine. There were no bad sectors according to the program.

So for me, IF I see distortion during playback, then I am moving that disc to either my "soon to be dead" or "dead" pile, especially if the master/mould codes are the same and was released during same time frame as previously declared dead discs (which seem to be the case for every bad disc I have so far). If you can't watch a disc due to distortion or bronzing or both is present, it seems like it is just a matter of time before the disc completely dies and should be moved to your soon-to-be-dead/dead pile anyway.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by FungManHin

If my PC drive can read the disc, I will attempt to make a backup no matter what even if the distortion gets captured.

I'd also like to add that I don't know how well of an indicator that VSO program is. I downloaded it last night and ran Long Arm of the Law on it. During playback on bluray and pc drive, I see distortion. However, when I ran the disc through VSO, everything seemed to be fine. There were no bad sectors according to the program.

So for me, IF I see distortion during playback, then I am moving that disc to either my "soon to be dead" or "dead" pile, especially if the master/mould codes are the same and was released during same time frame as previously declared dead discs (which seem to be the case for every bad disc I have so far). If you can't watch a disc due to distortion or bronzing or both is present, it seems like it is just a matter of time before the disc completely dies and should be moved to your soon-to-be-dead/dead pile anyway.

What do you mean by "distortion"?

Blu-ray discs are digital, so either the drive can read the data or it cannot. If it cannot, VSO Inspector will report damaged sectors, and a Blu-ray player will freeze or skip when it gets to that part of the disc. Some drives/players are more robust and can read slightly damaged discs that will not work in other drives/players, but it's still a situation where either a) the disc reads/plays through correctly or b) it doesn't read or skips/freezes at certain points.

If the movie is playing without skipping or freezing, what you're seeing should be the correct data.

[Naiera]

I've just backed up the ones that are in "the danger zone" using MakeMKV. I don't see how I can do much else. I don't have time to sit through all those movies.

[Zen_Amako]

This is a depressing thread. It's sad to think that we may collect physical copies of our favorite films, often at a considerable expense, only to have them deteriorate while sitting on a shelf. It's even worse with some Asian releases because they often disappear after the initial pressing, never to be seen again on a physical format.

I've slowly been checking my discs and, in some cases, backing them up. My copy of Thirst (first pressing) is fine, fortunately, but I went ahead and backed it up. I also checked Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time from Panorama (released in 2010) and it was fine (still backed it up, as it's virtually impossible to find now).

Many of the discs that people are reporting problems with are titles that I had at one time and sold. I guess it was a good thing I sold them before they disintegrated? Kind of sucks for whomever has them now, though. It makes me question keeping a large collection of physical media when this kind of thing can happen.

Luckily, I've only had one Blu-ray bronze on me - the French release of Leon: The Professional from Gaumont. There were also a lot of issues with French Blu-rays dying a few years ago.

[FungManHin]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

What do you mean by "distortion"?

Blu-ray discs are digital, so either the drive can read the data or it cannot. If it cannot, VSO Inspector will report damaged sectors, and a Blu-ray player will freeze or skip when it gets to that part of the disc. Some drives/players are more robust and can read slightly damaged discs that will not work in other drives/players, but it's still a situation where either a) the disc reads/plays through correctly or b) it doesn't read or skips/freezes at certain points.

If the movie is playing without skipping or freezing, what you're seeing should be the correct data.

I added a picture in the "Bronzing/Image Distortion Examples" tab of the workbook. It won't let me upload in this post so you will have to view the DAMB spreadsheet tab to see what I am talking about.

And as I said before, I have discs that display this distortion (dunno if there is a better word for it) in playback on bluray players and in a PC drive. My Long Arm of the Law does this and when I ran it through VSO, it showed that all sectors were good. And when I made a backup up of it as well as The Inspector Wear Skirts (as seen in the example), that distortion is retained in the digital copy.

My copy of The Legend of Wisely also had this distortion. My PC drive took multiple attempts for it to finally read the disc. I use both MakeMKV and VideoSolo Bluray/DVD ripper for my ripping needs. MakeMKV was able to start ripping a few times but failed during the process each time. The same goes for VideoSolo. On the last attempt with VideoSolo though, I was able to rip all but the last ten minutes of the movie. What was there and ripped did have that distortion in spots throughout the movie.

[PGW]

My copy of "The Inspector Wears Skirts" doesn't show the break-up that yours does, and seems to play fine when I scan through it. Like yours, the IFPI code is 7T33. I bought it from buyoyo in April, 2012.

[neo_reloaded]

CMS Limited existed for 3 months in the Summer of 2011 and then disappeared? And yet most of their titles are still available to buy? Were they that unpopular that the original stock is still hanging around? Or have they been repressed even though CMS isn't releasing any new titles?

[FungManHin]

It really is depressing. Now that you mentioned Gaumont, I am checking all my foreign blurays. So far I have two Gaumont releases that are bronzed but luckily still can be read on PC and hopefully I can make backup copies of them. They are 36 Quai Des Orfevres and Les Deux Mondes.

I also have the HK bluray released by Deltamac of Largo Winch which is bronzed and completely dead. Cannot be read by PC drive. I added this release to the list as it was released by an HK company which used the same master and mould codes as other known dead discs.

[Sinister Ash]

Originally Posted by PGW

BUT they might not play fine a month from now, or a year from now or whenever.

Given that, how can we even trust the "good" discs that we have, where it's known that bad copies exist?

I'm not pissed off at you - I'm pissed off at the industry. The ones that invented laserdiscs that rotted and went bad, then DVDs (mostly double sided ones) that won't play anymore, and now blu-rays that seem to be dying left and right... but they've got our money, so I guess THEY'RE happy.

And for those of us who collect movies (not stream them!) this is JUST what we don't need - a dying industry now saddled with dying product.

Seeing that this could be a sign that all discs go bad, perhaps may be digital downloads might not be so bad after all. If Hong Kong (or other Asian movie companies for that matter) released properly remastered movies in HEVC H.265 for download, maybe the industry might have a revival like how mp3s have done for music. Problems of disc rot or going OOP might not become such an issue for these movies if they went digital download like music.

I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion on this site, but as much as I love collecting physical media, this has really left a bad taste in my mouth.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Sinister Ash

Seeing that this could be a sign that all discs go bad, perhaps may be digital downloads might not be so bad after all. If Hong Kong (or other Asian movie companies for that matter) released properly remastered movies in HEVC H.265 for download, maybe the industry might have a revival like how mp3s have done for music. Problems of disc rot or going OOP might not become such an issue for these movies if they went digital download like music.

I realize this is probably an unpopular opinion on this site, but as much as I love collecting physical media, this has really left a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't think this is a sign that all discs go bad. People have been discovering bronzing since 2013-2014 or so, and all the discs have been from the same 2009-2011 period, directly correlating to the use of this knockoff company's resin.

But even if you want to transition from physical media, honestly your best bet is just to backup physical media the day you purchase it and treat that as the digital version you desire. I don't see many companies selling 25-50 GB digital downloads, so you're already looking at lower compression quality, lack of lossless audio, no extras, etc. - and then there would inevitably be DRM which limits your backup/transfer options, and things could still go OOP if the licensing rights expire or change hands, etc. While I *generally* trust physical media, in the back of my head is the concept that all physical things deteriorate over time, so I do plan on eventually ripping all of my discs.

[Torrente]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

all the discs have been from the same 2009-2011 period, directly correlating to the use of this knockoff company's resin.

That is not entirely true.
For instance, in France, we discover new defective discs every month, from all time period not 'always' using this so-called "bad resin" (here is an updated list: http://bluraydefectueux.com/liste-de...ay-defectueux/).
So I tend to think that the all pressing process of this technology is probably problematic as a whole...

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Torrente

That is not entirely true.
For instance, we, in France, still discover defective disc from all time period not using this so-called "bad resin". So I tend to think that the all pressing process of this technology is probably problematic as a whole...

The French discs were not bronzing, and that QOL factory seemed to have really poor quality, so I consider QOL's problems to be at least partially distinct. Discs from other French replicators, and other replicators worldwide, have just had a few bad discs here and there (outside of the 2009-2011 range and maybe early Lionsgate) - not whole batches where everybody who checks their copy finds that it has gone bad.

You're never going to get 100% disc quality, where every single disc that is manufactured works. Hundreds of thousands of discs are being pressed every week, so you're going to get a few bad ones here and there. One person finding that a single Blu-ray copy of a certain film from 2015 is bad does not mean there is a problem with that batch, an endemic problem with that replicator, or an endemic problem with the format.

[Torrente]

I respect your opinion.
I agree with most of your points but not completely 'though

[FungManHin]

Well as I was going down my shelves and just checking for bronzing I found that all of my CMS titles are bronzed. I have only checked a handful of them so far though for playback on player and pc. Will check them all and report back later but I am going to set those of them that arent completely dead aside into my monitor pile.

[FungManHin]

My copy of Let the Bullets Fly from CN Entertainment is bronzed but luckily still plays. Will add it to the monitored sheet.

[Futurhythm]

I'm starting to make my backups. I'll be adding to the spreadsheet any titles that fit the time frame to the monitor list just because all my discs are still working.

Also, I think somebody was asking about Perhaps Love. It has a master and mould code that doesn't match any of the other problem discs, but I think it's starting to bronze.

[neo_reloaded]

I'm curious about Tai Seng discs (US company, but were they pressing in Taiwan like Well Go USA was?) and mainland China discs (HEC in particular). I have some of each but have been unsuccessful in locating where I packed them so far...

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Futurhythm

Also, I think somebody was asking about Perhaps Love. It has a master and mould code that doesn't match any of the other problem discs, but I think it's starting to bronze.

Are you sure about the mould code 94**? That code is for Sony DADC in Austria. Seems weird for a Hong Kong title to be pressed in Austria.

[Torrente]

Right.

Nothing surprises me anymore 'though... it was already weird that US discs were pressed in Taiwan, so...