I got Planet Earth in from Amazon yesterday and I groaned when I grabbed the package since I could clearly hear at least one loose disc rattling around. The last HD DVD I ordered, Deer Hunter, was also loose in it's case.
But to my great suprise, in both cases there was nary a scratch on either disc.
OTOH, everytime I've had a loose sd DVD and opened it up, the thing has been scratched to hell. I don't know if it if the low profile cases, with less room to move around, or some coating intrinsic to the discs, but I'm delighted so far.

has this been consistent with others experience or have I just been very lucky?

My copy of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the first floater I received. It had 1 light scratch towards the center of the disc. It played fine so the scratched caused no problems. I certainly have received floater DVDs that were scratched more significantly. From what I understand about the manufacturing process the materials used in DVDs and HD DVDS are nearly identical. So I think our good experiences have more to do with the package design then the density of the surface. But I rent lots of discs and often they are scratched heavily and play fine. So the durability of HD DVDs has been understated.

I got The Pianist HD DVD imported from the UK last week. Somebody with a big foot clearly stepped on the package and cracked one of the retaining clips for the disc, so it was loose and all over the place like a Las Vegas hooker. The disc wasn't scratched at all however and played perfectly fine. :)

I just wish I could buy another case like that as a replacement. This import was a little thicker than American HD DVD cases.

My smallville set via amazon had a lose disc 1 but all eps played flawless...

Planet Earth received from WB had 1 floater, the last disc. Examined it closely and did not find a scratch.

alinski...

Usually a second flush does the trick.

^LMAO!! :D

I just got my copy of Planet Earth this afternoon, first time I've experienced a loose disc, but two of the 4 discs were floating free when I opened it, luckily no scratches, but still, $70 spent - coulda been an "awe sh!t, have to go back in and exchange it" moment for nothing. =/

My copy of "Planet Earth" from Amazon had a "floater", the first disc.

It played ok though and snapped right back into place.

a lot of the hd-dvd cases are pure crap

they have little to no "grip" on the discs at all.

I am currently awaiting my 3rd planet earth set, and waiting to see if this one is buggered too.

I must have had about 50% of them that arrived loose and scratched up.

Makes me wish hd-dvd's had a hard coating like blu rays (and yes, bla bla I know blu rays data is closer to the surface) :(

haven't had a floater yet for any of my HD DVDs

My Corpse Bride HD DVD was a floater. It had the worst deep scratches I have ever seen (towards the center). It looked pretty much destroyed. I threw it into the xbox addon and to my surprise it was playing flawless. No problems during the movie or the extras.

Yeah, my copy of Planet Earth had the ole' disc 1 floater. Looked kind of messed up. played ok so far, but I was definitely not happy.

2-3 so far. I always get nervous when I order a combo disc online because both sides can get damaged.

I haven't had a problem with floaters with HD yet. I've had a few with SD DVDs, that looked like cat toys, but they all play fine.
J