Irresponsible use of Blu-ray rental discs

[Bobby Henderson]

It shouldn't be a hassle to rent movies on Blu-ray Disc, but sometimes it is -largely because of people who have very poor habits in handling discs. They either don't know how to handle discs properly or, more likely, they just don't care.

I'm pretty sure I'm "preaching to the choir" in making this complaint. But what gets into the heads of some people that compells them to take all sorts of stupid chances with a disc they don't own?

I encounter Blu-ray rental discs soiled with finger prints fairly often. Some careful cleaning usually solves that problem. Still, any optical disc should be handled only on its edges (and perhaps a finger on or through the center hole to have a more stable grip).

I rented The Lookout on BD from our local Hollywood Video store. The disc just wouldn't load in my PS3. It turned out the disc had a few little scratches on it. That was enough to render it unplayable. I had to go back to the store and exchange it for a different movie. They had only 1 copy of The Lookout on BD and that copy was ruined.

Blu-ray has a more scratch resistant surface, but I wonder if some people are taking that as a cue to be extra abusive to the rental discs.

To involve others in the conversation, what sort of bad practices have you seen in disc handling?

I've seen lots of people just leave bare CDs and DVDs laying around outside of the case. That alone can do a great job of damaging discs.

Those CD albums and other disc holders with pages of clear plastic sleeves do a fantastic job of scratching and ruining discs of all types.

I've also observed some of my own relatives doing really crazy things with CDs and DVDs, such as letting their infant kid play with the disc and try to load it into the machine as if it is some joyous family moment. Sure, let the baby put the disc in his mouth, drop it on the carpet or slap it on the coffee table. How dare anyone have any problem with that! Anyone who does automatically hates children! So don't be a meanie and let Junior give the same treatment to that pricey new BD!

Sometimes I wonder if people are using optical discs as an SOS pad to scrub their walls clean.

It would be a really sad thing for a video store to need to install a sign or poster preaching to customers proper disc handling practices. Unfortunately it seems like we're headed in that direction. Or some stores may actually start doing like they did in the hey-day of VHS and actually check returned movies for damage and bill negligent customers accordingly.