We're about to move in our new house and I would rather save the $240.00 per month on storage and move inventory to our garage.

Right now our storage has AC. In South Carolina it gets hot, do you think it's safe to store DVDs in a hot garage?

NOTE: These DVDs are professionally pressed and shrinkwrapped from a manufacturer and are in cardboard boxes of 100.

I've tried to google this info with no luck.

NO!

CDs and DVDs have two vulnerabilities: UV light and HEAT.

Heat will make the plastic of the DVDs deteriortate faster. Pay for storage or lose all you discs....

Ditto.

Might as well take them a landfill....

And, just curious, where the heck did you get that many DVD's?

john
evilgeniusentertainment.com

At my previous employer, we had 10s of thousands of DVDs in uncooled storage space and never got returns form our retailers or distributors because of problems. This in southern California, I should add.

I'm sure heat indeed is probably public enemy number one for optical media, but I suspect it has to be pretty extreme indeed for long lengths of time (years) to be a real factor. There's plenty of warehousing and trucking situations in the supply chain for most DVDs/CDs where temps are outrageous.

I'm a little puzzled by the "might as well take them to a landfill" comment.

Unless you garage is 130 degress plus, 24 hours a day, I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm a little puzzled by the "might as well take them to a landfill" comment.

Well, there's heat and then there's heat. Beyond the possibility (a very real one) that the heat speeds up to dedregation of the data, if it's truly hot, or humid, you could very well warp the disk itself, or any labeling or packaging.

Seems like a big risk to me, esp considering the number of disks here. And I think he wasn't speaking of a warehouse, but rather a pod-style garage, with low ceiling and no air movement. Basically an oven in the much more humid climes of the South...

Just my 2 cents...
john
evilgeniusentertainment.com

hi rick, check this link for some more information

http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/cpa/articles/audiovisual/careofcds.htm


I have stored many cd's in my moms garage(not 30,000) but her garage is under the house, so temp is not a concern. If you have a detached garage, that sits in the sun all day, I would think about.

hope the link helps!

unless your move takes years dont worry about it...

But then again 30k dvds would attract my attention if I was a crook,mother nature seems to watch too,
and do you really want to move them from where they are now, just moving boxs of DVDs for 240$ ?

Random tgought: How much would it cost to install a cheap air conditioner in your garage? It doesn't have to run all the time, just on days when the temps are running high.

If that option can be done for around $500 and you're planning on having the DVDs in storage for more than a couple of months, it might be worth considering, as opposed to $240/month for a storage facility.

However, security of garage storage vs a storage facility may be another matter.

Cheers
Pat

This website may help - http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub121/sec5.html