As far as I know, this mostly affects the old Italian titles printed by the OPTI factory (you can find the OPTI signature at the inner ring of the CD). My old CAM disc of Mio Caro Dottor Grasler, for example, also rotted and would not play since a couple of years ago.

42zaphod, January 21, 2014; 9:09 PM

Yes! MIO CARO DOTTOR GRASLER was manufactured by Opti-Mes. As I recall that company and Fonit-Cetra had produced a batch of defective CDs that were prone to rot. Cam and Beat were both effected (and maybe other labels as well). All those many years ago I called the Beat offices in Rome and spoke to Luciana DeGemini about the problem, and she actually replaced all my defective titles! What a superb lady. I checked most, but not all, of my early Morricone Cam releases last night and everything was OK - including my MIO CARO DOTTOR GRASLER! This implies that this whole business of digital rot is a very mercurial phenomena. I will continue to go through my stash and keep you posted if I find anything. One other detail: Jim Wynorski and I discovered to our mutual horror that those printable CDR / DVDR artwork stickers cause digital rot - and very quickly. Never stick those things on a CDR. Apparently they do not effect DVDRs which I find very strange.

bipcress, January 22, 2014; 8:17 AM

Good to hear that Beat replaced the defective CDs. As far as I know all my old Beat titles are OK. Regarding MIO CARO DOTTOR GRASLER, after my old Italian pressing by OPTI rotted, I bought the old French pressing (also by CAM but pressed in France) which still plays fine. I think it was really the OPTI factory to blame.

42zaphod, January 22, 2014; 3:03 PM