That’s what seems to be happening with a small group of subscribers who are claiming their discs are arriving with small cracks on the outside edges. They say it’s happening repeatedly. No one is sure what is causing it since the Discs have an extra coating to prevent scratches on Blu-ray.
It could be the automated mail processing machines, manufacturing defects or maybe postal carriers are playing Frisbee. The Mars Box blog experienced this issue back in ‘07, but over the last few months reports are picking up again. It’s too bad the extra costs that customers are paying can’t go toward tougher packaging, but Netflix told Wired the problem is “infinitesimally small” and changing shipping wouldn’t be cost effective.
[Engadget]
TAGS:
Blu-ray, cracked, movies, Netflix, unplayable
Not everyone’s mileage is the same - 1.5 years of essentially nothing but BDs from Netflix. Not a single damaged disc.
It sounds like they need to invest some of that extra money into better packaging, perhaps.
They may have to rethink their packaging.
All 5 inch plastic media, CDs and DVDs and BlueRay, have suffered from design decisions in Packaging that have rarely been remedied. These discs could be damaged before they even are put in Netflix mailers, if they came from the plant in standard packaging. Ever notice a disk rattle or spin around, or had loose plastic teeth from a spindle hub in a package that you have not even purchased yet? Its fairly common.
I think two layers of tyvek envelopes have worked okay for DVDs, but there may have to be more built in shock protection for BluRay if there is more edge brittleness present
Here’s a complaint about cracked disks:
http://www.prc.gov/Docs/62/62952/09-04-23%20GameFly%20complaint.pdf
Got a copy of “Pride and Glory” on Blu-Ray with that exact same scratch on the outside edge, ordered a replacement disc and it too had the same exact scratch on the outside edge of the disc. So obviously it is a problem!!!