Murphy's Law applied to LaserDiscs: Any damaged disc received in a shipment will be the most valuable and expensive in the shipment.
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Laser Rot

Well, Laser Rot is a problem important enough to deserve a dedicated page.

Metal Layer Oxydation (also called laser rot) is the plague of LDs. Impossible to forecast, useless to fight, it can happen anytime during the lifetime of a disc. Hopefully not all LD titles manufactured are suffering from this disease and some Factories are more famous than others on this issue (SONY DADC being #1).

Current Status 10688 reports on 5802 titles representing 0.94% of total collections
Top 100 LDs
(realtime)
  1. Eraser [14202]  (12948)
  2. Air Force One: Special Edition [71886]  (9216)
  3. Starship Troopers [71716]  (5406)
  4. Jumanji [11746]  (4680)
  5. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls [23500]  (4242)
  6. Cable Guy, The [82426]  (3880)
  7. Copycat [14168]  (3608)
  8. Men in Black [82656]  (3520)
  9. Net, The [11616]  (3219)
  10. Contact: Special Edition [15041]  (2964)
  11. Beauty and the Beast: Work in Progress [1591 CS]  (2660)
  12. Lost Highway [ID3946PG]  (2618)
  13. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory [13665]  (2542)
  14. Shawshank Redemption, The [74596]  (2325)
  15. Fargo [800638693-1]  (2205)
  16. Professional, The [74746]  (2117)
  17. Heavy Metal [74656]  (1827)
  18. Demolition Man [12985]  (1653)
  19. Fugitive, The [21000]  (1540)
  20. Game, The [ID4260PG]  (1508)
  21. Striptease [84976]  (1500)
  22. Dante's Peak [43311]  (1430)
  23. Volcano [0603985]  (1288)
  24. Batman Returns [15000]  (1250)
  25. Fifth Element, The [82406]  (1200)
  26. Fan, The [82476]  (1197)
  27. Johnny Mnemonic [73476]  (851)
  28. Boot, Das (The Boat) [99916]  (820)
  29. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective [23000]  (702)
  30. Star Wars Trilogy: Definitive Collection [0693-84]  (682)
  31. Gattaca [82646]  (666)
  32. Batman & Robin [16500]  (627)
  33. Willow [79356]  (624)
  34. Bad Boys [10716]  (561)
  35. Multiplicity [82446]  (561)
  36. Fair Game [14072]  (560)
  37. Aliens: Special Widescreen Collector's Edition [1504-85]  (551)
  38. First Knight [71176]  (525)
  39. The Beatles: Let It Be [4508-80]  (504)
  40. I Know What You Did Last Summer: Special Edition [23926]  (480)
  41. Barb Wire [800639927-1]  (434)
  42. Tin Cup [14318]  (403)
  43. Devil's Own, The [82466]  (390)
  44. Anaconda [81756]  (384)
  45. Fire Down Below [14914]  (378)
  46. Mute Witness [41176]  (372)
  47. Hunchback of Notre Dame, The [7955 AS]  (364)
  48. Crimes of Passion: Special Edition [LVD9523]  (351)
  49. Maximum Risk [27416]  (350)
  50. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century [13-002]  (341)
  51. Dracula: Dead and Loving It [80096]  (336)
  52. Lethal Weapon 2 [11876]  (336)
  53. Blade Runner: Special Edition [CC1120L]  (330)
  54. Gunsmith Cats Chapter: vol.1 [CAVGS/001]  (319)
  55. ABBA [74-006]  (319)
  56. Dolores Claiborne [59906]  (312)
  57. Hoodlum [ML106282]  (312)
  58. Grumpier Old Men [14191]  (300)
  59. Craft, The [82416]  (300)
  60. To Die For [73436]  (299)
  61. Double Team [83236]  (286)
  62. Donnie Brasco [82516]  (276)
  63. Blade Runner: Director's Cut [12682]  (276)
  64. Kate Bush: The Whole Story [080 504-1]  (270)
  65. Video Standard, A [LD-101]  (270)
  66. 300 [113764]  (270)
  67. Alien: Special Widescreen Collector's Edition [1090-85]  (270)
  68. Eurythmics: Live [080 220-1]  (264)
  69. I Come in Peace [LVD9603]  (264)
  70. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace [PILF-2830]  (252)
  71. Jerry Maguire [82536]  (242)
  72. Grosse Pointe Blank [10040 AS]  (240)
  73. Hamlet [94996]  (231)
  74. Abyss, The: Special Edition [1988-85]  (231)
  75. Star Trek I: The Motion Picture [LVH 2011]  (224)
  76. Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms [080 166-9]  (224)
  77. Desperado: Special Edition [11656]  (220)
  78. Indian in the Cupboard, The [11646]  (220)
  79. Switchblade Sisters: Special Edition [RT1001L]  (216)
  80. Last Action Hero [27936]  (210)
  81. Hook [70606]  (209)
  82. Muppet Treasure Island [7076 AS]  (207)
  83. Raw Deal [LVD9545]  (198)
  84. Star Trek I: The Motion Picture [LV 8858]  (192)
  85. MTV's Beavis & Butt-Head: the Essential Collection [MLV49691]  (190)
  86. Casablanca [79208]  (189)
  87. Psycho [11-003]  (184)
  88. Blade Runner: 5-Disc Complete Collectors Edition [118573]  (182)
  89. WarGames [4714-80]  (180)
  90. Matilda [86866]  (180)
  91. Extreme Measures [94926]  (180)
  92. Gwendoline (Perils of Gwendoline) [G78F5010]  (180)
  93. Dirty Dancing [ID5172]  (176)
  94. Lethal Weapon 3 [12475]  (176)
  95. Class of 1999 [PCLV-10002]  (171)
  96. Sense and Sensibility [11596]  (170)
  97. 10cc: & Godley & Creme: Changing Faces [080 392-1]  (168)
  98. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [80926]  (168)
  99. Planet Earth: The Complete Series [E2939]  (162)
  100. Mike Oldfield: The Wind Chimes [080 446-1]  (161)
"Score" is defined as (Rot Level x Nb of Reports)
Top 10 Makers
(realtime)
  1. DADC USA  (2140)
  2. Pioneer USA  (1734)
  3. PDO UK  (1426)
  4. Pioneer Japan  (1033)
  5. 3M or IMATION  (549)
  6. Mitsubishi  (371)
  7. Kuraray  (325)
  8. DiscoVision (MCA)  (267)
  9. Technidisc  (249)
  10. DADC Austria  (172)
Ranking is defined as Nb of Reports/Factory

Note that humidity/water do not provoke laser rot. I sadly had a water disaster in my basement and some of my LDs spent 8 hours half immersed in freezing water. Except for the damaged covers and inserts, the disc are still playing nicely.

The main consequence of rot are those "multicolor video speckles/lines" appearing randomly on your screen and becoming more visible at the start or at the beginning of a side.

A stronger consequence can also affect the Digital Audio Tracks that will play with "clicks" and sometimes become completely mute for a few 10th of second because the data is so distored that it has no more meaning for your A/V Amp. This happened to me on Princess Bride CRITERION.

The final effect of a deadly rot will be a completely unwatchable LD. The player simply won't find it's start/timing/chapter sequence and give up playing after several tentatives.

Note that 8" LD Single do not use glue to keep the two sides together and should not be affected by laser rot. None reported so far.

Also, rot is disc/side dependant and could affect Side A while Side B remains untouched. People with access to several copies of the same set might sometimes be able to "reconstruct" a rot-free full set by checking each disc individually and selecting only the good ones.