Hey guys, I'm new here but I've been reading you guys for a while now. Awesome bunch of experts you are and now I was hoping you could help me with an odd issue I just discovered on 2 of my Blu-ray discs. To make a long story short, last year I decided to do away with all my DVD cases on store my collection of discs in binders, made by Case Logic (which I love), which I store in a cool, dry place. The first 2 Blu-ray movies I bought were Ironman and The Incredible Hulk (bought them both in the fall of 2008), and so stored them along with the others in one of my binders. In these binders I use storage pages made by Case Logic also, which can each hold 4 discs on one side and 2 inserts on the other. The side which holds the discs has some sort of waffle-like texture and to my great surprise (and disgust), it seems as if it "stamped" itself on the top part (not the whole disc) of each of the Blu-ray disc, making them unreadable in my player. They used to work fine when I first bought them, and all my other Blu-ray titles play just fine (all others are kept in the original cases), but those that have this sort of transparent stamp have become completely unreadable. I was successful in playing Ironman once last night after many many tries, but then it started to freeze at around chapter 5 and was totally unplayable from then on. I tried to clean the discs using soap and water, and then I even tried that Monster stuff for monitors, but I just can't seem to clean that darn stamp off! The discs are now extremely clean, but the stamp is still there. Is my only option now to try to buff the discs using a machine or is there another way? Hope you guys can help. It's a good thing I didn't store all my Blu-ray discs using those storage pages... BTW all my other DVDs and HD-DVDs are fine--no stamps whatsoever. Blu-rays seem the only ones affected by this.

That sucks dude.

I'm not sure I would recommend, but found this old thread from 2007 on another forum discussing ways to get sticker residue off of a DVD (have no idea if any of these work or what they would do to a Blu-Ray). Everything from lighter fluid to rubbing alcohol to Goo-Gone to corn starch.....

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f52/way-fix-glue-damaged-dvd-202615/

Maybe someone else has better ideas. Good luck....whatever you decide, try it on a spare first if you can.

I would not recommend buffing the discs. Blu-ray discs have a special, thin, scratch-resistant coating which would probably get buffed off, exposing the discs to scratching. The problem is that the layer that contains the information (i.e., the microscopic pits) is much closer to the surface than is the case with standard DVD's and HD-DVD's. For this reason, early versions of the format actually used a caddy or case to protect the sensitive discs. The hard coating makes this unnecessary.

As a last resort, you might try eyeglass cleaning solution, but at this point, I don't hold out much hope. The discs are probably ruined. This should be a lesson to all of us!

I'll write to Case Logic and see what they have to say about this. After all, it is the material they use that did this, even though the fragility of the BD is also to blame. I'll let you guys know the outcome.

P.S.: I just tried something...I put 2 Blu-ray discs together (data against data) and they are much harder to separate than 2 HD-DVDs or regular DVDs (which both slide easily off of each other). Which could explain why Blu-rays are more sensitive to anything touching their data side.

Wow. Thanks for the warning. Sounds like some kind of chemical reaction btw the Case Logic material and the Blu-ray disc surface. Definitely call Case Logic and complain. Perhaps some kind of residue on their product reacted with the disc. They owe you some compenation for that for sure!

are they closer to the front of the case or the middle or end? i'm wondering if the pressure is too much...

are they closer to the front of the case or the middle or end? i'm wondering if the pressure is too much...

That's the funny thing : there isn't much pressure on the discs to begin with because the particular binder that holds these 2 Blu-ray titles is almost empty. There was was some external pressure because other binders were on top of it, but from the looks of it the inside of the binder itself didn't seem too "pressed".

I'll look into this issue further (including trying to salvage these 2 discs) and keep you guys informed. Thanks to everyone.

only thing I can add is try using Plastix plastic cleaner for auto. it will be in the auto dept of a store. it works very well for CDs,DVDs as well. it will say CDs on the back as well. I've used it to get resdue of my cellphone as well as some DVDs.

but hopfully case logic will send you a giftcard or something to replace those discs.

Does it look like it is a chemical reaction rather than a residue ?

Art

Does it look like it is a chemical reaction rather than a residue ?

Art

Well I'm no expert but it definitely looks like a chem reaction to me. And let me repeat : it happened on the only 2 Blu-ray discs I had among the 200+ titles I keep in these binders.