CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[ecrabb]

Guys, curious what your thoughts are on this.

I just received my fourth HD-DVD from Netflix in the mail today, and every one of them has been in what I consider to be pretty rough shape. A few handling scratches from rental like you'd expect, but most of the damage actually looks like it has resulted from abrasion due to sliding around in the Tyvek sleeve for weeks on end. At least, that's what it looks like to me. I wouldn't worry about it, but it's actually resulted in some pausing/skipping, and even one bad hang. Here's what I'd guess I've had so far:

1) Knocked up - 25+ minor skips, one really bad hang for 20+ seconds and a jump forward in time towards the end of the disk (it did have some circular scratches from a bad player or mis-handling)
2) Alpha Dog - 15+ minor skips
3) Shooter - 10+ minor skips
4) Sands of Iwo Jima - haven't watched it yet, but visibly looks just like the other 3.

The "skip" I refer to above is where there's an obvious break in audio while the picture stops for a split second, and then everything picks back up... but it's obvious the player skips a half second, a second, or more video. The whole thing only takes a 1/15 or a 1/30th of a second, but the break is obvious.

I'm running a Toshiba XA1 with probably less than 100 hours on it. It works flawlessly on every one of my personal discs.

Has anybody else rented many HD-DVD's from Netflix? If so, what's your experience? I assume DVD's will have the same abrasions, but are probably much less susceptible to playback errors.

In any case, I think I'm either going to need to figure out how to polish/resurface the discs on my own before I play them... or the Netflix thing just isn't going to work for me. All the skips are just too damn annoying and destracting from what is otherwise a gorgeous presentation.

SC

[greg_mitch]

I agree and was very skeptical of the service when I first started it.

At that time I was using a first gen player also, the RCA player (rebadge HDA1). It would skip and drop out all the time. I could remedy this very easily though.

I would simply wash the discs with a warm soap water solution. Rub it in with my finger and then rinse it off and dry it with a lint free cloth. It would then work 90% of the time without skips. Since then I have traded in the first gen RCA for an xbox add-on. I have NEVER had an issue with scratched discs in this drive. It is a champ.

If I do have problems, though, I fully expect the warm soap water to do the trick.

Enjoy!

[greg_mitch]

Oh yeah...try explaining the new movie purchases to the wife when it skips so much that you can't really get into the movie! I went through that merry go round a few times.

I had to remind her of her first DVD player that was slow as hell.

She didn't remember...

[AnalogRocks]

Other things you may try is a little carnuba wax. I've done that on CD's and DVD's. Clean it, wax it and buff it up.

[AnalogRocks]

Other things you may try is a little carnuba wax. I've done that on CD's and DVD's. Clean it, wax it and buff it up.

[kal]

You should be renting Blu-ray discs instead... they have a anti-scratch coating.

<ducking....>

Kal

[kal]

You should be renting Blu-ray discs instead... they have a anti-scratch coating.

<ducking....>

Kal

[paw]

Have you complained to Netflix? If you figure out how. I think they hide it pretty good.

[ecrabb]

[ecrabb]

Thanks, guys. I don't know about soap/water. These look like abrasions - not fingerprints or goobers. The wax I can see, though... hence, my "polish" comment in my original post. I think I'll experiment with Sands of Iwo Jima - I can't make it any worse!!!

Shrek the Third and World Trade Center get here tomorrow. We'll be watching movies this weekend, baby!!!

My new amps make my system sound kick ass. I get the PS3, get the Netflix discs polished up, and I'll be in HT heaven.

SC

[garyfritz]

I wonder if disks from Blockbuster Online are any better? I was planning to sign up with them next month...

[kal]

I haven't needed to use it on BD discs yet, but I keep a bottle of that CD "skip fixer" stuff in the HT since I buy DVD's used. I've had to use it once or twice over a few hundred discs. You spray it on and rub. It essentually fills in any of the pits caused by scratches.

This isn't the exact product I use, but they're likely all the same:



You can buy little one time use wipes too, but you get more for your money with a bottle. I think it was around $6-10.

Kal

[kal]

I haven't needed to use it on BD discs yet, but I keep a bottle of that CD "skip fixer" stuff in the HT since I buy DVD's used. I've had to use it once or twice over a few hundred discs. You spray it on and rub. It essentually fills in any of the pits caused by scratches.

This isn't the exact product I use, but they're likely all the same:



You can buy little one time use wipes too, but you get more for your money with a bottle. I think it was around $6-10.

Kal

[greg_mitch]

[AnalogRocks]

I've used soap and water to clean vinyl records too, along with a lint free cloth. I use car soap ( naturally ) as it rinses clean.

Soap and water do a good job on lots of stuff.

[AnalogRocks]

I've used soap and water to clean vinyl records too, along with a lint free cloth. I use car soap ( naturally ) as it rinses clean.

Soap and water do a good job on lots of stuff.

[mack1]

I have been told that it will not skip if you rub peanut-butter on it with a coffee filter then clean it off


Not the crunchie kind

[WanMan]

Actually, why not rub it on your gf arse and see if that get's something going.

[lyd]

I just started a netflix sub and I definitely agree about the scratching. All three of the HD discs I got in my first shipment were pretty hosed up. Soap and water did help, but not completely fix, the second one that kept having read errors. The third one looked bad but played OK. The first one I tried to use a DiscDoctor thing on and pretty much destroyed it. I don't know if the plastic is different on these discs or if the doctor gizmo is screwed up somehow... It has been over a year since I've used it, but in the past I have used it successfully on a lot on CD's that have gotten messed up from use in the car. This time it left worse scratches rather than buffing the disc smooth.

I put in an "unplayable disc" report to netflix. Hopefully they won't want to charge me for it, as it was badly scratched and unplayable to start with.

lyd

[Darren Wadsworth]

I've rented approx 400 disc from Netflix. A very small percentage of them did not play. Most of the DVD's are scratched if not a new release. The worse disc I ever received was almost cracked in half. Netflix did a good job of replacing that disc right away.

Difference might be that I am using a computer to play them.

I recently started renting HD movies. No problems so far.

Darren

[AnalogRocks]

I rented Next on HD-DVD this past week. It was so scratched I couldn't get it to play in either my X-BOX drive or the LG drive. I just happened to have a bottle of Meguire's Plast X polish beside my PC from when I polished the case windows.


First I wiped the HD-DVD down with a 99% isopropyl alcohol wipe and dried it. This got the finger smudges off. Then I applied a mall drop of the PlastX polish. It's a self reducing polish. As you wipe the polish breaks down into finer granules. I love this stuff.( I mainly use it to remove oxidation on car headlights and mirrors) Then I buffed the surface of the disk using a clean part of the shop towel.

This left too many scratchs for it to play. However the bigger scratches were much reduced.

So application #2 of the PlastX. Same as above, wiped clean. Ahh it played. BUT hung just after the menu.

So I went to the garage and got some 100% Carnauba wax. I took a clean shop towel and worked the wax into the fine scratches. I kept looking at the surface of the disk from an angle to see how it was coming along. After the 2nd coat it looked good. I did a 3rd coat and it looked great.

I allowed the wax to haze and then polished to a fine shine.

The disk played without a hicup all the way through the whole movie.

Guess Blockbuster owes me one

[AnalogRocks]

I rented Next on HD-DVD this past week. It was so scratched I couldn't get it to play in either my X-BOX drive or the LG drive. I just happened to have a bottle of Meguire's Plast X polish beside my PC from when I polished the case windows.


First I wiped the HD-DVD down with a 99% isopropyl alcohol wipe and dried it. This got the finger smudges off. Then I applied a mall drop of the PlastX polish. It's a self reducing polish. As you wipe the polish breaks down into finer granules. I love this stuff.( I mainly use it to remove oxidation on car headlights and mirrors) Then I buffed the surface of the disk using a clean part of the shop towel.

This left too many scratchs for it to play. However the bigger scratches were much reduced.

So application #2 of the PlastX. Same as above, wiped clean. Ahh it played. BUT hung just after the menu.

So I went to the garage and got some 100% Carnauba wax. I took a clean shop towel and worked the wax into the fine scratches. I kept looking at the surface of the disk from an angle to see how it was coming along. After the 2nd coat it looked good. I did a 3rd coat and it looked great.

I allowed the wax to haze and then polished to a fine shine.

The disk played without a hicup all the way through the whole movie.

Guess Blockbuster owes me one

[lyd]

Wax works, but only for a while. Good enough for your viewing, though.

You probably could have just washed it and waxed it and been done. I have heard a lot of people swear by a wiping down with vaseline, but I have never tried it. Seems like it would gunk up your drive.

lyd

[AnalogRocks]

Yeah I wouldn't want to have anything that could fling off the disk either. This one had severe scratches. Waxing alone woulnd't have done it. I thought the disk was a gonner so I thought I'd try some car detailing skills on it.

Why would you think wax would only work for a while? I can't see it breaking down unless it melts off the disk from high heat. And that's unlikly. It's carnauba wax, the same stuff they use on M&M's, and they melt in your mouth not in you hands.

[AnalogRocks]

Yeah I wouldn't want to have anything that could fling off the disk either. This one had severe scratches. Waxing alone woulnd't have done it. I thought the disk was a gonner so I thought I'd try some car detailing skills on it.

Why would you think wax would only work for a while? I can't see it breaking down unless it melts off the disk from high heat. And that's unlikly. It's carnauba wax, the same stuff they use on M&M's, and they melt in your mouth not in you hands.

[lyd]