Are all Pioneer laserdiscs made in USA prone to rot?
Are laserdiscs from Pioneer Japan much better to hold up against rot?

I have the US laserdisc of The Hunted with Christopher Lambert.
This disc is manufactured by Pioneer USA.

The entire ending of the casts list is rotted on B-side.
I haven't watched it again since I bought it a few years ago, the disc was already rotted perhaps it's gone worse?
I have to watch it again and report back.

Hunted, The (1995) [42518]

You have one rotted movie and you’re asking if every disc they ever pressed rotted.

No. The answer is no.

America is the greatest country on the planet. We press the best discs.

Many discs I see on LDDB which are made by Pioneer USA has rot status reported.
Seems like this is a big issue with Pioneer USA?
There are no stupid questions!

I have an older japanese Exterminator which is busted.
This one is made by Pioneer Japan.

Perhaps manufacturer had made some bad batches from time to time?

Yes there are, don't let others tell you otherwise.

Good luck with your LD collecting.

I'm downsizing my collection, I will only keep the special titles.

When it comes to stupid questions there are also stupid answers.

Don't forget about advice, you get what you pay for

You can check the ranking (by adding all reports, which makes Pioneer USA over-represented vs PDO UK for example):

https://www.lddb.com/laserrot.php

1. DADC USA  (2077)
2. Pioneer USA  (1587)
3. PDO UK  (1262)
4. Pioneer Japan  (941)
5. 3M or IMATION  (500)
6. Mitsubishi  (340)
7. Kuraray  (288)
8. DiscoVision (MCA)  (244)
9. Technidisc  (230)
10. DADC Austria  (165)

Stay away from DADC USA, and statistically Pioneer Japan has a better track record than Pioneer USA.

Julien

I've seen that list and discs manufactured by Pioneer USA seem to be real bad!

I don't own any DADC discs and won't buy any.

A few years ago when I got my 909 I bought Wild Geese II from UK, this was the PDOUK disc.
I had to toss it into the recycling bin.
I also have Hellraiser II this disc now looks like cr@p, it's all tarnished!!

You have to interpret what little rot data exists carefully. These are all unverified user submissions and there aren’t enough of them to be statistically accurate. Also all of this data was collected after LD died. What discs rotted in-period, for people who took care of them, honestly, is different than the question of what still hasn’t rotted decades later in the hands of collectards and Youtubbers.

Obviously a disc pressing plant in Japan will be cleaner than one in the US. However…people in the US are more likely to store their LDs in large stacks in a non-air conditioned garage in Alabama for 20 years too, which doesn’t help their condition one bit.

Rot is a boring topic, done to death. People are way way too obsessed with it.

Obsession is no good for health going ---->
Wasting money on rotted discs could be very annoying if you ask me.

Hi noogie-man,

Yes, wasting money on rotted discs is very annoying. I'll do my best to break it down for you, and keep in mind, this is coming from someone with 35+ years of collecting experience. Pioneer USA is an extremely reliable manufacturing plant, not quite as good as Pioneer Japan or the other Japanese plants, but still very good indeed. In fact, Pioneer USA is the most reliable American plant, along with 3M, in my opinion. In very general terms, here is the breakdown of what you need to avoid/watch out for: 1.)Any disc manufactured before 1985 is suspect, REGARDLESS of manufacturing plant. Yes, this includes ALL Discovision titles, and even those from Japanese plants! If the seller is unable or unwilling to check the playback quality of a pre-1985 title, I would avoid it. Look for another seller who is able and willing to check it before you buy it, if you really want to own it. It is VERY rare to find a Pioneer USA disc made after 1985 with rot. 2.) Any 3M disc made during 1988-89 should be closely checked before purchase. During this period, 3M had a unique problem which no other plant had. Some copies of 3M titles pressed during this period have spots made into the data layer of the disc which you can actually see with the naked eye when looking at the disc in good lighting conditions. If you see any such spots on the disc, AVOID it like the plague! It is almost certain to be rotted and worthless! 3.) Any Technidisc title from the early period (1985-86) should be closely checked before purchase. These are the discs with the very bold looking mint markings, having the TV-shaped Hewlett Packard-type logo and a date from 1985 or 1986. Almost all of these are severely rotted. Those from the later periods of Technidisc's manufacturing cycle (those without the Technidisc name in the mint markings, and those with the very small font size mint markings) are normally very reliable, and have very low occurrence of rot. 4.) All DADC USA discs from 1995 on should be checked before purchase. These are the ones with batch numbers of 2700 or higher in the mint markings. These have VERY HIGH occurrence of rot. That's pretty much everything you need to know about what to avoid. I hope that helps.

David

Thank you kindly taking your time to explain.

I have a 3M disc China Girl from 1987.
This disc didn't have rot last time i watched it a few years ago.
I'm going to re-watch it again perhaps it didn't develop any rot yet?

What puzzles me is Exterminator, The (1980) (Uncut) [EHL-1074].
It's severly rotted although it was released back in 1986?

Hi noogie-man,

I doubt if you have to worry about the China Girl disc. I can't say for sure, because I don't own a copy of it. I have a Hong Kong release of that title. I'm not sure when the U.S. release was pressed, but if it was done in 1987, you should be fine. I have many discs from 1987. That was the year I started collecting, and I have many I bought new that year, including many 3M discs, which look as good now as they did the day I bought them. The Japanese Exterminator disc is also puzzling to me. My copy of it is fine. I have had good luck with all of the Japanese Embassy releases. Most of them are from Pioneer Japan.

David

China Girl was released back in 1988
There is status report of laser rot for this disc.

China Girl (1987) [ID5208VE]

Perhaps some productions batches could be jinxed that's why japaense Exterminator is rotted?

When it comes to quality, Pioneer USA and Pioneer Japan both have high-quality standards, and they maintain high levels of quality control in their manufacturing processes.
Preservation environment has a much greater impact.

There is a HUGE difference between Pioneer USA from 1983 and Pioneer USA from 1997. Same for Pioneer Japan. You cannot blanket quality strictly by manufacturer. DADC/Sony is pure crap at the end, but their stuff at the beginning was awesome. Technidisc was s**t at the beginning and got better over time.