Early Blu-rays that may have playback issues (Criterion, Well Go USA, etc.)

[Simon_LDT]

For anyone here that owns Rush - Beyond the Lighted Stage and Moving Pictures Deluxe Edition, check your copies. Both of mine failed to be recognised in my 2 PC drives so can't be ripped/archived. Many others over at quadraphonicquad forums are reporting dead discs too.

Not even 10 years old... I predict many blu-rays dying in the next 5-10 years. They just don't seem to be robust enough like CDs and DVDs seem to be.

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW

LOL

digital has poorer audio and video (and you often can't play them back with whatever you want and get even worse audio/video because of that on top) and less extras AND they also swap out versions for new edited or different ones and sometimes remove titles entirely (as for discs going bad, that is why I've started backing everything up to HD, in the rare case something goes bad in the future, I'll have the backup)

You know that your backup can go bad in the future, right?

Ultimately, there is no risk-free way to own a movie collection:

If you go physical, you risk some discs going bad, as is the case in this tread.
If you rip/download, you risk that your storage device can fail and you lose all the movies that are on the device at once.
If you choose streaming, you risk that movies get removed due to rights issues, etc. Not to mention the fact that you're settling for inferior picture/audio quality, as well as having to subscribe to 37 different streaming services if you want access to all the movies that you like.

I still say that properly manufactured discs are the best solution. We know that discs can last for decades, since there are CDs from the mid-80s and LaserDiscs from the late 70s that still play fine. It's just a shame that not all labels manufacture discs properly and are cutting corners.

[RedbeardS]

Is anyone else having playback issues with year-old blu-rays from Arrow? I'm finding 'milk spots' forming on their discs about one year after purchase, causing the movies to skip and freeze around the mid-point. A few months ago this occurred while watching their Region B release of "demonlover." Then it happened the other night with their region-free "Cruising" blu-ray, and now I see a huge milk spot on their Region B release of "Irma Vep."

All of these were first-batch releases, and they played perfectly right after purchase. Then they went on the shelf for a year, where they were stored properly. Went to play them again a year later and they're defective. Arrow says these are rare anomalies, but I've bought of three of their releases, at three different times, and all three failed in the same fashion. I own another 150 blu-rays, and only a few other releases have discolored and stopped playing, although those developed 'rust'. And fortunately, Criterion replaced those without hesitation.

(Thanks to Aunt Peg for directing me to this thread.)

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

You know that your backup can go bad in the future, right?

yes, which is why I said you make a backup of each HD (plus you still have the discs and most won't go bad so those are extra extra backups except potentially for UHD if the decrpt server ever goes down)

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by RedbeardS

Is anyone else having playback issues with year-old blu-rays from Arrow? I'm finding 'milk spots' forming on their discs about one year after purchase, causing the movies to skip and freeze around the mid-point. A few months ago this occurred while watching their Region B release of "demonlover." Then it happened the other night with their region-free "Cruising" blu-ray, and now I see a huge milk spot on their Region B release of "Irma Vep."

All of these were first-batch releases, and they played perfectly right after purchase. Then they went on the shelf for a year, where they were stored properly. Went to play them again a year later and they're defective. Arrow says these are rare anomalies, but I've bought of three of their releases, at three different times, and all three failed in the same fashion. I own another 150 blu-rays, and only a few other releases have discolored and stopped playing, although those developed 'rust'. And fortunately, Criterion replaced those without hesitation.

(Thanks to Aunt Peg for directing me to this thread.)

I personally haven't with any Arrow releases yet (minus some odd skipping and freezing issues I've had in the past with a few first batch releases that I got replaced) but many folks on this thread (including myself) have had bizarre "one-off" disc rot situations with certain titles that seem to be just random discs gone bad. You may just be in that situation.

[neo_reloaded]

I can't really picture what a "milk spot" is - can you take a picture? And have you tried cleaning the discs? I know there have been complaints about "white residue" due to offgassing from the plastic cases, and that can be cleaned away.

[RedbeardS]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

I can't really picture what a "milk spot" is - can you take a picture? And have you tried cleaning the discs?

I have photos of all 3 bad discs but I don't know how to convert them to URLs for uploading here. Any suggestions?

The milk spots look like spilled milk underneath the plastic coating; they're definitely not on the outer surface. More milky than opaque. On Cruising and demonlover, they appear as white splotches near the outer edge of the disc. On Irma Vep, which is a year older, the splotch has spread to the inner ring. My guess is the inner glue has dried out, bled out or somehow come undone.

I can't believe this is just a random unlucky occurrence seeing as how the milk spots appeared on three separate titles from Arrow, all purchased separately.

[Torrente]

Do you have babies around your collection?

Just joking, sorry. It's concerning.

I'd love to see those pics. I usually upload them in sites like hostingpics and then I paste them here.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by RedbeardS

I have photos of all 3 bad discs but I don't know how to convert them to URLs for uploading here. Any suggestions?

The milk spots look like spilled milk underneath the plastic coating; they're definitely not on the outer surface. More milky than opaque. On Cruising and demonlover, they appear as white splotches near the outer edge of the disc. On Irma Vep, which is a year older, the splotch has spread to the inner ring. My guess is the inner glue has dried out, bled out or somehow come undone.

I can't believe this is just a random unlucky occurrence seeing as how the milk spots appeared on three separate titles from Arrow, all purchased separately.

You'll have to upload the images to some hosting site, like imgur, imgbb, etc., and then use that URL here.

There isn't really "glue" in the traditional sense in Blu-rays, it's mostly layers of polycarbonate with one or more metal reflective layers. For these "milk stain" areas, can you physically press on them and see/feel any change? I'm wondering if this is peeling, where air was trapped between layers during manufacturing and is slowly spreading out, further separating the layers.

This is a relatively rare (within the scope of the millions and millions of discs being manufactured) manufacturing error that I've seen from pretty much every replicator in existence. You having 3 examples of it in a short timeframe would be exceptionally bad luck, but I suppose these things do happen. Arrow doesn't manufacture their discs themselves, they use an extremely common European replicator that also services a number of large studios, so any widespread problem should be showing up with Arrow, Studio Canal, BFI, Warner Bros. UK, etc. discs as well.

[RedbeardS]

Thanks for the photo suggestions. Presuming I can post them properly, apologies for my lowgrade snapshots. In addition to the white markings, you're also seeing a shiny reflection of my kitchen ceiling in the disc.

The first photo should be the Irma Vep disc, where the spot has spread toward the inner ring. The last two photos should be the demonlover and Cruising discs, where the milk spots are smaller and closer to the outer edge. (Right now I'm having trouble uploading the demonlover pic.)

To answer your question, there's no physical change when pressing on the spots.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by RedbeardS

Thanks for the photo suggestions. Presuming I can post them properly, apologies for my lowgrade snapshots. In addition to the white markings, you're also seeing a shiny reflection of my kitchen ceiling in the disc.

The first photo should be the Irma Vep disc, where the spot has spread toward the inner ring. The last two photos should be the demonlover and Cruising discs, where the milk spots are smaller and closer to the outer edge. (Right now I'm having trouble uploading the demonlover pic.)

To answer your question, there's no physical change when pressing on the spots.

Okay, that's definitely not peeling. I obviously can't see depth from a 2d photo nor change the angle of the disc to see how light reacts to it, so I trust your judgment when you say it's inside the disc and not on the outside - but if I were just shown those pictures, my first reaction would be that it looks like outgassing from the plastic case. It also seems like all 3 discs have the same pattern / shape, with the first disc having much more obviously but still having that bit at the edge of the disc in roughly the same shape.

Was that area of the disc on the right-hand side of the case where the case opens? I imagine that might be difficult to answer now, but it kind of looks like it correlates to the piece of plastic near the case opening which, for these UK-style cases, has an air vent. Do you smoke or have some environmental issue that might explain this? I know you explained that you take care of your discs and that people hate being questioned in this manner, and I get it , but my line of questioning is just following my brainstorming. If this is NOT outgassing or something environmental depositing on the surface, then I honestly have not seen defects like this before, and I have thousands of discs, run this thread here in the US forum, and am an avid follower of similar threads in UK, German, French, Korean, etc. forums.

[RedbeardS]

Here's demonlover bringing up the rear.

No, I don't smoke or have radiation in the house, but I'm impressed with your sleuthing. Thank you for taking the time to help me troubleshoot.

Like I said, I have many more blu-rays and only two or three others developed marks and became unplayable. And those were from that infamous first batch of Criterion releases.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by RedbeardS

Here's demonlover bringing up the rear.

No, I don't smoke or have radiation in the house, but I'm impressed with your sleuthing. Thank you for taking the time to help me troubleshoot.

Like I said, I have many more blu-rays and only two or three others developed marks and became unplayable. And those were from that infamous first batch of Criterion releases.

Very weird that they're all in the same shape. If not something from post-purchase, then it's correlated to some specific contact during manufacturing, not a general materials issue. And weird for you to get three like that from May 2018, May 2019, and August 2019. I will keep an eye out for any similar reports.

[Aunt Peg]

My Cruising & Demonlover are fine. I too purchased them both when first released.

I'll check my Irma Vep and report back, though I didn't purchase Irma Vep until about a year after its release.

[jacksonwalker]

Just thought I would post that a few nights ago I put in the Criterion "Howards End" Blu-ray, forgetting that it was one of those discs that went bad (along with two others I own that I have not checked recently "The Seventh Seal" and "Ride With The Devil"). It played fine however, and looking at the disc itself, it looks like a gold disc (I don't know if that is the so-called bronze discoloration effect or not). So maybe I got one of the good discs.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jacksonwalker

Just thought I would post that a few nights ago I put in the Criterion "Howards End" Blu-ray, forgetting that it was one of those discs that went bad (along with two others I own that I have not checked recently "The Seventh Seal" and "Ride With The Devil"). It played fine however, and looking at the disc itself, it looks like a gold disc (I don't know if that is the so-called bronze discoloration effect or not). So maybe I got one of the good discs.

I bought my copy when it was first released, and it plays fine.

[Eidolon]

Just a question relating to this. Has anybody bought a BD with the playing surface itself already discolored in anyway? I have one I bought last year, where roughly halfway out from the centre, there's a wobbly milky line going round the disc. The color is different on each side of the wobble. Towards the outside of the playing surface it looks normal, but on the other side of the wobble, it looks distinctly purpleish.

I don;t recall if this was on the disc when I bought it or not, or if it's manifested since. I checked the disc by skipping through random sections, and it seemed to play ok.

But i've never known a BD with an inherent discoloration before. DVDs yes, but not BDs. I'm not sure if it's a form of rot, and the disc will become unplayable in time.

[mar3o]

I just tried to watch my Criterion disc of Solaris and it wouldn't make it past around the 1:55:00 mark - the scene where they're "celebrating" Snout's birthday. It won't skip past that chapter either. The disc itself looks fine from the outside. I bought the disc used many years ago and I believe I watched it once years ago and it was fine. Is this title known to be a problem Criterion disc? I'm pretty disappointed.

I'll add that the case was covered inside with the greasy "outgassing" residue that many blu-ray cases suffer from. The disc itself didn't have any of the residue on it though, unlike some discs I find years later that have it built up from the case.

I'm not sure if its due to the case outgassing or due to being a probematic Criterion title.

[BluProofie]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I just tried to watch my Criterion disc of Solaris and it wouldn't make it past around the 1:55:00 mark - the scene where they're "celebrating" Snout's birthday. It won't skip past that chapter either. The disc itself looks fine from the outside. I bought the disc used many years ago and I believe I watched it once years ago and it was fine. Is this title known to be a problem Criterion disc? I'm pretty disappointed.

I'll add that the case was covered inside with the greasy "outgassing" residue that many blu-ray cases suffer from. The disc itself didn't have any of the residue on it though, unlike some discs I find years later that have it built up from the case.

I'm not sure if its due to the case outgassing or due to being a probematic Criterion title.

Email Criterion and they’ll replace it for you.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

I don't know if I ever mentioned this in this thread but my initial Sony MOD blu ray for Young Guns II crapped out on me last year. About 10 minutes in it started skipping and freezing. Disc was in mint condition. I've watched my replacement copy several times since and it still plays fine. Hopefully it was just a freak incident. All of my other Sony MOD discs still play fine.