Thread: Has anybody here received NEW defective music CD's. DVD movies or Blu-ray disc movies right out of the box?

Defects right out of the factory-sealed box might included contaminated or dirty playing surfaces, scratches and performance issues like skips, audio cutout and/or picture freezes.

My new five-disc Planet of the Apes (20th Century Fox/APJAC Produictions) legacy collection of BD's had such shortcomings and have to be turned to amazon.com for that reason.

I gave this $99.00 product a one-star review on amazon and this is what I wrote as follows:

" At least two of the discs froze during movie playback. Three discs had residue like greasy smudges on the playing surface right ot of the box. One disc with residue was able to be corrected from playback freezing performance by using an optical disc wet cleaner by Phillips. Another disc had a small circular impression on the playing surface that was not able to be cleaned off to correct playback freeze-up. So, the whole set of five movies must be returned. These commercially-sold BD movies are much too expensive to have any such defects and failures from the manufacturer."

This is my first-ever experience with commericlaly-produced BD movies but I have had experience with the DVD format since 2006. It is apparent to me now that Blu-ray is much less tolerant than DVD for even the most petty imperfections on the playing surface. I have some old DVD movies that don't skip a beat during playback even with considerable small nicks and scratches (haze) on the surface.

I'm hoping that commercial full-feature movie titles will be soon produced on USB memory sticks in a high-fidelity/ultra-high-definition digital file format that is totally lossless as an alternative to optical disc media, which is prone to malfunction. You can't accidentally "scratch" a digital media file.

Like any other manufacturing of anything, there is always a level of quality issues. Unless a company is ISO9000 like, there will always be defective items sold. Take a look at Boeing, and they are ISO 9000 certified.

I feel your experience is the exception not the rule. I can't recall ever having a defective BD and I have a large amount. I've even had good luck buying used from Red Box. However, I have always used a disc player.

Originally Posted by Shadowfax

Like any other manufacturing of anything, there is always a level of quality issues. Unless a company is ISO9000 like, there will always be defective items sold. Take a look at Boeing, and they are ISO 9000 certified.

So very true.

I stream everything so no scratch,blemish,etc .

Originally Posted by still-one

I stream everything so no scratch,blemish,etc .

I tried buying a streamable movie from amazon.com Prime but only once. Wolfen, 1981, $7.99. The damn thing had the last four minutes cut off toward the end. Suffice it to say, I don't trust this source for paid-for movies. I don't like chit to be cut out of media I pay for. I'm looking forward to the day when paid movies will be offered to customers from reputable vendors on USB memory sticks in the best possible video and audio quality. My Panasonic BD player even has a USB port on the front panel. Memory sticks can be played and watched. I have purchased a number of music mp3 downloads from amazon for about $1.00 a track without issue, however.

The Panasonic BD player won't play all file formats from USB however. Mine will recognize and play MPG extension videos but not WMV format. I have a Windows PC in my entertainment rack though that would play many different media formats from a USB port. Two PC USB ports are on front panel. My Samsung Smart TV has USB ports in back in back not convenient to reach.

Re: Has anybody here received NEW defective music CD's. DVD movies or Blu-ray disc movies right out of the box?

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Originally Posted by Shadowfax

Like any other manufacturing of anything, there is always a level of quality issues. Unless a company is ISO9000 like, there will always be defective items sold. Take a look at Boeing, and they are ISO 9000 certified.

Exactly right, Shadowfax.

The facts are that there are NO defect-free manufacturing processes; they do not exist. All manufacturing companies manufacture products at a specific quantitative quality value known as the "process sigma".

Companies manufacturing products with at a 6𝜎 level (i.e., a "6 Sigma" process) have a DPMO* of 3.4. However, most companies do not operate at a 6𝜎 level, as this is hard to achieve.

Most "real-world" Mfg Operations operate at a more "real-world" sustainable process sigma of 4.0 (Cpk=4) and even with a 99.38% process yield, there are still 6,210 defects/1M opportunities.

This is completely separate from ISO certifications referenced above, which are another "layer" of Quality standards.

*-Defects Per Million Opportunities

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

I feel your experience is the exception not the rule. I can't recall ever having a defective BD and I have a large amount. I've even had good luck buying used from Red Box. However, I have always used a disc player.

After my new Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 1970 BD disc failed on the PC, I took the trouble to hook the Panasonic BD player up to the TV and try it there. Same thing. Freezes dead in the same spot about 5 to 6 minutes into the movie, right when the astronaut character of blond pretty boy James Franciscus is about to crawl out of the crashed American space ship in the Forbiden Zone desert. Why the hell America can't build spaceships to land without catastrophic incident on planet Earth (be it dry land or water) in a different time is beyond me. How Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter) managed to salvage the other very wet and flooded American ship from the bottom of the Forbiden Zone lake and flew her back to Earth's past in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, 1971, is one of the biggest mysteries of the sci-fi community.

Originally Posted by Shadowfax

Like any other manufacturing of anything, there is always a level of quality issues. Unless a company is ISO9000 like, there will always be defective items sold. Take a look at Boeing, and they are ISO 9000 certified.

100% incorrect. ISO 9000/9001 certification doesn't guarantee any degree of quallity. It just means you paid your annual certification fees so you can fly a meaningless flag outside of your building to show how "serious" your business is about quality. It's not much different than a BBB rating that you pay for as you have to pay money every year to maintain your rating just as you have to pay money every year to pass a meaningless audit from the ISO certification reps to keep flying your ISO flag. It means nothing in the grand scheme of the quality of your goods and services.

Originally Posted by mep

100% incorrect. ISO 9000/9001 certification doesn't guarantee any degree of quallity. It just means you paid your annual certification fees so you can fly a meaningless flag outside of your building to show how "serious" your business is about quality. It's not much different than a BBB rating that you pay for as you have to pay money every year to maintain your rating just as you have to pay money every year to pass a meaningless audit from the ISO certification reps to keep flying your ISO flag. It means nothing in the grand scheme of the quality of your goods and services.

It was supposed to mean 99.xxx% Good parts exiting the building. But yeah, it's like Organic and Range Free. I used to do work for Boeing and other Aerospace MFGs and they would have the Inspectors come in from those Orgs and 100% inspect every pc in the lot. If a failed part could not be reworked to spec, it was scrapped. We were not certifies ISO or any other, we just did fantastic work.

I have noticed a bluray or two that had small smudges or even light scratches from the factory. Sometimes, it seems like the disc wiggled loose during shipping and wasn’t affixed to the case via the middle circle mount. Other times, the disc was mounted but I still had a less-than-stellar playing surface. Playing the disc could result in the content freezing and I was forced to get an exchange. On more than one occasion, though, I ordered a disc and didn’t open it for a few months and was forced to just purchase another copy. Luckily, most of these have been for older movies and they aren’t all that expensive.

It's now apparent to me that Blu-ray discs are more sensitive and less forgiving of surface imperfections than their DVD counterparts. I think offering factory movie titles on solid-state memory media will be the wave of the future. Computer software has been progressively becoming disk-less as well. Digital files can be downloaded or offered on memory sticks. My Microsoft Windows 10 Home was installed from stick, back in 2021, on this very computer I'm typing on now. I think the memory stick format will be the most reliable, most stable and least prone to playback error. Downloaded digital media can and does become corrupt during transmission. They could probably have a hash checking method for purchased movie dowloads to verify integrity of content. I would rather have an entertainment drawer full of movie memory sticks than DVD or Blu-ray cases, however. Movies/videos can take up many gigs of hard drive space on PC's.

Originally Posted by JDBarrow

It's now apparent to me that Blu-ray discs are more sensitive and less forgiving of surface imperfections than their DVD counterparts. I think offering factory movie titles on solid-state memory media will be the wave of the future. Computer software has been progressively becomeing disk-less as well. Digital files can be downloaded or offered on memory sticks. My Microsoft Windows 10 Home was installed from stick, back in 2021, on this very computer I'm typing on now. I think the memory stick format will be the most reliable, most stable and least prone to playback error. Downloaded digital media can and does become corrupt during transmission.

Hard to say. I got the x-files BR box set for Christmas from the wife, cause I just like the x-files. I've been watching for about 2 full days so far while she is out of town. Loading them on my OPPO 203 on my HT system and I haven't had a skip or a blurry hint of anything. So I guess it depends. I even played a show on my windows 11 PC, using a Buffalo 16x External Blu-ray™ Drive and its doing great, supported by Power DVD as the player which also works on Windows 11. But I could see using a memory stick, lets storage issues, unless you somehow miss place the little things .

I wouldn't expect movies on thumb drive. This didn't even take off for music unless you downloaded your own. It's just not a format that was ever pushed and with the majority of people fine with streaming any hard media is going to struggle.

Originally Posted by JDBarrow

It's now apparent to me that Blu-ray discs are more sensitive and less forgiving of surface imperfections than their DVD counterparts. I think offering factory movie titles on solid-state memory media will be the wave of the future. Computer software has been progressively becoming disk-less as well. Digital files can be downloaded or offered on memory sticks. My Microsoft Windows 10 Home was installed from stick, back in 2021, on this very computer I'm typing on now. I think the memory stick format will be the most reliable, most stable and least prone to playback error. Downloaded digital media can and does become corrupt during transmission. They could probably have a hash checking method for purchased movie dowloads to verify integrity of content. I would rather have an entertainment drawer full of movie memory sticks than DVD or Blu-ray cases, however. Movies/videos can take up many gigs of hard drive space on PC's.

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

I wouldn't expect movies on thumb drive. This didn't even take off for music unless you downloaded your own. It's just not a format that was ever pushed and with the majority of people fine with streaming any hard media is going to struggle.

Agree 100%

Originally Posted by mep

Agree 100%

I still don't trust movie streaming services. Netflix has a monthly subscription fee and there is never any guarantee they have a certain title I want. Unless one's Internet service is stellar, streaming might be troublesome. Amazon Prime Video has been known by me to cut out some of the content of a feature film. I have never known anything to be cut out on hard media.

Can't one purchase a movie online and download it in some lossless digital format?

Originally Posted by CPP

Hard to say. I got the x-files BR box set for Christmas from the wife, cause I just like the x-files. I've been watching for about 2 full days so far while she is out of town. Loading them on my OPPO 203 on my HT system and I haven't had a skip or a blurry hint of anything. So I guess it depends. I even played a show on my windows 11 PC, using a Buffalo 16x External Blu-ray™ Drive and its doing great, supported by Power DVD as the player which also works on Windows 11. But I could see using a memory stick, lets storage issues, unless you somehow miss place the little things .

I just ordered Planet of the Apes "Original Five" in the DVD version from amazon.com. Only about $25 for the whole box new. While I was at it, I got the complete In Search Of Television series (1977-1982, 144 episodes, 12 discs) on DVD hosted by Leonard Nimoy for the paltry pittance of $25 also.

Timeless cult classic films like Top Gun, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Godfather, West Side Story and Patton are revered enough to warrant Blu-Ray quality. I think Roddy McDowall/Kim Hunter/James Franciscus/Charlton Heston/Claude Akins/Paul Williams/Arthur P. Jacobs in the original Planet of the Apes series will suffice on DVD.

You used to be able to purchase movies from Apple and Amazon to download but I'm not sure if that content then becomes yours or you can only use it as long as you are a subscriber.

I have a friend who ripped all his movies to a HD for quick easy access and play. According to him he only has the movie that way, no extras that are on the disk. Not sure if that's by choice or no choice.

I often wished for a movie service like we have for music. To just be able to access whatever movie you want and watch it.

At this point I'm not aware of anything like that. All video providers for streaming are limited by what they offer. The main reason for this is money and competition which commands exclusivity to one outlet or the other.

Originally Posted by JDBarrow

I still don't trust movie streaming services. Netflix has a monthly subscription fee and there is never any guarantee they have a certain title I want. Unless one's Internet service is stellar, streaming might be troublesome. Amazon Prime Video has been known by me to cut out some of the content of a feature film. I have never known anything to be cut out on hard media.

Can't one purchase a movie online and download it in some lossless digital format?

Yes, you will get more movie choices on disc. I'm still intrigued by the notion of movies' (of the highest audio/video quality) being sold on some solid-state hard media that plugs into a USB port or card reader and plays.

I've gotten cd's with totally different music than was printed on the case and on the disc.

DVD’s have about 5 GB (4.7) of data capacity while Blu-Ray has a capacity of about 25 GB. So yes, as an optical storage media Blu-Ray is much more challenging. All other things being equal I’d expect BD’s to have more problems than DVD’s.

As an anecdote my first Blu-Ray player no longer plays Blu-Ray discs at all but has no problem playing DVD’s.

I have a 4K JVC projector and find that upscaling and video processing can make DVD’s look pretty darn good.

I have or maybe had a LP that had one album on one side and a completely different album on the other.