Within the last week, I've bought two Planet Earth BBC Blu-Ray box sets. Both sets, when opened, had discs that were out of their holders and were loose in the box. Upon examination, both sets had scratched discs in the set. This is really frustrating as I've now had to return 1 set to Amazon and 1 set to Borders. Anyone know if this is a widespread problem? Any tips? Is the Discovery Channel version packaged better? Thanks in advance!

It is a known problem that the spindles in the case are lousy and the discs tend to come loose. I'm not sure if the American release is any better, but i suspect not. I don't own the set so I can't speak personally but I vaguely remember checking a couple copies in Fry's (by tipping the box) a few months back and heard several of them had loose discs inside.

I bought this set on HD DVD and had to return it due to a scratched disc, and will try again with Blu-ray after Christmas. Then again, I seem to attract scratched discs and fingerprints. As for tips I guess you could give the box a little shake and listen for rattles, or the discs moving around inside. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'll give it one more shot and shake the box a little first.

Well I found 4 planet earth sets at Sam's Club (the only place they were in stock). 3 of them had horrible rattles so I bought the only one that did not. One disk still has what looks like a very minor superficial scratch. I guess I'll play that one and see if it works OK.

Blu-Ray discs have a hard coating that should prevent minor scratches from affecting play.

The problems occur with cracks especially on rental discs through the mail.

A friend just had a Netflix disc not play due to a crack.

Don't you love the USPS!