Ok, I am getting a little upset here. The last two Blu-ray discs I have recieved from Netflix have been damaged and unplayable. Both of them have the same problem, a small crack formed on the edge of the disc. I live in CT and it has been pretty cold here in the for the last week or so (mid teens - near zero at night) and I am wondering if it is having an effect on the discs, making them brittle or something. The regular dvd's I have got in the same time frame are fine. Any body else experience this?

I'm guessing that has more to do with shipping abuse than the cold. Some people were complaining about cracked rental discs weeks ago, and I don't think they lived in CT.

Interesting. There were some on here (Amir from MSFT) that speculated that there could be problems with BD discs specifically because of the anti-scratch coating on them.

It was a looong time ago but it was some theory about the expansion behavior of the disc substrate and the layers on top of it. I can't recall if it was related to spin-coating or the hard-coat or what. But he was theorizing that extreme temperates might cause a disc to split laterally between the layers.

I wouldn't want to start a panic or anything, but this is the first opportunity anyone has had outside of a laboratory to see what happens if a BD disc is left in -30-degree weather for a few days, since the format just launched last summer, this is the first winter its 'weathered'.

I hope that's not the case. I sort of doubt it and I think fa8362 is correct, but it was interesting to recall this thread for months ago...

That's funny, the only time I got a cracked Blu-ray disc it too was a small crack at the very edge. I've had a few cracked DVDs during my years with NetFlix but they've always been either cracked all the way and scratched to hell or cracked from the center area.

Do you remember if it was cold outside when you recieved the scratched disc? Don't know if the climate has any impact but I have recieved about 8 discs previously with no problem and then all of a sudden two in a row cracked just when it stared to get below freezing......strange coinidence. If it is a shipping abuse problem it may also be a cause for concern with the Blu-ray media because I have never experienced it with regular dvd's. Like the other poster said...they are either completly cracked down the middle or scratched to hell.

I brought up this issue a week ago and got no responses. Good to know that I'm not the only one having problems (2 out of 15 with cracks). I was able to play the movies on both, one had problems with the extras. I suppose it could be related to the cold, but I don't quite know how you end up with an edge crack. I was wondering if with the PS3 slot, people were lifting up on the disc rather than pulling it out? It is quite possible that this would lead to edge cracks.

Do you remember if it was cold outside when you recieved the scratched disc?

Yeah it was cold, not sure if it has anything to do with it but you never know.

FYI....here is what the crack looks like.

We've had sub freezing temps the past week here in Cleveland.
This week I received two BD from Netflix with no problems.

I'm expecting 2 or 3 new movies next week. It's predicted to be even
colder --- under 20 degrees.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

If it's damaged,return it. pointless making a thread complaining about it...your complaining to deaf ears.

I've been receiving discs in the below zero and single digit temps for the past month and they all have been fine so I don't think temperature has anything to do with it. It isn't like the Netflix envelopes are at all rugged.

FYI....here is what the crack looks like.
Hmm, that definitely looks like an issue with the protective coating used to protect the data layer. Does the crack go all the way through to the other side, or is it only in the protective layer?

FYI....here is what the crack looks like.

Dude, that's exactly what happened to me, same exact crack.

If it's damaged,return it. pointless making a thread complaining about it...your complaining to deaf ears.

We're trying to see if it's an issue with Blu-ray discs and possibly cold weather or some other unknown issue related to the coating/structure.

That's funny, the only time I got a cracked Blu-ray disc it too was a small crack at the very edge. I've had a few cracked DVDs during my years with NetFlix but they've always been either cracked all the way and scratched to hell or cracked from the center area.I received a few BD from BB with small chips on the edge...but they played fine.

Interesting. There were some on here (Amir from MSFT) that speculated that there could be problems with BD discs specifically because of the anti-scratch coating on them.

It was a looong time ago but it was some theory about the expansion behavior of the disc substrate and the layers on top of it. I can't recall if it was related to spin-coating or the hard-coat or what. But he was theorizing that extreme temperates might cause a disc to split laterally between the layers.

I wouldn't want to start a panic or anything, but this is the first opportunity anyone has had outside of a laboratory to see what happens if a BD disc is left in -30-degree weather for a few days, since the format just launched last summer, this is the first winter its 'weathered'.

I hope that's not the case. I sort of doubt it and I think fa8362 is correct, but it was interesting to recall this thread for months ago...

I remember Amir saying this. Basically he said the only fix would be to coat both layers as it would contract/expand evenly. Otherwise the disc is under stress. Lets also remember how the post office processes mail. They zip them through single file and they can get damaged by that process as well. I've had a DVD or two from Netflix with that break, so its not necessarily inherent to BD.

FooChan: no offence but you are in Texas. You don't know what cold means. A cold day down there is a nice spring or fall day in many other places.
(for example last week a few days were in the -30C or -20F range)
------

I think what people should do (if they are really interested in finding out the problem) is

---- identify title/disk to make sure it is not the same one being reshipped
post title
post the serial code on inside ring of disk (don't know if it is unique or not)
post received and sent back date

---- look at environmental reasons
post the temperature
post humidity

---- any thing else that people think might be a reason

PS Netflix is not available here, but is there a way of telling them a disk is diffective and if so have people done that?

FooChan: no offence but you are in Texas. You don't know what cold means.

Well, the Blu-ray discs don't magically materialize in my mailbox. :rolleyes: When I got my cracked Blu-ray disc there was a nationwide chill, the disc was shipped from out of state. That means it was cold during its whole journey to my house, and when it got to my house it was in the low 30's outside waiting around until I went out to get it. So the bottom line is that cold temperatures could still be the problem.

Hmm, that definitely looks like an issue with the protective coating used to protect the data layer. Does the crack go all the way through to the other side, or is it only in the protective layer?


The crack was only on the protective layer in both cases.

The two movies that had this problem so far were Talladega Nights and Little Man.

Well, the Blu-ray discs don't magically materialize in my mailbox. When I got my cracked Blu-ray disc there was a nationwide chill, the disc was shipped from out of state. That means it was cold during its whole journey to my house, and when it got to my house it was in the low 30's outside waiting around until I went out to get it. So the bottom line is that cold temperatures could still be the problem.


cold is relative, that was my point for you low 30's is cold for me it would be an extremely welcomed hot day for this time of the year

If a movie is shipped to Vermont (same temp as here) it would be in the cold just as much as if it went to Texas except there could be a 50 degrees difference in what cold means. Do you think the disk coating realizes that it went to Texas and so it cracks at 30 deg while if it is going to colder climates it will wait for 0 or -20?

UserX was talking 0 you 30 me -20. Did userX have issues when it was 30s in CT?

I know they need to ship and that would be some good info to add (shipping address of Netflix). My point is that just saying "there is a cold snap" has 0 information in determening what caused the crack (even if it is temp related)

I got my Bikini Destination BD from Netflix and it was in the 20s on a bitterly cold Pennsylvania day. The BD was in the mailbox for several hours before being brought inside.

And, thankfully, there was no damage. :D

Perhaps the BDA should have listened a bit harder to GE back in 2003. And 2004. And 2005. And 2006. ;)

Water, water, everywhere...

So do these cracks prevent the disc from loading up?
Maybe I'm mistaken but don't the discs start at the inner portion of the disc and play out to the edges?

I have seen these cracks on SD dvd from nflix before, but all of the discs worked properly.

Both discs with these cracks would not play via the PS3

I had this exact same problem with two disks. (Invincible and I forget the other). It was pretty warm when they both arrived so I doubt it was temprature related.

Thankfully the last two have arrived in working order.

I had this exact same problem with two disks. (Invincible and I forget the other). It was pretty warm when they both arrived so I doubt it was temprature related.

I wish I had a cheapo Blu-ray disc so I could do a drop test on its edge. Maybe they're susceptible to chipping when force is applied directly to the edges (as would happen in transit).

I hope everyone getting a bad disk is notifying Netflix and marking the disk unplayable. I actually write with a marker on the sleeve what the problem is. So far I have not received a cracked Blu-ray.

The last BD that was received from Netflix had two of the corners folded back on itself. This would create a small ridge and with enough pressure could conceivably crack a disc. Fortunately the disc was not damaged.

If anyone has a strain gauge and small press they could do some scientific experiments on CD, DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD to see how they react to various pressures.

How many of you would ship your disc via USPS in the same type sleeve that Netflix uses?

I would have thought Netflix would have used a thin cardboard sleeve. May be the increased postage would not make it worthwhile.

I just received, from Netflix, a SD DVD with a crack in it. It still played but got hung up in one spot. If I hit FF, it would skip past the spot and continue playing.

I had the same exact crack as well from a Netflix Blu-ray.

Received a HD-DVD with the same type of crack on it. Got an error message, cleaned the disk and was able to finish the movie. All my blu-ray queued movies have a long wait next to them.

Norm

I just cancelled my netflix account. To hell with netflix.

Could very well be the USPS. I have Netflix with regular DVD's....so far no problems, but I'm amazed there isn't more damage considering they ship in what's essentially a plain paper-type envelop. No protection whatsoever.

My real concern will be if I get a hi-def disc format......what will be the availability of these rentals thru Netflix?

Got that same crack on Superman II from Netflix too, but was mostly watchable.

Gamefly uses a cardboard insert to protect their disks, netflix should do this.

Out of the about 300 disks I have rented from Netflix, only 3 have been broken.

I have a blockbuster online account and I just got a cracked blu-ray movie from the as well.

If it's damaged,return it. pointless making a thread complaining about it...your complaining to deaf ears.
Having a bad day, are we? :rolleyes:

Seriously, we need this kind of input to see if there is a systemic problem here. If the disks can't survive the normal shipping process Netfilx and BB are in trouble down the road, or shipping costs are going up.

I just cancelled my netflix account. To hell with netflix.
NeFlix is not cracking your disks, they are being cracked in the mail or by customers who crack them and ship them back without notifying NetFlix. It probably won't be any better with any other mail order rental.

I've been a NetFlix customer since 2000 and rarely get a cracked SD DVD. All you have to do is...

- Go to your Queue page
- Click "Report shipping problem"
- Click "Report Problem" next to the problem disc
- Check "The DVD arrived damaged..."
- Indicate that you want a replacement for the same movie

They will ship you another copy of the disc the next business day if it is available, you don't have to wait until they receive the returned cracked disc.

I would recommend opening and inspecting all discs as soon as you receive them. It's really frustrating to leave it sitting around for several days then find out it's cracked when you finally sit down to watch it. I would also recommend against trying to play any cracked disc, especially if it's cracked all the way through. If it comes apart in your expensive Blu-ray player it could do some serious damage.

I rent only HD DVDs from Netflix presently and have not seen this particular problem. But a few of them are really scratched up.

One reason I wanted to use the rental service is to see how much damage it takes to make the player misbehave. Many scratched discs play just fine but others will cause the player to hang up.

My bet is the postal service is causing the damage with some sort of machine that processes mail. It might be helpful to know where the damaged discs are being mailed from. This could be the result of one malfunctioning postal sorting machine.

I always report damaged discs to Netflix on line. As a previous poster pointed out they have a very easy method for doing that. I just wonder if they actually toss the bad one in the trash or not.

It is interesting to note that one of the categories when reporting damage is "cracked disc" or something to that affect. I thought that was peculiar until I read this thread.

-Byrd

I seen my first cracked BD from Netflix, it was Flyboys. Outer edge had small crack. Toward the end of the movie where they take down the German zeppelin the picture froze. Ejected it and cleaned the disc and noticed the crack. It played fine than another stutter but didn't freeze.

Guess I've been lucky so far. I've received 20 to 30 BD discs from Netflix and every one of them played perfectly. I'm in Ohio so it gets pretty cold here. Actually every one of the discs I received look like new with maybe a finger print or two on them that can easily be cleaned. Now regular DVD's are another story.

Got my first cracked BD from Netlfix on friday.

When I rented X:3 awhile back, it was cracked as well. It looked just like the picture that was posted. I'm wondering if it's an issue with the BD discs themselves (spontaneous cracking due to cold or a flaw in manufacturing, or something else), or if these discs are being abused in the mail, and the hard coat is actually keeping the disc from cracking further. Not that it matters, because the damaged discs wont play! :(

And I sure wouldn't cancel my Netflix account because of this, it's definitely not their fault!

Just remember that blu-ray is a relatively new and unproven format.

Nobody knows how much abuse the discs can stand in the long run yet.
I remember that a lot of scientific tests where done on DVD/-R/RW regarding data integrity and age. Anyone know about similar tests for Blu-Ray?

After reading this thread this morning, I was getting ready to mail back a Netflix DVD (an HD-DVD, not a BD), and I noticed this small rip in the mailer. It looks like it was done by a machine either at the Post Office or at Netflix.

This would be my guess as to what we are seeing here...

http://www.crocker.com/~bclews/rip1.jpg
http://www.crocker.com/~bclews/rip2.jpg
http://www.crocker.com/~bclews/rip3.jpg