Abstract: A system and method for detecting degeneration in an optical media by defining a set of error correction code (ECC) blocks uniformly on an optical media and reading each of the ECC blocks to determine a number of correctable errors for each of the ECC blocks once the optical media is placed into use. The result of the reading of the ECC blocks is stored on the optical media. The reading of the ECC blocks can be a repetitive reading of each of the ECC blocks with the results for each of the ECC blocks averaged. Each ECC block from the set is readout several times and for each ECC block the average number of ECC Corrections is memorized also on disc. Degeneration of the optical should be uniform over the disc. By performing the reading of the ECC blocks over a long period of time, long term degradations of the disc can be determined and an indication made that data on the disc should be copied to another storage device.

Abstract: A virtual title copying system and method that prevents redundant copying of content from a source medium to a destination medium during a copy transaction. Included is a system (24) that determines if a content section to be copied has an associated copy transaction identifier (30) at the source (12) and destination (16) medium; and a system (26) that generates and assigns a new copy transaction identifier to the source and destination medium during the copy transaction if no copy transaction identifier exists at the source and destination medium.