Discs coming filthy, even when brand new?? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Gents,

I am not quite happy that we have to drag terms
like "immigration workers" into this conversation
and blame these problems on a sect of the population
that don't deserve it.

There are a few of us that have toured packaging
plants like Technicolor and were very
impressed with the care that goes into packaging
DVD product. Not only was the cleanliness of the
facility up to the highest standards, but the
workers all wore gloves and protective clothing.

 

[DeeAnn]

I've also had the occasional new scratched or lint-y disk, but the most interesting one I got was X-Men 1.5 (new and sealed) with the data side having a near perfect imprint of the bottom of a tennis shoe.

 

[Jason Adams]

Twice this has happened to me. One, I had bought the Blue James Bond Box Set, and The Spy Who Loved Me had a very fine scratch that was about an inch long. It still plays well. Second was when I bought my copy of Pirates of The Caribbean, there were smudges on my brand new sealed copy. Cleaned it with a little rubbing alcohol and it played fine.

 

[David Von Pein]

Yes...ALL FOUR of my WW discs were scratched (all on side B). Returned that set, and new one was just fine. Very odd I thought.

 

[David Von Pein]

Got me to thinking ..... Anybody know just how many "DVD Replication/Duplication/Packaging" plants exist (in the USA)?

And do any of these facilities have on-line websites (with e-mail addresses available to the public)? Might be kind of nice to be able to go directly to the source of the scratch/fingerprint problem.

I know that Image Entertainment utilizes Shorewood Packaging for some of its DVD packaging. (Well, at least that's who they used for The Dick Van Dyke Show Season 1 and 2 sets.) They do have a Contact link there.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I haven't gotten any discs with scratches or smudges on them, but in my Indiana Jones set, all four of the paper inserts were wrinkled pretty badly. Took it back to get a new set, which was fine.

 

[Jough]

I thought I'd been doing pretty well, as I've never had discs with fingerprints or scratches (unless I got a rattler in the mail).

Today I return from Walmart with "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" which has tiny scratches all over it (although it played okay so far) and "The Simple Life" which has smudges, dirt, and fingerprints on both sides of the disc, and looks like it has been kicked around on the floor.

Lovely.

I hope the packing companies start paying their people better. This disc is so bad someone HAD to have packed it this way on purpose.

Ah well, I'll take it back Tuesday when I go pick up something else. But I'll be sure to unwrap the discs *before* I leave the store next time (after paying for them, of course ).

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I'm wondering if any studio people have seen this thread- it seems odd that these packages would have fingerprints to begin with, let alone such a large number of people seeing this happen...

I'd love for someone to figure out a way to prevent this. I dont recall ever having this issue with a single compact disc out of maybe 2000 I've owned in my lifetime.

-Vince

 

[Jough]

I've never noticed it before on DVDs until recently. Even with other Digipaks they've always been spotless.

I've checked through a bunch of recent acquisitions that I haven't played yet and all but the two discs I bought tonight are fine, even the double-sided Ford Fairlaine from Fox (The Simple Life is also double sided and from Fox and was utterly filthy).

It's hard to pinpoint if this is industry-wide or if someone's sabotaging only a certain packing facility. You can't really tell by the studio label because often discs will be manufactured in one place and packed in another.

 

[nicholas_g]

I have had R2 DVD's being sold as brand new which are obvviouly been returned. I had a x files set that looked someone had just watched the epiodes and returned it. Every disc was plastered in fingerprints.

I can always guarantee to get dirty discs when buying from a shop as they always keep the case and disc separate in cardbaord sleeves. The assistant just gets the discs out and just pushes hard on the centre hub. The sleeves cause scratches and then get more scratches plus fingerprints when put in the case.

I just get DVD's off the net now.

 

[pitchman]

My copy of (factory fresh-still sealed) Green Acres Season One, was also full of fingerprints, smudges and even scratches. It plays fine, but it is pretty bizarre to think that these discs leave the plant this way. One thing I've noticed is that this is much more common with DVD-18 discs. I went through three copies of The West Wing season one trying to find a set that wasn't full of scratched discs and finally just gave up. Is the manufacturing process that much different with DVD-18's? I much prefer the durability of single-sided discs.

Gary

 

[Britton]

Last night my friend and I were watching his brand new copy of Once Upon a Time in Mexico and there were two instances where the disc would freeze for a second and then skip ahead a few seconds. Well, after the movie was done, I took it out and there were a few small scratches and two fingerprints on it!

 

[Jough]

Yeah, the movie played okay for me but the extras skipped a bit.

So I'll be returning both discs. Sigh.

Of course, they could all be like that. I'll go through every copy in the store if I have to.

 

[Jough]

Yeah, the movie played okay for me but the extras skipped a bit.

So I'll be returning both discs. Sigh.

Of course, they could all be like that. I'll go through every copy in the store if I have to.

 

[Bill A]

I've had this problem multiple times, usually with box sets; Friends (S4), Beatles Anthology, Alias (S1). The only time I returned a set was with Friends (two of the discs were horrible), and the next set I got was even worse (on the same two discs). I got the impression that it was the digital version of someone spitting in your food.

 

[Larry P]

I received a couple of discs with fingerprints on them from a well known online discount e-tailer. They were single disc movies from MGM and Universal. They had all of their security labels attatched.

The one wasn't too bad, but the other seems to be imprinted with some kind of grease or bodily fluid.

So, should I tell them about the prints or should I just tell them the discs didn't work?

Thanks

 

[Christian Preischl]

Larry, the same thing happened to me the with Fargo SE (MGM) recently. The fingerprints were so bad that they couldn't be wiped (or even washed) off. It's almost as if they were imprinted on the disc. As a result the disc locks up on the layer change and I had to request a replacement.

Chris