Can One Scratch Ruin a Blu-ray Disc?

[meremortal]

Ugh. So I found a display at a local wholesale store with a bunch of old Blockbuster rentals stored in sealed up cardboard sleeves with only the disc. Pretty much every other blu that I've tested has at least a full chapter skip from sometimes just one scratch. And of course the dvd titles that I got from the same display play without hitch, even though they look like someone ran over them with a truck. Luckily they were all under a dollar each.

[halloween5309]

one scratch or one fingerprint can cause playback trouble, but used blus are still the best bargain

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

I've played many DVD's & Blu's over the years, and DVD scratched are far, far worse than Blu scratches.

In the cases of DVD scratches, these can keep the disk from playing completely, and/or freeze the disk when it gets to a certain point in the film. AFAIC, these disks are ruined & should be discarded at this point.

Conversely, I have never had this happen with Blu's - the few Blu's I had which were scratched still played, but they did skip 1-2 scenes. That being said, obviously this has something to do with the great protective coating on the surface of all Blu's - which is missing from DVD surfaces.

[James_Younger_Gang]

When I bought the james bond 50th anniversary blu boxset, a view to a kill had a scratch vertically near the middle of the disk. Ive never had trouble playing this movie though.

[James_Younger_Gang]

The truly horrible thing is when the movie has playability issues and the disk has no scratches at all.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Originally Posted by James_Younger_Gang

The truly horrible thing is when the movie has playability issues and the disk has no scratches at all.

I've had this happen too, but only with DVD's; no Blu's - yet!

[meremortal]

I'm definitely starting to get a little more nervous about used discs now. I suppose I've just had great luck in the past as the majority of non-rental discs out there probably are played only once or twice. But these former rentals look a lot worse than I've experienced (haven't rented physical media in a while). Come to think of it, I've been so confident with the scratch coating on discs that I almost never even check the condition before buying even used items unless it's from a thrift store or pawn shop.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Originally Posted by meremortal

I'm definitely starting to get a little more nervous about used discs now. I suppose I've just had great luck in the past as the majority of non-rental discs out there probably are played only once or twice. But these former rentals look a lot worse than I've experienced (haven't rented physical media in a while). Come to think of it, I've been so confident with the scratch coating on discs that I almost never even check the condition before buying even used items unless it's from a thrift store or pawn shop.

I definitely wouldn't buy any used Blu's without first looking at the surface to see if it's scratched.

[Bourne1886]

Yes, my kids have scratched theirs! And then they didn't work!They are not kid proof!

[punking]

It also depends on the player. My Panasonic coughs and splutters on scratches, but my Oppo just sails through them flawlessly.

[MeAmCookie]

I had bought a disc binder on Amazon.com about 4 months ago for my Blu-Ray collection. I had bought it to save space on my shelf, and to have quicker access to my discs. I'm really over-protective of my Blu-Rays, so one scratch can just drive me mad! Because of this, I was wondering: Should I continue to add them into the binder, or just put them back into their original cases? It's able to hold 400 discs, and I'm currently at 100. The binder is the AmazonBasics Nylon CD/DVD Binder (400 Capacity). Please let me know before I find out the hard way!

[halloween5309]

Originally Posted by punking

It also depends on the player. My Panasonic coughs and splutters on scratches, but my Oppo just sails through them flawlessly.

i agree

[Rottweiler30]

I forgot about the old protective cover myth. Well if its there its not very tough. Nearly every blu I rented had playback issues due to being round too many careless homes. Finally gave up and cancelled my lovefilm subscription. Admittingly ive only had issues with one bought disc but that was soon remedied by blowing a tiny bit of dust off. But yep, scratch proof my arse. Speaking of these early blu ray camp boasts when do we get these entire tv series on one disc due to the huge storage capabilities of the format? We cant even get 3 hour plus films on one disc in some cases. And yes im tired and grumpy.

[BossTweed]

I have had to replace two blu-rays because of bad scratches. Whomever in BD Marketing said that Blu-rays resists scratches didn't know what they were talking about.