That’s what I’m assuming. Probabky not rot, rot is almost totally mythical, but damage of some kind. If his PC can copy it then the burn it makes may be more readable than the original.
His bigger issue is that is Playstation’s are dying, as has been said. Playstation’s are garbage. If the PS1 was of even average reliability I might be willing to admit its one of the greatest ever, but the f*ckers fail at a rate that genuinely borders on the impractical.