James Delahunty
19 Apr 2009 18:58
Subscribers of Netflix' online DVD/Blu-ray rental service have been complaining about receiving damaged or cracked discs from the company. "Over the last two months, we've had probably four to six Blu-ray discs in a row arrive with small cracks at the edge of the disc that render it unplayable," says Pete Brown, whose wife has been a Netflix subscriber for three years.
Blu-ray is structured significantly different to DVD in that DVD is comprised of two 0.6mm thick polycarbonate discs with the data recorded to a thin metal substrate in between, while Blu-ray is a single 1.1mm polycarbonate disc with the data recorded at the top, and protected by a 0.1mm coating. The Blu-ray discs circulated by Netflix may be more affected by the process than DVDs, and you have to remember Blu-ray is still a very young format.
"The coating is supposed to protect the discs but it could also be making them more brittle," says Adrienne Downey, senior analyst at research firm Semico. "Ultimately Blu-ray is a new technology and they are still working the kinks out of it." The problem can't just come down to the discs however, as BlockBuster customers don't complain about damaged Blu-ray titles as much.
For Pete Brown and his wife, the experience has been particularly bad. They added Babel to their queue and received a cracked disc. Upon receiving a replacement disc of the same movie, they checked and found that it was also damaged. To make it worse, the same thing happened the third time too. "At a point, my wife was like, maybe they are sending us same thing to us over and over again," said Brown.
Back in 2007 there were similar complaints about damaged discs being made on forums, now it appears a new wave of complaints are surfacing around Blu-ray titles, particularly (but not limited to) older Blu-ray discs. Netflix is playing down the problem however. "Our percentage of Blu-ray disks that members receive that are not playable is a fraction of a percent," Steve Swasey, Netflix's vice-president of corporate communications, said.
He added: "It could be in the specific (Netflix) hub that ships them or it could be in the postal carrier or it could be the ways these subscribers are handling it." Some customers have reported that they were encouraged by Netflix to complain to their USPS for the cracked discs. Whatever the problem is, it should be addressed ASAP by Netflix, considering the company plans to push up prices for Blu-ray rentals.