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Author Topic: Rental DVDs Damaged More Than Tapes John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 07-31-2003 02:21 PM                        Interesting article in Video Store Magazine says rental DVD damage costs $50 million per year: http://www.videostoremag.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?article_id=5141 (Original link was posted by Daisy Pommer of WNET-TV on the AMIA list serve.)  |  IP: Logged Elena N. Solovyova Film Handler Posts: 44 From: Voronezh, Russia Registered: Feb 2003 posted 08-01-2003 01:58 AM                     I guess customers are just careless enough to drop disks on the floor. This "damage" can be easily removed by polishing the "glass" side of the disk. (Just my experience with DVD library )  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-01-2003 02:05 AM                        It's not that people are careless. It's that people are stupid. DVDs are easy to damage. People do not realize the care that needs to be taken. Even if they did realize it, it's not their property so why should they be careful? They have the same attitude as morons who break down a print using masking tape and not attaching the correct reel bands. They don't have to deal with it, so it's not their problem.  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 08-01-2003 02:10 AM                     Considering DVD material is damn cheap and that stores like blockbuster have essentially licensing deals, i don't see why great care has to be taken of rental dvds. just replace a defective one with a new one after striking a per rental deal instead of a per dvd deal with the studios.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 08-01-2003 03:15 AM                    man is this ever true. I hate renting DVD's because of this. I tried watching a couple the other day but my player would just stop in certain areas and skip around in others. One thing I notece too is they use those flimsy crappy disc holders like DTS was using before they went back to the good ones.  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-01-2003 04:17 AM                     I agree with Joe. Most people don't put them back into the case when they are finished with the disc. They put them on the coffee table, the top of the dvd player..etc..etc...that's how they get scratched.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 08-01-2003 08:29 PM                        All of the things discussed here are reasons that I do not like to lend CDs and DVDs to people. They just don't take care of them. I keep all my CDs and DVDs in the original cases and the discs are always either in the player/drive, in the case, or being moved from one to the other. I always took care of my vinyl records in the same manner.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-01-2003 11:31 PM                     Pravin, The cost of DVDs may be cheap, but customers still should take care of them instead acting like filthy feces-soiled pigs. I really HATE renting a DVD and having the thing glitch out near the climax of the movie. That involves a trip back to the video store to get another copy (that you don't know for sure is glitch free either) and trying it out again. I want to find the MORON that caused me that inconvenience and slap him with a graphic design bill for $40. $35 is for the hour of MY TIME that he wasted by inconvenicing me. $5 is for the gas money, upkeep on my truck, etc. involved in going to/from the video store. If he asks me for a computer file to go with the design charge, I'll e-mail him an Acrobat PDF file saying "F.U. learn how to handle DVDs!" The only upshot to this is renting a bad movie that isn't worth finishing. I at least have a legitimate reason to get a refund. If I were running a video store, I would at least post some notices to educate people about DVD handling. Too many think it is just like a CD --and many people have horribly stupid habits when it comes to handling CDs. I would probably approach it from a manner of "keep rental prices low by taking care in handling DVDs". Some video stores don't give a shit either. Hastings Books and Video (a regional video chain that serves north Texas and Oklahoma) has a very dumb habit. They put all rental discs in a small, white translucent plastic case designed to hold only one disc. What do they do with the growing number of 2-disc releases? Cram them both into the same single disc container! I've complained repeatedly to them about that nonsense yet they've done nothing to change it. And I find that frustrating because their selection of DVD rentals is far better than that of Hollywood Video or Blockbuster. But whenever a movie has a 2-disc DVD package, I'll choose Blockbuster or Hollywood to rent it. I'm not taking any chances with Hastings anymore on that front.  |  IP: Logged Per Hauberg Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 883 From: Malling, Denmark Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-02-2003 04:30 AM                        quote: Most people don't put them back into the case when they are finished with the disc. They put them on the coffee table, the top of the dvd player..etc..etc...that's how they get scratched. That's just it: In connection to my cinema, I have a small video rental with currently about 1500 VHS, 800 DVD titles. We run a special offer: Take two premiere titles, and get two old ones free - keep them for two days. -Be sure, those four DVDs are mixed in the covers when returned, showing that they are all there, skating around on the cofee-table for two days instead of being put back into the right cover at once, when played. quote: just replace a defective one with a new one Sure, but why ? - Just because "This is not my own DVD, then why treat like it was. It's just a rental, so I'm allowed to put my big fat greased fingers all over it and let the kids play frisbee with it. The Store can just give me a new one next time" So sweet ! Short of story is, that DVDs are not rental-friendly, as long as custumer moral is like it is. One should stay with selling instead of buy them for rental. The stuff is much too fragile for being handled by pigs. p.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-02-2003 01:43 PM                     The DVD format would have failed miserably if the discs were never offered for rent. This is the very reason why the Laserdisc format failed. Who in their right mind wants to buy every movie they watch? I have around 130 DVDs in my collection, all of which I have been purchasing since 1999. The only disc failures I have had were glue layer separation defects in copies of "American Beauty" "The Crow" and "Three Kings". I have lost absolutely none through my own use. This is why I am completely unforgiving when it comes to how people treat rental discs. If I had my way, the video store would check the discs and then bill the damned pigs that screwed up the platter for the cost of the disc's replacement! Kids are one cause that can be attributing to DVD rental disc damage. I've seen the problem play out in front of me as I watched one of my friends allow his kid to badly misuse rented DVDs and X-Box discs, just laying them bare on the carpet. My opinion: parents should not allow young kids to handle DVDs regardless of how cute they might think it is or what the kid may be learning how to do. Nuts to that garbage! Our society is badly neglecting to teach people some of the most basic aspects of having honor. One of those things is "the golden rule": treat others as you wish to be treated. That rule extends to property. I don't break a DVD that is not mine, that is only a disc I rented. I care for it the same way as I care for my own. That also reminds me of a thing that pisses me off at commercial theaters. People (or should I say PIGS) who dump their sodas and popcorn out all over the floor. Would they do that shit in their own living room when watching a movie at home!? Then what the fuck gives them the right to do that at a commerical theater? Assholes!  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 08-02-2003 01:47 PM                     DVDs are priced low enough that I've never had to rent one- anything I care about seeing I buy. Laserdiscs were priced too high to do that- did ANYONE actually pay the $40 retail price for Pauly Shore's "Jury Duty"?  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-04-2003 10:47 AM                        I'm not surprised this is turning out to be more of an issue with digital formats. With analogue - i.e. VHS - minor damage would be visible on the screen, e.g. as dropouts, but it wouldn't stop the tape from playing. With a digital format either you get perfect reproduction or nothing at all. Could this be one of the reasons why the industry seems to be moving toward disposable, self-destruct DVDs? I agree with Pravin - once you've paid for the glass master, the cost of pressing copies is insignificant. All it would take is for the person in the shop to check the data side of each disc for visible scratching upon issue and return, then if the disc is knackered, bin it and stick a new one in the sleeve. When the customer hires a disc, then by taking it out of the shop (s)he accepts that it is scratch free. If upon return it is found to be damaged, I don't see any reason why the shop shouldn't charge the customer a massive fine - many times more than the replacement cost of the disc. That should take care of the problem. However I suppose that time-limited, disposable discs would also eliminate the problem of customers arguing about what condition the disc was in when they rented it.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 08-04-2003 01:45 PM                        I usually listen to a classical music station where most of the programming is broadcast directly off CDs. Several times a week I hear either the stuttering echo of a track (for each rotation of the CD), or a total skip to another section of the disk. Never have had the problem at home with either CDs or DVDs that I OWN and am responsible for.  |  IP: Logged Tao Yue Expert Film Handler Posts: 209 From: Princeton, NJ Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-04-2003 03:02 PM                        But also -- videos are enclosed in a relatively durable plastic cassette. How damage-free would they stay if Mr. Average Consumer had to thread them reel-to-reel? Kind of makes me wish they'd stuck with caddies for DVDs. Of course, this'd cause a problem with DVD-ROM drives, and if you make them easily removable for computer use, then that defeats the point of caddies. Helps prevent piracy, though.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-04-2003 03:37 PM                        I do not rent DVD's from the video store anymore because of this problem. I had rented a copy of "Blade 2" when it came out,from a local store, it almost ruined my DVD player. Thank God for Netflix.com (mentioned in other posts). At least the people that have joined Netflix seem to be more careful when they handle those DVDs -AND- there is no gas wasted for a trip to the store, etc.  |  IP: Logged

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