Broken Rentals

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Permalink Reply by 2McAbre on March 10, 2008 at 8:33am

Your position that all DVDs are manufactured with the exact same ingredients, to the exact same quality, with the exact same tensile strength, and are therefore all the exact same strength just doesn't hold water.

Aspirin by itself is aspirin, but there are dozens of different ingredients added to fill the mix out, all in the name of cost and profitability. Add to that different methods of manufacturing and you get generic aspirins which will degrade and turn to powder faster (cheaper fillers) then name brand aspirins will.

Lacquer is lacquer, though amazingly some "formulas" turn yellow, become brittle and wear off faster then others.

Plastic is plastic, but #'s 1&2 recycle easier the #'s 5&6.

Anime is a limited genre, produced to maximize profitability, there has to be profit for the production studio, for the manufacturer, for the distributor and for the retail outlet. This is why Anime series are broken down into numerous disks with only a "few" episodes on each DVD, instead of creating one dual layer DVD with all episodes on it.

The fact that you don't want to allow for any other explanation other then your own doesn't change the facts. And no I will not waste my time sourcing information for you. If 20 years in the industry dealing with distributors and purchasing merchandise for sale is insufficient "experience" for you, then your's is clearly a lost cause.

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Permalink Reply by manuel on March 13, 2008 at 10:03am

I didn't say all DVDs were manufactured exactly the same. I'm saying given the application (injection molding), the material (low viscosity optical-grade polycarbonate plastic), and a fixed width of 1.2 mm there is little room for tensile strength variance. Polycarbonate (PC) plastic can be categorized by its tensile strength when compared to other plastics such as PVC or ABS. This tensile strength can be measured and assigned a value. Moreover, DVDs use optical grade PC making it even less likely tensile strength would vary. I don't know why you mention recycled plastics. There are hundreds of plastics however we're only discussing one: Polycarbonates. Recycled plastics are not suitable for optical applications such as DVDs. The lacquer or varnish you mention is used only on the label surface of DVDs providing a better printing surface and preventing scratches to the label. While lacquer may protect the label from coming off, I doubt it protects the DVD from snapping in two.

References:

Tensile Property Testing of Plastics

CD and DVD Material Processing

Taking the Mystique out of Polycarbonate

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Permalink Reply by manuel on March 15, 2008 at 6:49am

Minor Correction:

Rewritable DVDs may have a lacquer "hard coat" on the play side to prevent "fingerprints and scratches." This ensures DVD-RWs burn properly.

Reference:
Hard Coats for DVD

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Permalink Reply by 2McAbre on March 10, 2008 at 8:47am

Oh and regarding your ask John bit, first even he says "As far as I know, the physical quality of the plastic disc's that movies are recorded onto is consistent between the anime industry and Hollywood movie industry." (source)

But you didn't refer to other comments:

Soluzar "There really isn't an industry standard. There's a minimum standard, but some companies go above and beyond. I remember that AnimeEigo's disc's always felt thicker and heavier than most." (source)

Quarkboy "The answer is probably yes, anime DVDs are manufactured crappier than your usual hollywood dvd. The reason is simply one of scale. Anime disc print runs are normally around 10,000 or even less, your typical hollywood movie is more like 1,000,000 or more. Basically anime companies farm discs out to the cheapest replicators they can find" (Source)

And so on, heck your own reply supports it!

otakudes "Soluzar, I see your point. I pulled out some of my DVDs and the edges looked different. Some edges looked thin while others looked thick. Also, the thin looking DVDs had a narrow tapered edge and were slightly bigger (by a 1 mm). The thick looking DVDs had a flat edge." (Source)

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Permalink Reply by BitPart on March 10, 2008 at 10:02am

I've had (3) cracked/broken per 150. That's 2%. I don't know if that's good or bad statistically. I know it evokes disappointment not so much that NF screwed me but damn I was looking forward to watching that tonight. Anyway, I do the online report a problem and barring a weekend pinch, they ship a replacement immediately. I guess I'm lucky because a distribution center is in my local region. With each cracked disk though, the envelope always looks like they ran over it with the postal vehicle versus some NF employee just mindlessly sending me a cracked disk. I concur with others. You may want to grab your postmaster by the collar and show that stat sheet you work diligently on. It's a bummer when it happens though.

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Permalink Reply by James Miscavish on March 11, 2008 at 1:43pm

Dude, you realize you can steal movies off the interwebz, right? WTF? leave us alone and go do that

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Permalink Reply by chirsaud on March 14, 2008 at 1:19pm

Yes, broken rentals are frustrating. I've have a few of them with Netflix, but only 3 over the course of something like a thousand rentals. I'm with Chad on this one. I'm no shill for Netflix, but my experience with GreenCine has been far more frustrating - the turnaround time is over a week, and three times in a year they haven't recieved or recorded my movies as having been returned, so I sit and wait and wait and wait and wait. But yes, protecting their discs from bending with the reusable cardboard sleeve seemed like a safer way to ship the discs that Tyvek cant seem to match.

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Permalink Reply by Erica on March 14, 2008 at 2:43pm

Hey, I don't know what all these opther people are talkin about. But I know exactly how you feel. I just recieved my 2nd broken dvd this week. And I am beyond pissed. The last movie I recieved was also broken. I returned it....then had to wait over a week for the replacement. Turned out it was a movie I had already seen under another title....but that's a whole different bitch-fest. So today I finally got "Happiness", which I have been waiting to see for quite a while. It was broken in half. It's certainly not just you. I have recieved many many broken or unplayable discs from netflix. I recieved maybe 5 broken dvds from Blockbuster. I don't know if it is Netflix or the postal service that is to blame. But I'm pretty suprised to hear all these people tell you that you are alone in this. Trust me........I'm about to throw a fit.

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Permalink Reply by Self/Anti-self on March 19, 2008 at 8:26am

i get at least one broken DVD a month. i just got the 3rd disc of deadwood today and its broke in half! argh!

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Permalink Reply by Evil Herbivore on March 14, 2008 at 3:23pm

brokens are a bummer, but please remember NF doesn't send out broken ones.
And if some postal worker ran them thru the sorters instead of manual = big time broken.
mark it as damaged & request replacement.
or call customer service. they'll take care of you eventhough they didn't do it.

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Permalink Reply by Erica on March 14, 2008 at 3:27pm

You're right. Mail sucks. I love netflix.

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Permalink Reply by Aran on March 14, 2008 at 3:32pm

I guess I've gotten lucky, that is one thing I don't have to complain about! I have only had one broken rental in three-ish years, and only two that were glitched and halfway through wouldn't play. It does suck waiting a week for new ones, but they also give you the option of just getting the next one on your list if you want which is good.

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