Exactly as the title states. The LD title in question is the 1995 CAV box set of Thunderball. The audio is very clear until about halfway through a side. Then some light crackles start to creep into the background. This gradually increases so that nearly any noise is covered completely by this really overbearing crackling. And it happens on every side. By the time a CAV side is up, the noise has become unbearable.

At first I thought it might be improper wiring on my part in the speaker connections. Rewired all of them-still bad. Changed audio cables-still bad. Tried headphones directly into the LD player-and still bad. I've never had this particular issue happen on any of my other discs with this player. I stopped the movie and checked some other discs to make sure it wasn't my player being faulty, but everything else still plays just fine.

I checked the condition of the discs and they appear spotless. No glue residue on the edge at all. Is this a form of laser rot? A quick google search said something about the laser getting weak and being unable to read the audio.