Do you obsess about slight scratches on Blu-ray discs?

[severe conservative]

Nope, because my OPPO player easily ignores them.

[severe conservative]

Originally Posted by stackerboy99

Is there like a certain technique or a certain piece of advice that anyone can give to someone who struggles with OCD about disc scratches? I know it's probably a stupid question, but anything can help in the longrun for somebody who obsesses over it and sometimes goes out of their way to replace it or buy another copy or two of it to get the best disc they want.

Just dont look at the bottom of the disc. There is no art on there to look at so I dont see any reason to ever look at it. Im pretty OCD in general myself but this is just something that has never bothered me.

[Jay H.]

If I bought a new disc and it were scratched, it would bother me. I've never experienced that.

[MovieGeek3]

I’m not so much OCD about the disk which is probably what I should be more upset about for me it’s the case/ slipcover, if that’s damaged I kinda have this thing where I’m constantly wanting to re-buy it and I’ve been this way since I was a kid. Speaking of when I was a kid my mom bought me Shrek 2 about 6-7 times because it wasn’t the artwork I liked. Or when she bought me Harry Potter 5 and the shiny slipcover had a crease I begged her to re-buy it and she wouldn’t. All very specific memories I have. But yeah if the case/ slipcover is damaged in anyway i just won’t care for that specific film

[severe conservative]

Originally Posted by MovieGeek3

I’m not so much OCD about the disk which is probably what I should be more upset about for me it’s the case/ slipcover, if that’s damaged I kinda have this thing where I’m constantly wanting to re-buy it and I’ve been this way since I was a kid. Speaking of when I was a kid my mom bought me Shrek 2 about 6-7 times because it wasn’t the artwork I liked. Or when she bought me Harry Potter 5 and the shiny slipcover had a crease I begged her to re-buy it and she wouldn’t. All very specific memories I have. But yeah if the case/ slipcover is damaged in anyway i just won’t care for that specific film

This is why I prefer steelbooks. Slipcovers damage and deteriorate way too easily. And that is why I never really bothered with them.

[superunknown80]

Originally Posted by Mike1981

Then it's not OCD....

Glad you said this. Real OCD is not a choice. Mine accompanies Asperger's Syndrome (high functioning autism). Its part of my condition and I don't choose to have OCD. Its part of who I am so I embrace it now. So yes, I massively obsess over scratches. I rarely buy used discs unless I'm absolutely sure they're pristine. If I get a new sealed item and it's scratched in the slightest I request a replacement. New items should never be scratched or I may as well pay less and get a used item for less money.

[rocknblues81]

Depends on if I bought the disc new or not...

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by superunknown80

Glad you said this. Real OCD is not a choice. Mine accompanies Asperger's Syndrome (high functioning autism). Its part of my condition and I don't choose to have OCD. Its part of who I am so I embrace it now. So yes, I massively obsess over scratches. I rarely buy used discs unless I'm absolutely sure they're pristine. If I get a new sealed item and it's scratched in the slightest I request a replacement. New items should never be scratched or I may as well pay less and get a used item for less money.

Too many people throw the term OCD around like it's a cool little quirk that people have.

If a disc has a minuscule imperfection that doesn't affect play but you cannot stop thinking about it anyway, like non-stop all day long, to the point that in the middle of the night you get out of bed and pull it out and inspect it as a way to reassure yourself it's okay, then you go back to bed, then an hour later jump out of bed and inspect it to reassure yourself again, and continue to do this until you give up, go to the computer and order 5 more copies of the same disc in order to make sure you get one that doesn't have that imperfection... then you probably have OCD.

If you see a massive scratch on your disc and say to yourself "Hmm, disc seems to play fine but that might be a problem, I should probably replace this" then you don't have OCD.

[halloween5309]

thats why we make back up copies

[DaniRyder23]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

I've sort of come to terms with the fact that most scratches don't affect playback whatsoever.

Obviously if it's a traumatic scratch, it goes back. But I tolerate minor scratches now that gave me unending anxiety back in the day.

This is reassuring to read, as I've only started chancing secondhand discs recently (the 24 month warranty that CeX provides certainly helps), but as a vinyl collector as well it's kinda ingrained in me to freak out when I see a scratch - even just a minor one. Of course with a record I can just pop it on the platter and play that song, or that part of the record, to test it out. With optical media I have no idea how the data is stacked, so it means watching the whole disc to be sure that the scratch won't be an issue. In the case of a barebones film, it's not too bad - put the film on in the background for 2-3 hours and keep an eye on it. When it's a multidisc TV series, or a loaded special edition set, it's a bit more worrying as I don't know when I'll get the chance to watch everything on the disc...even watching one disc's worth of episodes can take 4-5 hours. Then I remind myself that, actually, I've never had a BD disc give me issues up till now...and maybe these "scratches" I'm seeing are just surface scratches on top of the protective layer. I do trust BDs more than DVDs, in that respect...

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

Honestly if you can only see the scratch under specific light, you're probably fine.

And then there's this - I can only see these scratches when I hold it up to a lamp at an angle, they're basically invisible in the general room light, so I think I'm probably just looking at them under the worse light possible - but of course when they are held at that specific angle, under that specific light, they look bloody awful

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

I've just never understood how people damage their discs that way. Like, it must take effort. Are they just tossing the discs read-side-down onto dusty coffee tables? Dropping them on a dirty cement floor and then accidentally stepping on them?

I've actually thought about this. And I don't know how they do it.

I have a theory on this, which I only really thought about today as I was swapping discs in my BD player...I ejected the last one before turning the player on, went to grab the disc as it popped out, and then heard all the whirring of the machine trying to feed the disc in as I was pulling it out.

The reason: I watch BDs on my Xbox Series X, and before that an Xbox One. I believe it's the same kind of system on a PS4 and PS5 as well (although I remember there being a slim PS3 that allowed you to place the disc straight on the spindle, the original ones also had that slit style drive on them. Though ironically - the Xbox 360 didn't, but it didn't have a BD player built in either).

If I remember to turn the Xbox on before ejecting the disc, it's usually fine - or if I hit eject and grab the disc as soon as it comes out, it's fine, but if you hit eject, and wait just half a second before grabbing the disc, then the Xbox tries to feed the disc in as part of its booting up process. I can imagine this would cause some of the scratches I've found - but if that is the case then I don't think those kinds of scratches would necessarily go deep enough to actually damage the disc. I suppose those could be considered fairly normal "wear and tear".

I don't think those slit style drives are great for discs, never have, but until I can justify the cost of a decent BD player it's all I have atm (and have had for years). I'm sure there are still plenty of people who buy BDs, watch them on their games console, and then trade them in for more BDs or (even more likely) used games. Ironically, I've gone all-digital with games since I got an XboxOne, so I've only ever used those drives for BDs and the occasional CD...

But that's one theory I have for the light surface scratches, at least - and they tend to be more common on TV box sets because (I imagine) people will be swapping those discs more often - unless they're the type to binge a whole disc at a time before putting something else on (of course with a games console, people are more likely to watch an episode, replace it with a game disc, go back to the show they were watching, maybe swap it for a CD, then another game disc, then back to the show etc - being a multimedia player, I would imagine that the discs spend more time going in and out of the machine than they would in a dedicated BD player that can be left dormant while the user does other things)

[MrGarmonbozia]

Yes, you could say I do:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=362133

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by DaniRyder23

This is reassuring to read, as I've only started chancing secondhand discs recently (the 24 month warranty that CeX provides certainly helps), but as a vinyl collector as well it's kinda ingrained in me to freak out when I see a scratch - even just a minor one.

I probably said it elsewhere but it's worth pointing out again that the main reason I've come to be so "tolerant" of light scratches on new discs is purely out of necessity. Manufacturing standards have become so poor in recent years that it's basically required. The options now are to either accept the likelihood of minor scratches on your brand new disc, or just don't have the disc at all. I have a few movies where I tried a few rounds of exchanges to try and get a copy without a scratch, ultimately failed and gave up, and just settled on having a scratched copy.

Originally Posted by DaniRyder23

And then there's this - I can only see these scratches when I hold it up to a lamp at an angle, they're basically invisible in the general room light, so I think I'm probably just looking at them under the worse light possible - but of course when they are held at that specific angle, under that specific light, they look bloody awful

It was hugely frustrating back in the day because I would often check the disc while sat in my car outside the store where I bought it (to save me a trip back if necessary), find no issues on the disc, take it home, look again under a particular light, and see a number of scratches I couldn't see under natural light.

Originally Posted by DaniRyder23

I have a theory on this, which I only really thought about today as I was swapping discs in my BD player...I ejected the last one before turning the player on, went to grab the disc as it popped out, and then heard all the whirring of the machine trying to feed the disc in as I was pulling it out.

The reason: I watch BDs on my Xbox Series X, and before that an Xbox One.

My primary blu ray player has only ever been a video game console (which some in this forum might find alarming, tbh.) First the PS3, then the PS4 for a time, then ultimately my Xbox One X (I don't yet have a Series X, but when I get one that will be my next blu ray movie player.) So I've only ever had the slide-in/out players.

And I worried about those at the beginning. I hated the idea of something inside the player "grabbing" the disc and dragging it in or shoving it out.

But over all those years, I never once found any evidence that they were causing even the tiniest bit of damage to discs.

And frankly based on the mechanics of it all, I don't think it would even be possible for them to cause the kind of damage I've seen on some used discs. I genuinely think it's from people putting the discs face down on unclean surfaces and having them get slid around on them. I'm not saying people use them as drink coasters, but sometimes they look exactly as if people were using them as drink coasters.

Another strong candidate as a culprit is those disc binders that some people use where you have to slide the discs in and out of a sleeve. I used to have one of those for my music CDs and so I know for a fact those will scratch discs if you aren't very careful and deliberate about how you put them in/take them out.

[Slob]

Pressed CDs are pretty sturdy. I've seen CDs laying around in the front seats of cars or on the dash without cases. People would eject them, toss them up onto the dash, grab another loose cd and stick it in.
As an experiment, I recorded a CD-R, buried it in the back yard with no case. Just tossed the disc in the hole. Left it out there for a year. Through rain and snow, heat and freezing temps. Dug it up, washed the dirt off under kitchen faucet, dried it off, played perfect.

[MrGarmonbozia]

I obsesses over these kinda scratches:

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by MrGarmonbozia

I obsesses over these kinda scratches:

These are the main scratches that impact playback. And they are virtually guaranteed with multi-disc sets that stack the discs.

Which is why it's personally offensive to me that those stacker cases not only still exist, but are becoming the default.

[HD Goofnut]

I recently received the UHD of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with several scratches that affected playback. Luckily, DMC shipped me a replacement immediately at no cost.

[trevork99]

I only really care about scratches if my reader starts freezing and throwing errors. Surprisingly, I've only had a very small amount of scratched discs that my players could not read properly.

The UHD's that caused problems were mainly a result of tiny hairline scratches, so I always make sure to handle those discs with care. DVD's, on the other hand, are an entirely different story sometimes when I try to play them...

[Jay H.]

As long as it plays, I don't care.

[MrGarmonbozia]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

These are the main scratches that impact playback. And they are virtually guaranteed with multi-disc sets that stack the discs.

Which is why it's personally offensive to me that those stacker cases not only still exist, but are becoming the default.

This was actually a replacement disc sent by Criterion (which they claimed to have inspected before shipment) for a previous scratched disc in the Once Upon a Time in China set.

[kevin87]

I used to be worse, if it was scratched at all, I would take it back... but then I started doing the FF trick, if it doesn't freeze or glitch then it's fine. But if I just open it and it looks like some wild animal has used it as a scratching post, I take it back regardless.

Scratches are weird, I've had something work fine and then suddenly a new player can't read it. So I tend to try to get them not scratched if possible. But if it's barely noticeable and doesn't give me immediate problems, I'll live with it.