Netflix Blu-ray movies showing up cracked and unplayable?
By Richard Lawler 
posted Apr 18th 2009 10:42PM
posted Apr 18th 2009 10:42PM
[Via Hacking Netflix]
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posted Apr 18th 2009 10:42PM
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I got a BluRay movie that wouldn't play a couple weeks ago on the PS3... it's the only BluRay player I have so I couldn't try it on anything else, but the PS3 wouldn't even read that there was a disc in the player. I just sent it back to Netflix oping them to return it.
This happens to me once and a while. When it happens it doesn't even read game discs. All that it takes to fix it though is to restart it. It could be related to the fact that I have it folding 24/7 so it's never shut off or restarted unless something like this happens.
I've received a few unplayable DVDs from Netflix once in awhile. One time I received a DVD totally cracked, but its likely more an issue with the mail carrier. So far I've had no problems with Blu-rays.
Been a subscriber for about 4 weeks now, and no problems. I send mine back in 1-2 days, so I've gone through about 8 or 9 discs so far, about half Blu-Ray.
I just got a blu-ray movie I was waiting two months for yesterday. It was cracked just like in the picture and unplayable.
wow, terrible if someone is waiting for a prono.
very wierd.... i stick a BD from netflix into my PS3 last night and it wouldn't play. pop it out and sure enough there's an inch-long crack along the outer edge and plenty of non-circular scratching all over.
this is the third BD i've gotten from them, and although i doubt that they have anywhere near a 33% fail rate, the coincidental nature of this post makes me believe it's a serious issue (and probably the reason for them jacking up the monthly BD premium fee).
When I got the first Netflix DVD I ever rented, instead of receiving The Terminator, I received Pokémon The Movie. In The Terminator's case...
I've had one damaged disc in the 4 years I've been using Netflix.
My downloaded blu-ray movies are never cracked or unplayable. :)
This is one of the reasons I quite Netflix and Blockbuster. About 50% of the movies I received were unplayable, and some were completely broken in half.
I'm not a Netflix power user or anything, but I've never had a 50% broken/unplayable/etc rate. I've rented probably 10 movies and 9 of them have worked fine.
I don't think it was in any way Netflix's fault in my case. My mailman sucks.
I had this problem too. About 50% of my discs would not play. I soon realized that my PS3 was upside down. It also explained why I thought the system's buttons were so poorly positioned.
Ahaha, that was the most random, unnecessary, lmao comment ever.
"About 50% of the movies I received were unplayable, and some were completely broken in half."
I call shenanigans on that claim... I am a power user (8 out at a time, and I turn around 3 or 4 per day). In the 3+ years I've been a member, I've had to return all of 3 movies.
Funny story on my last return (Star Wars: Clone Wars Vol. 1)... I sent the CRACKED dvd back, and three days later I get the same damn cracked dvd as a replacement. Whoops!
It wasn't just the Netflix movies. When I switched to Blockbuster, the same thing happened. My next door neighbor had the same problem. We have a TERRIBLE mailman, and no matter how much we complain, nothing happens. He also refused to take our outgoing movies, and when we complained about that, we were told that mail carriers take are not required to take outgoing mail, but often do as a "courtesy." If I have a package sent to my house that needs signature validation, it doesn't matter whether I'm home or not because he never bothers knocking on the door. If I know the package is coming, I sit on the front porch, but if I'm not already at the mailbox by the time he gets there, he still just puts the "sorry we missed you" slip in the box.
Also, I assure you we were definitely "Power users." My ex and I both had accounts sent here and as we were both in school at the time (and going through a really lazy phase), we watched about three movies a day together (and he watched more without me).
So if Shenanigans is to be called, I call it on my mailman. Complaining about it made the problem worse: the discs that arrived completely cracked in half were folded in half in my mailbox.
I just quit netflicks for the same reason. Now using redbox and hoping for Blu soon.
Lemme guess: constantly turning down the amorous advances of your mailman?
The Durabis coating is for scratch resistance, not crack resistance.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Anyways imo you can't really put the blame on NetFlix. This is a lose-lose situation.
My favorite possibility, as presented by an AVS forumer: "You do know there was a format war? How do you know that the Blu-ray disc were not deliberately damaged by certain Netflix customers?"
I am going to guess that I know this because they would have to be HD-DVD fans, and therefore would not get B-Ray discs unless they were stupid enough to specifically set up their netflix account to select them and have them shipped to them, even though they did not have a player for them and yet it still took up space on their queue, which they pay for, then carefully crack them in such a way that only the edges are affected. If they were crazy enough to actually come up the the idea of paying money to be able to damage b-ray discs to support a dead format - w/o manufacturer support at this point - then more power to them brother...truly, the man has been fought - by them.
Personally, I have never gotten a B-Ray disc that didn't play from Netflix. Before you claim Sony-fanboy-ism, let me say that I wish I had a single *game* I wanted to play on my PS3 (PS2 Persona games don't count)
@edgore: the previous post seems pretty obviously in the vein of "wouldn't it be funny if" rather than a conspiracy theorist.
I've never had any trouble with them. I wonder if it's limited to certain players?
Thats what you all get for NOT using MONSTER CABLES!
The cables that correct all problems!
And contrary to popular belief MONSTER CABLES DO NOT NOT SUCK!
If your cables are breaking optical discs, you've got bigger problems dude.
and alot of BETTER cables that maybe aren't any more than 99% as good as Monster cables and cost 1/2$ also correct the issues, thanks for playing.
Now THAT is funny.
OMG I MUST BUY MONSTER CABLES NOW!!!!111!
But the question is....Would Dre approve?
oh and +1 for Monster reference :D
clearly the problem is that they've been trying to pump Blu-Ray high definition on non-Monster Cables
everyone knows that will cause the disc to become damaged
Obvious troll is obvious.
@John Willaford
If you're paying half what a monster cable costs for cables, you're paying too much.
No problems over here using Blockbuster.
Whats with that, i thought their packaging was about the same?
Pretty sure i'll have to use Netflix soon anyway.
Owl...!
I have only ever received on cracked disc (DVD, not BluRay) in the three 5 years I have used Netflix, and that includes two overseas deployments.
thats because your dog is so cool
I've rented 50 or more Blu-rays from Netflix and never seen a crack. I have had discs that failed to play, and I looked at the discs, but I didn't know about this problem at the time, so I didn't give the edges an extra once-over.
During the Winter, about half of the Blu-Ray discs I got were cracked like this. Now that it's warmer, I don't see it at all (knock on wood).
I've only received 5 discs from Netflix. So far so good.
I've only had one unplayable disc from netflix in 2 years of renting.
All of my blu-ray's have been fine
I've watched over 50 blu-ray movies, and I haven't had a single issue with cracked discs.
Then again, I use newsgroups, and a popcorn hour to watch them, so that might have something to do with it.
Netflix reported that Blu-ray discs had a higher failure rate than of DVD (or HD DVD) in their Annual Report Filed 02/25/09 for the Period Ending 12/31/08:
"Studios have begun to release films in high definition format on Blu-ray. This new high definition format DVD has higher damage rates
than we currently experience with standard definition DVDs. If we were to see a significant increase in the number of Blu-ray DVDs we ship or an increase in the percentage of Blu-ray DVDs our subscribers take and the damage rates remained higher than standard definition DVDs, our gross margins, profitability and cash flow could be adversely affected. "
Most likely this is because of the hard coating being more brittle and thus more susceptible to cracking during shipment.
That doesn't say it has a higher failure rate than HD-DVD, just than DVD. It says nothing about the failure rate of HD-DVD.
I've only had one that had an issue. I couldn't see anything physically, but it just kept freezing around 10 minutes into the movie. This was on the director's cut version. The theatrical version was fine. The replacement disc worked flawlessly. The customer service with Netflix is one reason why they are successful.
Out of close to one hundred movies, i had one that had a scratch that only effected about 20 seconds of the movie. I've been very satisfied with netflix.
I rented three BluRays from netflix, and two showed up cracked.. 66% cracked so I canceled the bluray part of netflix.
I've had 2 in 16 Blu-Ray disc with issues. 1 stuttered about 2/3 of the way through and wouldn't stop even skipping to the next chapter. The other was very scratched up and wouldn't load.
i've had netflix and bestbuy and NONE out of the 100 DVDs that i had came cracked or unplayable.
i am yet to jump onto the blue-ray wagon