How long will data last on a DVD?

John Salley

Oct 06, 2017 12:57 am / Posted by John Salley to BD/DVD Backup

Do you want to know the how long the DVD movies last? In theory, the discs were designed to hold data for around 100 years. But that would only hold true if the disc was sealed away from all elements. (air, light, moisture, etc) If the disc is subjected to these elements continuously, a mere 2 years can be expected. Another one: Brand and quality of the disc is important too.

 If you have purchased quality media from a quality manufacturer, you are still not assured of! You are the greatest danger to the data longevity of your personal, family and business information that is stored on CD and DVD. Direct exposure to sunlight and intense heat can do dramatic damage. Rapid changes in temperature and humidity can stress the materials. Gravity can bend and stress the discs. Fingerprints and smudges can do more damage than scratches.

There are many other factors which can affect the DVD datas, for example: Oxidation when air comes in contact with the reflective layer, Galvanic reaction between the layers and coatings, Chemical reaction caused by impurities in the disc’s adhesive or aluminum coating and so on. In general, you need to pay more attention to the DVD disc, especially your precious DVD discs.

How to Protect Your Precious DVD Movies?

Your DVD hurt your heart due to the fragile disc? How do you manage your DVD disc? Can you find your DVD movie from the 200+ videos quickly? From the traditional ways, you can do and not do some actions on the DVD disc. We have made the list, hope to be useful for you.

You can do these to protect the DVD movies:

  1. Handle discs by the outer edge or the center hole
  2. Use a non solvent-based felt-tip permanent marker to mark the label side of the disc
  3. Keep dirt or other foreign matter from the disc
  4. Store discs upright (book style) in original jewel cases that are specified for CDs and DVDs
  5. Return discs to their jewel cases immediately after use
  6. Leave discs in their spindle or jewel case to minimize the effects of environmental changes
  7. Remove the shrink wrap only when you are ready to record data on the disc
  8. Store in a cool, dry, dark environment in which the air is clean — relative humidity should be in the range
  9. 20% – 50% (RH) and temperature should be in the range 4°C – 20

Don’t do these if you want to keep DVD movies for longer time

  1. Touch the surface of the disc
  2. Bend the disc
  3. Store discs horizontally for a long time (years)
  4. Open a recordable optical disc package if you are not ready to record
  5. Expose discs to extreme heat or high humidity
  6. Expose discs to extreme rapid temperature or humidity changes
  7. Expose recordable discs to prolonged sunlight or other sources of UV light
  8. Write or mark in the data area of the disc (area where the laser “reads”)
  9. Clean in a circular direction around the disc

How to Enjoy DVD Movies Forever?

Just do above actions, can you protect the DVD movies forever? I am afraid not, DVD disc is plastic material, you can’t keep it forever, how do you do and prevent the tragedy? We have collected some reliable ways you can do:

  1. Copy DVD to some blank DVD disc, even your original DVD disc is damaged, you can play the movies by the copies
  2. Copy DVD to digital video formats and save to PC and Mac hard drive, external hard drive, USB, etc.
  3. Upload the DVD to NAS for playback, streaming which can provide the huge storage space.
  4. Get digital DVD and save in Memory Stick or Memory Card.

for realizing above goals, you need one DVD copy software which can help you to get the digital video files, then you can deal with them at will. Bytecopy for Mac which is a powerful DVD Decrypter, DVD copy software, DVD ripper. You can remove the DVD copy protection and import any DVD to it, including the DVD disc, images and fodler. 300+ video formats are ready for you: MP4, MOV, WMV, AVI. MKV, etc, you can find any video format you want with the best video quality.

If you like the disc in deep, you can copy full DVD disc or the DVD movie main title. Most users like to backup DVD with digital video formats which can play on any devices you want and get rid of the DVD disc forever, keep the DVD movie as long as you want. You can play DVD on iPad, iPhone, PC, Mac, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, without DVD drive. Following is the magic DVD copy process.

Get Your Desired DVD Video Format with Few Clicks

Click 1. Load the DVD disc

Open this DVD Ripper and click File and choose Load files button to import DVD videos directly from your disc. When you load the DVD/BD disc, this software can detect the DVD main title automatically. At the main interface, you can choose to output the video with forced subtitles and decide the forced subtitle language.

load dvd movie

Click 2. Copy DVD as you want

Want to Get digital DVD movies?

Click Format button and open the output video list, you can find 300+ video formats at here, like: MP4, H.264, H.265, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV, MPEG-2, etc.etc. You also can solve many DVD playback issues when you play DVD on TV, TV Box, media player, portable devices, etc.

Tip: You also can remux DVD by choosing the Remux and get perfect digital video files from DVD.

choose output video format

Want to copy full DVD disc?

Just click  on the top of this software, this button will help you to copy the whole DVD disc content, like: video chapters, subtitle, audio tracks, menu and navigation contents and so on.

Want to copy DVD main title?

When you want to copy the DVD main title with fast speed: Navigate to “Format” > “Copy” > “Directly Copy”

Backup main movie content

Click 3. Start DVD video conversion

After choosing the disc copy mode, go back to the main interface and click Convert button to start the video conversion with fast speed. Wait for a while, you can click Open output files and find the video files quickly.

Do you like to protect the DVD movie by DVD disc or digital DVD videos? In total, we hope you can keep the DVD movies well and play DVD at will.