Scratch factor (1 Viewer)

[Yumbo]

Hi,

For those with both formats and combos, have scratches:

1. Occurred more on one or the other?
2. Affected playback more than the other?
3. Been able to be buffed out on all of them?

Thanks

 

[Kevin Roebuck]

I have not bought into either format yet but have read about people getting severely scratched HD DVD's. I was not too surprised about this as scrathed and scuffed discs with all manner of marking have plagued dvd for years.

I have been more interested in Blu ray because the discs are supposed to have a super hard coating on them that cannot be easily scratched. I also would like to know what condition the Blu ray discs are arriving in.

When I read that someone has bought the Mission Impossible HD DVD set and all the discs are severely scratched ...........they can keep that format...I'm over paying for damaged unsalable goods. If Blu ray can't get well mastered discs out (I keep reading that some scenes are very soft and some are sharp and some have lots of digital noise) and or the discs are scratched, they can keep that format too.

 

[AaronSCH]

Someone else had stated similar problems in another thread. I checked a few because I wanted to make sure that they would be ebay friendly should they meet that fate. Well, all 38 of my opened HD DVDs are scratch free and not even the slightest rub mark or smudge. I will probably start inspecting all my discs upon purchase. The only time I experienced scratched SD DVDs was when I discovered they had been dislodged from the spindle. This must be just a very few isolated problems and not widespread. Thirty-eight out of eighty-seven is a pretty good sampling.

 

[Cees Alons]

First they believed that the Blu-ray discs should be in a caddy. But that appeared to make them too expensive and inconvenient, as compared to HD DVDs.

The 'super hard coating' that was proposed after that, was dropped, as far as I know, because of problems with the manufacturing process.

So, to the very best of my knowledge, they won't have it.


Cees

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Only one high-def disc in over a hundred I've received from Amazon.com via UPS delivery, was dislodged from the spindle and that was "X-Men: the Last Stand (Blu-ray). Opened the package immediately to examine the disc and to my surprise, it had a pristine shiny mirror finish.

Every SD DVD I've purchased in the past that was dislodged from its case, had some kind of mark that would make me want to test it for playablility.

Paul

 

[Yumbo]

Rental scratches that is...anyone?

 

[Chris S]

I had some software/freeware(?) on my laptop at one point that would run through a SD disc to check for errors but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called...? Anyone know what I'm referring too?

Wouldn't really help with HD discs but was still good for SD material. It was quite helpful when I got loose discs in the mail and didn't have time to watch them before I had to decide if they needed to be exchanged.

 

[Jeff(R)]

I don't know what brand of coating it is, but Buena Vista mentioned it in their press release on November 14:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=245791

 

[Grant H]

TDK was supposed to be the one behind the BD anti-scratch coating. On the format's initial launch, there were rumors that there were problems with it, but I never heard it was being "scratched" altogether.

Perhaps they got it working in time for the BV releases. There was talk some of the early single-layer discs only allowed 20 GB. I think the word at the time might have been the scratch layer was prventing reading of the discs' outer edges. So there may be some 20GB discs out there with the layer and some discs that use full capacity without. But I'm just going by memory and conjecture.

I certainly hope the protective layer will be here to stay.

 

[JackKay]

I may be wrong but I believe Blu-ray data must be far more closer to the surface than HD-DVD. If scratching is going to be a problem we may not hear about it for a little while. I would be more worried about Blu-ray. Disney titles (a Blu-ray exclusive) might have more kids wear and tear than other titles. Maybe Netflex disks will tell the real story, as I have heard they get the test of abuse we would not put on our own disks.