Warner Bros is replacing some DVDs that ‘rot’ and become unwatchable – but there’s a big catch that undermines the value of physical media

Some affected movies are literally irreplaceable

News By Carrie Marshall published 11 March 2025

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

• Some Warner Bros DVDs won't play due to material problems
• Affected discs were made between 2006 and 2008
• Warner Bros is replacing discs, but not all movies are still available

Of all the advantages of physical media – picture and sound quality, extra features, impressing visitors to your home with your excellent and eclectic taste – one of the most important ones is permanence. Unlike movies on the best streaming services, movies won't suddenly disappear from your shelves overnight because of licensing issues or cost-cutting.

Unless… they rot.

A new plague of disc rot has been discovered, and it's affecting Warner Bros Home Entertainment movies manufactured between 2006 and 2008. The rot renders the discs unplayable, and while Warner Bros is offering replacements, it can't replace them all.

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Why isn't Warner Bros replacing every rotted disc?

The short answer is that it can't. As the firm explained in a statement, "Where possible, the defective discs have been replaced with the same title. However, as some of the affected titles are no longer in print or the rights have expired, consumers have been offered an exchange for a title of like-value."

Disc rot isn't new – it affected laserdiscs, and CDs, and every other shiny disc format since. But this particular outbreak is happening very early in the discs' lifespan.

Disc rot is oxidization, and it's very unusual to have that happen on discs that are still relatively young. In ideal conditions and with careful storage and handling a DVD could last as long as 100 years, and even the lowest lifespan expectation is around 30 years.

However, if the manufacturing isn't perfect, then the lifespan can be much shorter: for example, the phenomenon of disc bronzing, a form of disc rot affecting compact discs in the early 1990s, was largely found in discs made at a specific UK factory between 1988 and 1993.

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