self-destructing DVDs from the early 2000s

Hi! My name is Kirill, I am the head of special projects at MTS Digital.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by spy movies and TV shows. And of course, spy high-tech gadgets and vehicles. From the incredibly cool boat from the series “Thunder in Paradise” to the exploding pen designed by Q for agent 007. They often featured special disposable information carriers: a note would ignite after being read, and an audio cassette would start smoking, irreversibly destroying the magnetic tape.

It turns out that such things were not only used by secret agents, but also by private companies. One of them, Flexplay Technologies, even issued patents to all conceivable and inconceivable ways of self-destruction of optical disks. It all started when two scientists studying the impact of information technology on the economy decided to create their own DRM protection for DVDs that worked on the physical level. More under the cut.

It all started with an idea

Optical media are not going through the best of times. Modern computers have not been equipped with the appropriate drives for a long time, and most content is distributed using digital distribution. But just 20 years ago, DVDs were more than popular in our country. I remember that glorious time when you could go to a video rental kiosk and buy discs for a modest amount of money to spend the weekend watching movies.

The main problem was that the discs had to be returned to get the deposit back. For a missed return deadline or for accidentally scratching a disc, you had to pay a fine. Most video rental shops of that time worked according to this scheme. One could get the impression that it was the need to return the discs that reduced the income of this business. So, some innovative idea was needed.

The idea could be formulated as follows: the recorded discs should become unreadable a couple of days after the package was opened. It was important that this process be controlled — that is, it was impossible to allow the discs to fail while they were stored in a warehouse or on the counter. The method being developed should also not have a strong impact on the cost of production, since “disposable” discs would be cheaper than regular ones. In addition, they should be competitive in price with video rentals, where discs were rented for 1–2 days.

After many experiments and studies The eZ-D disc format appeared. Its special feature was a red working surface. Such discs were sold in completely sealed packaging and after opening could only be played for 48 hours. Then the working surface would irreversibly turn black, and the disc would turn into a useless round piece of plastic.

The first film released on Flexplay was the Christmas film Noel:

Full compatibility with all DVD players was claimed, but there was no DVD logo on these discs. And the cost of the discs in retail stores ranged from $4.99 to $6.99.

How it worked

DVDs can be compared to a sandwich. Between a pair of polycarbonate or acrylic discs there is a special reflective layer of metal – for example, aluminum or silver. The layers were glued together using a polymer resin, which freely passed the laser beam, allowing it to read the information contained in the reflective layer. A special dye (leuco compound) was added to this polymer resin, for example, methylene blue, reduced by sodium dithionite. Initially, it is transparent, but under the influence of oxygen, its color changes to black.

The black color of the dye would not have prevented eZ-D discs from being read by blue lasers, so a red backing was chosen instead of a transparent plastic backing. Therefore, eZ-D discs could boast a rich red color of the working side. However, no special results could be achieved with the storage period. The maximum guaranteed storage period is exactly one year. Then, even in unopened packaging, the disc degraded.

New disk – straight to the trash

“But what about the environment?” you ask. “Were used discs really just supposed to be thrown away?”

The answer here is twofold — yes and no. Indeed, the used disk could be thrown into the trash, and that’s it. But there was another option. In order not to provoke environmentalists, Flexplay Technologies collaborated with one of the oldest companies in the US for the disposal of technological waste — GreenDiskSurprisingly, this company is still alive and operating for over 30 years.

Flexplay offered the opportunity for any buyer of an eZ-D disc to send it in for recycling free of charge, with all postage paid. The buyer filled out form on the site, where you entered your details and UPC codes of the discs you were sending for recycling, and in return you received a special pre-paid label that covered the postage. You could send up to five discs at a time, and it was a really great idea… If it didn’t contradict the very concept of No Return DVD.

Despite the fact that Flexplay was not about ecology but about profit, it made a significant contribution to ecology. The need to recycle large quantities of optical discs led to the creation of the first closed-loop recycling technology at that time. The polycarbonate from which the disc substrate was made could be recycled and used again for disc production, albeit with certain reservations. So Flexplay was still criticized for its ecology.

By the way, Flexplay was not the only company that developed disposable DVDs. Similar developments were carried out by the German FDD Technologies AG, which created the DVD-D format. They did not provide an official decoding, so everyone could translate it in their own way – for example, DVD-Disposable, DVD-Destruct or DVD-Destroy. This format did not survive to mass production.

There was also a company called SpectraDisc Corporation, which, like Flexplay Technologies, registered a number of patents on methods for creating disposable discs. The latter had no choice but to buy out SpectraDisc Corporation along with all its patented technologies.

Why didn't it take off?

Flexplay Technologies had a lot of cards up its sleeve. The first was its partnership with Disney Buena Vista Home Entertainment (now Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment). This company was most interested in increasing its reach and was betting on the new format. The second card was technical implementation, which was assisted by GE Plastics, a division of General Electric. They helped to set up the production of a polymer resin that met all the stated requirements. The third card was recycling with the GreenDisk, which we mentioned above.

The new format was talked about on TV and radio. It was written about in magazines, and in addition to the US, it was launched in Japan. But all efforts went to waste, and the eZ-D format failed miserably. But what was the reason? It turned out that this product was not at all what buyers expected. A big role in this was played by the fact that many people had formed a clear conviction: when buying a licensed disc, they buy the content itself. But in fact, this is a false conviction.

When you buy a licensed medium, you actually acquire a limited right (license) to use the content recorded on it. This right could be to watch a movie an unlimited number of times, for example, at home for your own pleasure. You cannot take this disc and show the content in a movie theater or put it on the Internet. All this would be a violation of the limited license. But as long as the medium is in working order, you can watch the movie over and over again until you get tired of it.

Flexplay with its eZ-D format was actually trying to sell the same content license, but strictly limited in time. This allowed them to pay significantly lower royalties to film studios, and therefore significantly reduce the cost of discs. But the opinion had already become firmly rooted in the mass consciousness – “I bought a disc with a film, which means I can and will watch it as many times as I want.” Discs that can be watched for only two days after opening caused cognitive dissonance, and this was the main reason why they did not find their buyer.

Additional reasons were that Netflix had already appeared, which for $10 a month allowed you to enjoy a lot of movies without leaving your home, and companies like Redbox appeared on the video rental market, actively installing special vending machines that allowed you to take and return a DVD or Blu-ray disc in almost any large shopping center or airport. And the cost of renting such discs was already much lower than buying a Flexplay disc ($1.75 for a DVD or $2 for a Blu-ray versus $4.99 for an eZ-D).

What's the bottom line?

Despite the fact that humanity uses many disposable products, DVDs have not become one. Perhaps this is good, because tens of thousands of tons of polycarbonate did not turn into garbage. Now the DVD format has become a thing of the past, giving way to streaming services that seem more environmentally friendly and accessible to users. Just recently we published an article about Sony closing its CD, DVD and even Blu-ray disc manufacturing plant.

We are likely to see a future where every movie or game will be available exclusively through a subscription model, and physical content will disappear as a class. Time will tell!